ABSTRACT
In general, when a psychologist speaks of a subject being conscious of a situation, he means that the subject is fully aware of it. The fact that he has become aware of it neither modifies nor adds anything to the situation-all that has changed is that light has now been thrown on a hitherto, for him, obscure situation. Freud even compares consciousness to an "organ of the internal senses," it being understood that for him a sensation can only receive and not transform an ex ternal matter. However, no one has contributed more than Freud to make us consider the "unconscious" a continually active dynamic system. The findings in this book lead us to claim analogous powers for consciousness itself. In fact, and precisely insofar as it is desired to mark and conserve the dif ferences between the unconscious and the conscious, the pas sage from one to the other must require reconstructions and cannot be reduced simply to a process of illumination. Each chapter has shown that cognizance (or the act of becoming conscious) of an action scheme transforms it into a concept and therefore that cognizance consists basically in a concep tualization.
