Freud never settled on one unequivocal construct for the unconscious. He vacillated between the concepts of the irrationality of the riderless horse and more limited functions associated with primary process. These issues have been clarified by research on the nature of work as an ineffable (in the sense of not directly observable) goal-directed, problem-solving activity that goes on continuously in all living species and is the essence of life itself. This construct of work gives a more comprehensive conception of nonarticulated dynamic intentional goal-directed behavior than does the psychoanalytical conception of the unconscious, and readily includes and encompasses the latter. It leads also to a clarification of the nature of conscious awareness and of language.