ABSTRACT
Before proceeding to inquire whether unconscious reasoning really exists and how its existence is possible, and before examining whether there is not perhaps to-day a tendency to exaggerate the importance of unconscious as opposed to conscious reasoning in the normal man, it is necessary to be quite clear as to the meaning of the word ‘consciousness’. We must also endeavour to ascertain the ‘nature’ of consciousness, i.e. to distinguish clearly the elementary psychical phenomena of which conscious states are composed.
