ultiply, form chains, and replace one another…” (ILp 35-36)It is in this line that understanding the preconscious becomes important. “Preconscious” describes a division of the mind that falls in between repression (unconscious) and recognition (conscious). Freud described thoughts in the preconscious as having crossed the threshold from the unconscious mind, but not yet having caught the eye of consciousness (IL p366). The preconscious is an important element in the dynamic between an individual’s conscious intention and their counter-will, because it falls somewhere in the middle and may be the most manifested part of the phenomenon. For instance, when a proper name is forgotten, this is a function of repression. The individual unconsciously wants to forget one thing, but the counter-will resists by forgetting another. It is when a name is “on the tip of the tongue” but still unclear that countless other irrelevant names will come to mind; these irrelevant names are the inhabitants of the preconscious.The case detailed in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, in which Freud discusses his own experience with the forgetting of a proper name, is a good example of a clear analysis of the mechanism Freud saw behind this phenomenon. He explains the situation, and will later go on to fully analyze its significance:“ The name that I tried without success to recall in the example I chose for analysis in 1898 was that of the artist who painted the magnificent frescoes of the ‘Four Last Things’ in Orvieto Cathedral. Instead of the name I was looking for – Signorelli – the names of two other painters – Botticelli and Boltrafio – thrust themselves at me, though they were immediately and decisively rejected by my judgment as incorrect. When I learn the correct name from someone else, I recognized it at once and without hesitation (PEL p2). When he tries to ...
