ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the significance of levels of consciousness with particular reference to ego state theory. It describes a dynamic ego state model developed specifically to account for non-conscious as well as unconscious, preconscious and conscious patterns of experience. The additional significance of acknowledging a non-conscious implicit realm of experience and relating is that it supports the conceptualisation of the expanded/expanding Adult ego state and further differentiates it from restricted notions that Adult ego state is merely to do with consciousness. The conscious/preconscious distinction, like the dynamic unconscious, also dates back to Freud's dynamic model of the psyche. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud saw the preconscious as a screen lying between the unconscious and conscious systems. Positive psychology has many overlaps with transactional analysis, both in the affirmation of human wellbeing and the encouragement to act and not just to think or feel.
