Health ministry of republic of moldova the university of medicine and pharmacy nicolae testemiţanu

 
theorized that the human mind was divided into 
three parts
: the conscious,
preconscious
, and 
unconscious
. This 
schema first appeared in his earliest model of mental functioning, 
published in his classic work, 
The Interpretation of Dreams 
(1900). 
People experience not only different levels, but also different states 
of consciousness, ranging from wakefulness (which may be either active 
or passive) to deep sleep.
Preconscious. 
Preconscious
 
is an intermediate or transitional level 
of mind between the unconscious and the conscious. In psychoanalytic 
theory, knowledge, images, emotions, and other mental phenomena that 
are not present in immediate consciousness but are quickly accessible 
and can be brought into consciousness easily without the use of special 
techniques. Freud believed that the preconscious functions as an inter-
mediate or transitional level of the mind, between the unconscious and 
the conscious, through which repressed material passes. Freud described 
this arrangement spatially, depicting the unconscious as a large room 
crowded with thoughts and the conscious area as a smaller reception 
room, with a doorkeeper between the two rooms selectively admitting 
thoughts from the unconscious to the consciousness.
A preconscious thought can quickly become conscious by receiving 
attention, and a conscious thought can slip into the preconscious when 
attention is withdrawn from it. In contrast, the repressed material contai-
ned in the unconscious can only be retrieved through some special tech-
nique, such as 
hypnosis
 
or 
dream interpretation.
(What Freud called the 
unconscious is today referred to by many psychologists as the subcon-
scious).
Not all thoughts allowed into the “reception area” necessarily beco-
me conscious, however. Rather, they become available
 
for conscious-
ness, with one or another becoming conscious at a given time when 
attention is drawn to it in some way. Thus, the smaller room might more 
properly be thought of as a preconscious area, in which are gathered all 
of the thoughts that are not deliberately repressed. A preconscious 
thought can quickly become conscious by receiving attention, and a con-

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scious thought can slip into the preconscious when attention is withdra-
wn from it.