From the analysis of various passages in Freud's works, we try to find out what his conception of consciousness is and how it relates to his general theory and to psychoanalytical practice. Consciousness is seen as perception of the outside world, of feelings and of processes in the preconscious. It results from the activity of a specific system (the system perception-consciousness). The overcoming of resistances allows an unconscious presentation to become preconscious, through linkage with word presentations. Attention may make certain preconscious presentations conscious. Consciousness is not an intrinsic property of certain feelings and thoughts. These are not necessarily what they seem to be to the subject. The process through which certain preconscious presentations, of longer duration, become transitorily conscious may open up the way to a lifting of repression.
consciousness; unconscious; psychoanalysis; metapsychology; Freud