Freud’s theory of the Conscious, Preconscious and Unconscious

Are you someone who love Psychology? Then, definitely you might felt astonished when you were learning about the theories of Freud, the one who laid a strong foundation in Psychoanalysis. This article will definitely give a deeper insight into the theory of Freud. 

All the psychologists might be aware of the pioneer Sigmund Freud – the one who ignites curiosity in our mind about the unconscious aspects of our mind. Let’s begin with an overview of his career. Due to unforeseen circumstances, he started his career as a physician, specialising in neurology. He has developed an interest to learn about the nervous disorders and devoted much time working on it. To quench his thirst on learning new things, he started working with Jean Charcot, who was using hypnosis as a treatment for hysteria.

Later Freud become dissatisfied with its effect on the cure. Then, Freud worked with Joseph Breuer, the one used “talking out technique” (i.e. talking about the problem, alleviates the symptom). He felt that this showed cure in people. These two people worked together by attending and writing the case histories of hysteria. Eventually on later part of time they got separated by their ideologies. Later, Freud worked on his own on the foundations of Psychoanalysis that is being practiced till date.

Read More: Sigmund Freud and His Contributions in Psychology

In his book called “Interpretation of Dreams”, he came up with the theory called “Topographic Theory of Mind” which explains the tripartite division of mind named  

1. The Unconscious 
2. The Preconscious 
3. The Conscious 

The Conscious 

The conscious is the awareness of an individual at a given moment. It includes all the thoughts, wishes that we experience at the present. It is the smallest part while compared to other topographical structures. The conscious includes mental contents like Secondary process thinking that works on reality principle. This finds the possible way to get in touch with reality. It aims to get what an individual wish for without violating rules. 

The Preconscious 

This region is situated between the conscious and unconscious part of the mind. It connects the other two region of mind. By sending the memories for access from the unconscious to conscious mind and also passing the unwanted information from the conscious to the unconscious region of mind, it acts like a bridge between these two. It is the storehouse of recent memories. With attention we can access the piece of information in preconscious by shifting them to our conscious mind. This part of the mind serves as a censor which is developed after our birth parallel to our ego development. 

The Unconscious 

The unconscious is the reservoir of the information which holds the past memories that were either suppressed or repressed. Repression is a defense mechanism where the information is being pushed to the unconscious without awareness to avoid intense negative emotion. These repressed materials reach the conscious only when the censor is relaxed (i.e. dreams) or overpowered as in free association or slip of the tongue. Suppression is also a defense mechanism where some information are pushed to unconscious with awareness by the individual. Although we are not aware of the memories and emotions in the unconscious, it has a great impact on our behaviour. Dreams and automatic thoughts arise from this part of the mind.

All the three parts of the mind plays a key role in influencing the behavior of an individual. It is characterized by primary process thinking and works based on the pleasure principle. It lacks any direct connection with reality. It focuses only on  the immediate gratification. Freud’s psychoanalysis works under the principle of changing  the unconscious mind. It aims to bring the content in the unconscious to the conscious. The  unconscious holds the unacceptable or unpleasant feelings. 

Freud emphasise on the psychic determinism which says that all mental activity is purposeful  and meaningful though some are unconscious and linked to previous experiences. No mental  activity is either purposeless or accidental.  

Psychoanalysis 

From this theoretical underpinning Freud developed a psychotherapy called Psychoanalysis which emphasizes on the unconscious mind. It works by releasing the  repressed emotions by bringing them to conscious mind. Freud used techniques like dream  analysis and free association to bring the unconscious information to conscious. 

Dream analysis 

This is one of the major components of psychoanalysis. Freud believed that “Dreams are the royal road to unconscious”. Freud built this theory based on his own dream called “Irma’s Injection”. He once attended a patient named Irma. She doesn’t show response to his treatment. Freud felt very bad and felt guilty. One night he dreamt of meeting her in a party and examined her. And then he saw a chemical formula for a drug that the other doctor gave her. This dream made him to realize that that her condition was due to the syringe used by the other doctor and he became guilt free. He believed that dreams are disguised, hallucinatory fulfilments of one’s repressed wishes. According to Freud, the dream not only include the  current wishes but also from the early childhood. Freud regarded dreams as neurotic symptoms. Since normal people can also dream, his theory of dream stood by the idea that neurotic and normal cannot be distinguished. Then, this theory applies to everyone and considered as a general theory of the mind.  

