The Role of the Conscious Mind

Conscious Mind

In Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the conscious mind consists of everything inside our awareness. It includes our thoughts, feelings, memories, perceptions, self-awareness, and sensations. Essentially, it is anything that is in your current awareness. The thoughts and feelings you are experiencing at the moment, and your awareness of your current environment are all part of your conscious experiences.

Working of the Conscious Mind

It is not possible to keep every thought, memory, or feeling inside of conscious awareness at all times. Instead, certain information is maintained in awareness, other information remains outside of immediate awareness but still accessible, and other information is hidden from awareness.

Freud's topographic theory was a "map" of the different systems that make up the human mind. According to Freud, the mind is made up of three systems: the conscious (Cs.), the preconscious (Pcs.), and the unconscious (Ucs.)

These systems are controlled by what Freud identified as the primary and secondary processes:

• The primary processes are a way to discharge unacceptable desires that arise from the unconscious mind. It often involves creating a mental image to act as a substitute for acting on an unacceptable urge.

• The secondary processes are how the mind deals with conscious desires through delayed gratification. For example, instead of acting immediately on a thought you just had, you wait for a more appropriate time to take action.

The topographic model of the mind is also part of Freud's larger structural model of personality, which includes the id, ego, and superego.

Conscious, Preconscious, and Unconscious Mind

Closely allied with the conscious mind is the preconscious (or subconscious). The preconscious includes the things we are not thinking of at the moment but can easily draw into conscious awareness.

Things that the conscious mind wants to keep hidden from awareness are repressed into the unconscious mind. While we are unaware of these feelings, thoughts, memories, and emotions, Freud believed that the unconscious mind could still influence our behavior.

Things that are in the unconscious are only available to the conscious mind in disguised form. For example, the contents of the unconscious might spill into awareness in the form of dreams. Freud believed that by analyzing the content of dreams, people could discover the unconscious influences on their conscious actions.

Metaphor of an Iceberg

Freud often used the metaphor of an iceberg to describe the major aspects of human personality. The tip of the iceberg that extends above the water represents the conscious mind. The rest of the iceberg, hidden below the water, represents the unconscious mind.

Freud believed that the conscious and preconscious minds were far less vital than the unconscious mind. He believed that the unconscious mind exerts the greatest influence over our personalities and behaviors.

Conscious vs. Preconscious Mind

| Feature | Conscious | Preconscious | | Capacity | Limited | Much larger | | Similar to | Short-term memory | Long-term memory | | Includes | Current thoughts and awareness | Information and memories you can recall |

Working of the Preconscious Mind

The preconscious mind corresponds to ordinary memory. These memories are not conscious, but we can retrieve them to conscious awareness whenever we want.

While these memories are not part of your immediate awareness, they can be quickly brought into awareness through conscious effort. For example, if you were asked what television show you watched last night or what you had for breakfast this morning, you would be pulling that information out of your preconscious.

The preconscious mind acts as a sort of gatekeeper between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. It allows only certain pieces of information to pass through and enter conscious awareness.

Phone numbers and social security numbers are also examples of information stored in your preconscious mind. While you do not walk around consciously thinking about this information all the time, you can quickly draw it out of your subconscious when you are asked to relate these numbers.

In Freud’s iceberg metaphor, the preconscious exists just below the surface of the water. You can see the murky shape and outline of the submerged ice if you focus and make an effort to see it.

Importance of the Preconscious Mind

The preconscious mind plays a vital role since it contains the information that we can quickly draw into the conscious mind when it is needed. It also acts as a control mechanism that helps keep certain information in the unconscious mind and out of conscious awareness.

Conclusion

The conscious mind is an important aspect of Freudian theory. This component of the mind is critical for survival since it allows us to direct attention and perceive events that we need to respond to in the immediate environment.

However, Freud also believed that the conscious only represented a tiny portion of the totality of the human mind. While some portions of the mind are accessible to us through the conscious and preconscious, Freud believed that the bulk of our mind's contents are found in the unconscious.