The unconscious is the larger circle which includes within itself the smaller circle of the conscious; everything conscious has its preliminary step in the unconscious, whereas the unconscious may stop with this step and still claim full value as a psychic activity. Properly speaking, the unconscious is the real psychic; its inner nature is just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is just as imperfectly reported to us through the data of consciousness as is the external world through the indications of our sensory organs.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Freud describes the unconscious as a vast, mysterious realm that contains and precedes consciousness.
- In plain terms
- The unconscious mind is huge and unknown, like the outside world, while consciousness is small.
- What can you take from it?
- Accept that much of your mind is unknown to you.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What part of you remains unknown?
- Can we ever know the unconscious?
Another view
It presents the unconscious as unknowable despite modern neuroscience progress.
More from Sigmund Freud
The ego is not master in its own house.
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