Read More: The Interpretations of Dreams by Sigmund Freud

Freud had a strong belief that all the neurotic problems were originated from the early childhood. Dreams are indirect expression of our infantile sexual wishes that had been repressed so long. Added to these, dreams are expressed in an undisguised form which otherwise would cause discomfort to the dreamer. As dream has the disturbing and unacceptable content it is being censored. Freud named this act of censorship in dream as “Dream-work”. 

Dream analysis is the in-depth analysis of dreams. The dream analyst and the client work  together to analyse the content of dream.  

i. Latent Content  

This is what the actual story that the dreamer recalled. The latent content is hard to be understood since it is coded or symbolized in a manifest content. The latent content of a dream often include unconscious wishes, desires and conflict. 

ii. Manifest Content 

This is the hidden, true, unconscious meaning or themes in the dream which can be explained only after the psychoanalytical interpretation. 

Freud came up with the concept of manifest content because he believed that dreams have underlying symbols as most of the dream content were censored. He also  considered that the meaning of symbols varies with individual. One cannot understand the manifest content of the dream without knowing the dreamer’s circumstances. He decoded that dream of flying represents sexual desire whereas loosing a tooth represents  anxiety about ageing. 

Read More: Sigmund Freud’s 5 Most Important Contributions to Psychology

Dream work involves the process of: 

1. Condensation: This means fusing together the different ideas or images into single dream object. Example: a dream about a house symbolizes both the worries about security as  well as one’s appearance to the world. 
2. Displacement: In this, a potentially disturbing idea or image is replaced with less disturbing image where otherwise the individual might feel guilty. Example: If suppose an individual wants to kill his close friend, he may be represented in dream as a dog to make him less guilty. 
3. Symbolization: In this neutral object stand for representing some form of sexual life or a  repressed idea through some symbols. Example: a dream of climbing a ladder symbolizes reaching success or ambition.
4. Secondary Elaboration: It is a process where the unconscious mind forms connected wish fulfilling  images in a logical sequence. 

Free Association 

It is a talk therapy technique used by psychoanalyst. The belief of Freud that talking out reduces the symptoms gave rise to the idea of free association. The client was asked to recline on a couch and the therapist would be sitting out of the client’s sight behind their head. The client was asked to say whatever that come to their mind without any censorship that may not be felt relevant to the present scenario. This technique compels the client to take initiative and makes the psychoanalyst to lead a much passive role compared to the traditional role of being a doctor. This technique requires large level of autonomy.

Read More: What is Free Association?

Instead of looking for the psychoanalyst to  give advice or suggestions, the client has to learn about themselves in a better way. Freud believed that with psychoanalysis, one can overcome the blockages and inner conflicts that  repress their feelings. This process helps to reveal the hidden thoughts and feelings that causes distress, thereby helping the therapist and client to understand the unconscious mind. As we  already said though we’re not aware of the unconscious thoughts, it influences our behavior. Practising free association helps to unravel the connection between thoughts and behavior. Free  association works in healing trauma. 

Freudian Slip  

Another important aspect of unconscious mind is parapraxes. All of us might undergone a  situation where we mistermed or mispronounced something instead of what we are supposed to say. It is also called as tip of the tongue phenomenon or Freudian slip or slip of a tongue. In  this Freud says that unconscious thoughts or feelings tend to come to conscious mind in the form of slip of tongue. We may say something that we never intend to. Freud believes that it is  of no accident but occurs due to unconscious mind. 

A study on Freudian slips was conducted in 1979, in which male participants were primed with stimulus related to either sex or electric shock and then asked to read a list of words that consists of meaningful spoonerism related to both stimuli. Primed participants are more prone to exhibit  spoonerism related to the stimuli. This acknowledges the psychoanalytic thought of unconscious desires influences speech. 

If you want delve deep into Freud’s groundbreaking exploration of the unconscious mind,  here are some works of Freud. 

• The Interpretation of Dreams 
• The Psychopathology of Everyday life 
• General Introductory Lectures on Psychanalysis 
• An outline on Psychoanalysis 

Read More – Authors Who Used Sigmund Freud’s Theories in Their Writing