ABSTRACT
This chapter begins a discussion that will continue through this book; the origins, functions, and characteristics of consciousness as a state of Being of the Self. Psychoanalysis unfortunately has had little interest in consciousness. Its clinical practice has involved getting past consciousness to the contents of unconsciousness mental processes, which has been seen as where the action is. Although a therapeutic goal has been to make unconscious thought and affect conscious, once having accomplished this goal, there has not been a great deal of interest in it per se. The chapter looks at the neurobiology of consciousness and attempts to engage it philosophically. It begins by laying out a series of data points; things we actually know about consciousness and then pulls them together to define what we need to include if we are to develop a successful theory of consciousness. Putting all of these pieces together offers a neurophilosophy of consciousness.
