Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 7, 1, 1959: G. S. Klein. 'Consciousness in Psychoanalytic Theory: Some Implications for Current Research in Perception.'

In this paper Klein presents a brief account of the experimental work which suggests that there is a continuous mental registration of environmental stimuli occurring outside of awareness. He then discusses the status of the concept of consciousness in psycho-analytic theory in which he reviews Freud's initial and later views on the subject. The last section of the paper takes up the implications of the experimental work detailed at the outset. Klein suggests that registration of stimuli and their perception are two entirely different processes. Registration is much less selective that was previously imagined. The registration of a stimulus will only be experienced as a percept or an image when it is endowed with a special cathectic quality. The state of consciousness is an important factor in determining the structure of percepts and images. Klein conceives of controlling structures within the ego which will determine the nature of these mental events. Preference is given by Klein to the concept of registration of stimuli outside of awareness rather than to the concept of subliminal perception. This preference is the result of (a) the belief in a superordinate organization—the state of consciousness in which registrations occur; (b) the elaborations to which the registrations are subject; and (c) the controlling structures which shape their emergence in consciousness. Klein also points out that this recent work on perception raises the question of the selection of such non-conscious events to repression.