Freud developed a theory of language that dealt with the role of language in consciousness, the relation between language and thought, development of language in the child, and the origins of language as an instrument of social communication. Some

psychoanalysts have been critical of his idea that a conscious presentation is associated with a word presentation, whereas an unconscious presentation is not. Drawing largely on Freud's Project for a Scientific Psychology, the present paper discusses the 'qualitative' nature of language which permits thought to become conscious.