Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE UNCONSCIOUS AND THE "WISH" The basis of psychoanalysis is the doctrine of the unconscious, so it may be best to begin with examination of Freud's present opinions about it. On pages 255 and 256 he gives his general formulations to the effect that practically all mental processes originate beyond the range of awareness. Some have not the force ever to intrude into consciousness, others tend to do so. The latter are met at the threshold by a "censorship"1 which repels them, thus keeping them unconscious. To clarify this conception Freud uses an analogy, which he insists is only an analogy, although submitting that it gives an accurate representation of his views. The unconscious is like a large anteroom crowded with people. Off it leads a smaller reception room. At the threshold of the door between stands a watchman who prevents the passage of undesirables. When a visitor is allowed past the host may recognize him or not as he chooses. The optional character of this awareness is emphasized by the term "fore- conscious" (or "preconscious") to describe this reception-room or that collection of mental processes which are available for inspection if attention isdirected to them. The unconscious, however (the anteroom), contains mental processes toward which no mere effort of will can force the individual attention. 1 Usually, as in this book, mistranslated as "censor." If Freud used the term "unconscious" in this broad sense consistently many critics would have more intellectual sympathy with his formulations than they are capable of achieving. Practically he confines the term to those mental processes which struggle for admission to consciousness and are thrown back. In fact he goes even further and, in effect, limits the "unconscious" to those mental process...