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The intention of the author of this work is to fill a hiatus in psychological theory by furnishing a philosophical basis for the concept of the 'unconscious-psychic'. In attempting to do so he makes reference to Freud, whose propositions he defends or rather thinks he defends; actually, in his own views he permits himself various important differences, apparently unconscious of their significance. There can be no question of his right
to his own opinions, but they ought not to be confounded with those of Freud.
According to de Boer, conscious and unconscious psychic activities are the essential components of the mind and realize their unity in the fact of becoming conscious. Consciousness is a ceaseless becoming-conscious and is to be regarded not as an entity but as an activity. The complexes of consciousness, clear at the focus of attention and becoming dimmer in periphery, succeed one another, vanishing in the form of precipitates in the unconscious-psychic 'below the threshold of consciousness', while retaining their active and affective capacity.1 Fechner's wave-scheme, divested of the (in the author's view) naïve connection of the under-wave with the planetary unconscious, is compared with Ziehen's scheme and shown to be valuable. De Boer is confident that his own scheme will provide a better conception of the working of repression. The idea of action with its heavy affective and active charge may, instead of passing into action, be 'deposited' (below the threshold) side by side with innumerable memories. The fact that it is so highly charged renders this idea peculiarly liable to association with corresponding sensory impressions and ideas, and thus it is ever menaced with discharge, especially by short-circuiting. 'If, however, it proves possible to retain the idea as a deposit, for example, by means of higher, ethical motives, it may in certain cases operate pathogenically.' Those processes of short-circuiting which result from use and wont take