AWARENESS VS CONSCIOUSNESS: A REPLY.

Abstract

Erika Fromm's ( 1965) provocative proposition think of the Conscious, the Preconscious, and the Unconscious as being cathected with differing amounts of awareness in different states has prompted me to the following theorecical considerations which are in basic agreement with her proposition but approach it from a somewhat different direction. To make clear where I differ, let me define terms. By Consciousness I mean that broad range of function in which the organism is actively or passively experiencing affect, perception, or thought. By such a definition, the person who is in a fugue state, who is dreaming, who is in a hypnagogic reverie, or in a day-dream, or in any b ~ ~ t the plenary trance state displays varying degrees of consciousness, different, however, from that of the person engaged in concentrated, directed thought. EEG data support this conception. It is only roughly analogous to the psychoanalytic concept of consciousness in that it overlaps with and comprises part of the preconscious and unconscious of the psychoanalytic model. Awareness, it seems to me, is a narrower concept and may be designated as a subsystem of the larger Consciousness. Awareness, by its very etymological connection with beware and wary, implies a judgmental or at least a reflexive (in the grammatical sense) process. That is, to be aware of one's own perceptions, real or imagined, one's feelings, one's thoughts-as one's own-presupposes relating them back ro oneself-as-object. The dreamer, while dreaming, is conscious of imagery and sensations, but not as relating to himself-even when he is one of the dream objects. The person in a fugue state, or in hypnosis, is awake and conscious, but he is not aware of himself as a functional unit. The patient who is free-associating is conscious of choughc and feelings, but not until these have been interpreted does he become aware of their meaning to himself. Neither Consciousness nor Awareness is to be considered a static, firmly delineated scate. Both are processes belonging to a three-dimensional continuum with fluid boundaries and are subject to upward and downward flucn~ations according to the prevailing physical and mental state of the organism. This conception is compatible with the dual horizontal as well as vertical organization of the CNS and at the same time fits into the framework of Ego psychology. REFERENCE FROMM, E. Awareness versus consciousness. Psychol. Rep., 1965, 16, 7 11 -71 2.