Internationale Zeitschrift Für Aerztliche Psychoanalyse

1. Some Remarks on the Concept of the Unconscious as Used in Psychoanalysis. sigmund freud.

2. Stages in the Development of the Sense of Reality. S. ferenczi.

3. Further Suggestions as to the Technique of Psychoanalysis. sigmund freud.

1. The Concept of the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis.—An idea—or any other psychical element—can be in consciousness at one moment and in the next instant vanish. After a while it may return unchanged. One is forced to assume that it exists in the psyche but is latent to consciousness.

“An unconscious idea is one which we do not note, but whose existence we concede because of other signs and proofs.”

Post-hypnotic suggestion teaches us the importance of the distinction between conscious and unconscious. Such an experiment teaches us still more: We advance from a mere descriptive to a dynamic interpretation of the phenomenon. An idea suggested during hypnosis remains unconscious but at the appropriate moment becomes effective. Thus- an idea is at the same time unconscious and real.

The psychic life of the hysterical patient is filled with real but unconscious thoughts, from which arise all their symptoms. A hysterical woman may vomit because she thinks she is pregnant, without being aware of it. We learn through the analysis of neurotic phenomena that a latent or unconscious thought need not necessarily be weak, and that the existence of such thoughts in the psyche may be established by indirect proof of the most powerful sort. We distinguish between different kinds of latent and unconscious thoughts. We have been accustomed to think that a thought was latent because it was weak, and that as soon as it became strong it entered consciousness. But there are thoughts which cannot penetrate consciousness no matter how powerful they may become. We name the latent thoughts of the first group “fore-conscious,” while the expression “unconscious” is reserved for the second group. The expression