Skip to main content
Log in

Abstract

A clarification of Husserl's changing conceptions of imaginary consciousness (“phantasy”) and memory, especially at the level of auto-affective time-consciousness, suggests an interpretation of Freud's concept of the Unconscious. Phenomenology of consciousness can show how it is possible that consciousness can bring to present appearance something unconscious, that is, something foreign or absent to consciousness, without incorporating it into or subordinating it to the conscious present. This phenomenological analysis of Freud's concept of the Unconscious leads to a partial critique of Freud's metapsychological determination of the Unconscious as a simple, internally unperceived representational consciousness. It also suggests an account of how a reproductive inner consciousness can free the subject from the experience of anxiety by allowing for possibilities of self-distanciation and symbolic self-representation that protect the subject from traumatic affection by and through its own instinctual drives.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Assoun, P.-L. 1976. Freud, la Philosophie et les Philosophes. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernet, R. 1994. La vie du sujet. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernet, R. 1993. Imagination et fantasme. In: J. Florence et al. (eds), Psychanalyse: L'homme et ses destins, pp. 191–206. Louvain-Paris: Peeters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernet, R. 1992. Délire et réalité dans la psychose. Etudes phénoménologiques 15: 25–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brentano, F. 1973. In: O. Kraus (ed), Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint. English edition L. McAlister (ed), trans. A. Rancurello, D. Terrel, and L. McAlister. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. 1913. In: J. Strachey (ed), A Note on the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis, pp. 255-266. Standard Edition of Collected Works, Volume 12.

  • Freud, S. 1915. In: J. Strachey (ed), The Unconscious, and Repression, p. 166 ff. and pp. 141-158. Standard Edition of Collected Works, Volume 14.

  • Freud, S. 1900. In: J. Strachey (ed), The Interpretation of Dreams, pp. 588-610. Standard Edition of Collected Works, Volume 5.

  • Freud, S. 1895. In: J. Strachey (ed), On the Grounds for Detaching a Particular Syndrome from Neurasthenia under the Description “Anxiety Neurosis”, pp. 90-115. Standard Edition of Collected Works, Volume 3.

  • Freud, S. 1917. In: J. Strachey (ed), Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (Lect. XXV), pp. 392-408. Standard Edition of Collected Works, Volume 16.

  • Freud, S. 1924. In: J. Strachey (ed), Inhibitions, Symptoms, Anxiety, pp. 87-156. Standard Edition of Collected Works, Volume 20.

  • Freud, S. 1932. In: J. Strachey (ed), New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (Lect. XXXII), pp. 81-95. Standard Edition of Collected Works, Volume 22.

  • Heidegger, M. 1962. Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E. 1980. Phantasie, Bildbewusstsein, Erinnerung (Husserliana XXIII). Den Haag: M. Nijhoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E. 1985. Texte zur Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins (1893-1917). Hamburg: Meiner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E. 1966. Analysen zur passiven Synthesis (1918-1926), (Husserliana XI). Den Haag: M. Nijhoff.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bernet, R. Unconscious consciousness in Husserl and Freud. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 1, 327–351 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021316201873

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021316201873

Keywords

Navigation