Abstract

In all his works, Hegel makes very few references to the unconscious. In fact, the account is limited to only a few passages in his Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences; and these do not explicitly develop a formal theory of the unconscious. Yet Hegel does not completely ignore the issue. In the Encyclopaedia, as outlined in Petry’s presentation of Hegel’s Philosophy of Subjective Spirit, Hegel describes the unconscious processes of intelligence as a “nightlike abyss.” It is important to understand what Hegel means by this “abyss” and what role it plays in the life of subjective spirit. But with a few noteworthy exceptions, which focus on Hegel’s theory of mental illness, Hegel’s treatment of the unconscious has been largely overlooked. In this essay, therefore, I will explore Hegel’s treatment of the abyss in mental life and explain how this constitutes a position on the unconscious.