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Against Bumke (Zeitschr. f. d. ges. Neurol. u. Psych., 1920, Bd. 56, S. 142), Bleuler defends the existence of the unconscious, and in so doing asserts that the whole matter is chiefly a question of elucidating concepts and points of view, if we are to cease to talk beside the mark. Controversy is for the most part concerned not with the unconscious at all, but with different views in regard to the connection between 'brain and mind', and the delimitation of mental processes. Bleuler, therefore, defines more precisely his concept of mental processes, which includes both the conscious and unconscious. In this connection certain of Bumke's objections are mentioned and their irrelevance is pointed out.
Among other things Bleuler points out that a continual psychic series exists and that 'in daily life we are every moment instinctively or consciously seeking out and completing the connecting-links which are not directly perceived, exactly as in the physical world, and when we have found them we call them unconscious psychic functions'.
Much which is called unconscious is according to Bumke only 'forgotten'. But if the 'forgotten' is still active then it can only be an unconscious psychism. For psychopathology it is of very little importance whether that which we call unconscious may not at the same time also be a little conscious.
It is only important that we should recognise the mechanisms which are based on these unconscious or dimly-conscious phenomena.