(2) levels of mental life

• How does Freud divide mental life?

  Into the unconscious and the conscious.
• What are the two levels of the unconscious according to Freud?

  The unconscious proper and the preconscious.
• What is the unconscious according to Freud?

  • A reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories outside of conscious awareness.
  • Contains unacceptable or unpleasant contents like pain, anxiety, or conflict.
  • Motivates most of our words, feelings, and actions.
• How do unconscious drives influence behavior according to Freud?

  They motivate most of our words, feelings, and actions despite being beyond our awareness.
• What does Freud suggest about the meaning behind dreams?

  They are explained by the unconscious processes.
• How do unconscious processes enter consciousness?

  They must be sufficiently disguised to slip past the primary censor.
• What role does anxiety play in repression according to Freud?

  Anxiety stimulates repression, forcing unwanted experiences into the unconscious.
• What is phylogenetic endowment in Freud's theory?

  Inherited unconscious images from the experiences of early ancestors.
• What is the preconscious according to Freud?

  • It consists of anything that could potentially be brought into the conscious mind.
  • Contains elements that are not conscious but can become conscious readily or with difficulty.
• How do elements enter the preconscious from consciousness?

  They quickly pass into the preconscious when attention shifts to another idea.
• How can ideas enter the preconscious from the unconscious?

  They slip past the vigilant censor in a disguised form.
• What does consciousness contain according to Freud?

  • All thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any moment.
  • The aspect of mental processing we can think and talk about rationally.
  • Memory that can be retrieved easily and brought into awareness.
• What is the only level of mental life directly available to us?

  The conscious level.
• From where can ideas reach consciousness according to Freud?

  From the perceptual conscious system and the mental structure.
• What does the perceptual conscious system do?

  It perceives external stimuli through our sense organs.
• What types of ideas can enter consciousness from the mental structure?

  Non-threatening ideas from the preconscious and well-disguised images from the unconscious.