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.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Assoun, P.-L. 1976. Freud, la Philosophie et les Philosophes. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Bernet, R. 1994. La vie du sujet. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Bernet, R. 1993. Imagination et fantasme. In: J. Florence et al. (eds), Psychanalyse: L'homme et ses destins, pp. 191–206. Louvain-Paris: Peeters.
Bernet, R. 1992. Délire et réalité dans la psychose. Etudes phénoménologiques 15: 25–54.
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.
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.
Husserl, E. 1980. Phantasie, Bildbewusstsein, Erinnerung (Husserliana XXIII). Den Haag: M. Nijhoff.
Husserl, E. 1985. Texte zur Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins (1893-1917). Hamburg: Meiner.
Husserl, E. 1966. Analysen zur passiven Synthesis (1918-1926), (Husserliana XI). Den Haag: M. Nijhoff.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights 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
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021316201873