The present article is fourth in a series which presents and discusses Sigmund Freud's neglected though illuminating conception of consciousness (Natsoulas, 1984a, 1985a, 1989). It is a preparatory study of certain aspects of the theory, for the purpose of subsequently examining the functions of consciousness in hypercathected speech-imagery. Therefore, the article repeatedly returns to the latter category of psychical process, all of whose members only transpire in Freud's perception—consciousness system. In his account of psychological functioning, Freud assigned a major causal role to speech-imagery that draws attentional hypercathexis. An important function of