Unconscious
Unconscious names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Unconscious THE, a theory
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE, a theory, originated by Dr. Sigmund Freud, forming the basis of a system employed in the interpretation and treatment of certain mental diseases. This hypothesis of the unconscious , countering to a large extent the former theory of the subconscious , was promulgated in 1893, and is to the effect that the conscious life, varying in its intensity from its clearness at the focus of attention to the marginal states of sounds and sights and other conditions of the senses felt or known in different degrees, has its foundation in the unconscious, which never enters the condition of consciousness, but still, as the stage on which the senses act as a base, directs and conditions the selection of ideas that enter consciousness. The unconscious, according to the new doctrine, is an instinctive force which does not reason in conscious modes. Its indications in the field of consciousness are expressions too formless and elemental for acceptance in social intercourse. As a result there stands at the portal of consciousness an agent or censor whose function is the duty of so transforming the nascent desires or expressions as they raise that they shall not offend the moral sense in the conscious life. The unconscious idea is represented as one which is unable to penetrate consciousness no matter how powerful it may become; and one moreover which we do not perceive but whose existence we concede because of other signs and proofs , An intermediate state such as that out of which mental processes represented by much self-evident systems as are involved in pure mathematics is called the "foreconscious." The impelling influence of the unconscious is said to be illustrated by such lapses as the forgetting of names, which is supposed to be occasioned by latent reluctance to admit them into consciousness owing to unpleasant associations. The influence of the unconscious, however, is shown most powerfully in dreams, and their interpretation according to what is called led psychoanalysis is the leading element in Freud's system. The unconscious is considered to be conditioned largely by heredity, fulfilling the blind desire epitomizing the mental evolution of the human family. The primordial psychic desire or libido, ontogenetically developed, atisfac seeks satisfaction first in the respiratory, nutritive and eliminative activities of the infant, then in the auto -investigative or auto-erotic stage, then in the development of the ego, and at last in puberty and sexual love in which interest is transferred to the true mate in the opposite sex. Various phases of the unconscious mental life are labeled by Freud as the Narcissistic period, the edipus complex, and the like, and a fundamental type is supposed to be represented in the frequent attitude of children toward their parents , making the mother the object of affection and regarding the father as a rival . Not only in the individual but in the family and race are the effects of the unconscious seen, and such movements as Freemasonry, alchemy, and the like are described as such manifestations . The doctrine of the unconscious is recognized at present merely as a working formula , to be improved and developed with the march of experience and to be tested by its practical results in psychological treatment.
Unconscious THE of the strata must have been more or less acted on by denudation
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE of the strata must have been more or less acted on by denudation, which has rendered them a nearly horizontal plane on which fresh strata can easily rest. Thirdly, these fresh strata have been actually deposited. Approximately to measure the interval of time which these changes have occupied, intermediate beds must be sought for in other districts or regions, or, failing these, note must be taken of the amount of alteration in life which has occurred during the unknown interval. This may be determined by comparing the fossils in the lower with those in the upper beds . Unconformability is of value in fixing the date of ancient seismic or volcanic action. If it tilted up the lower and had no influence on the upper strata, the irresistible inference is that it occurred between the deposition of the two.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921, Freud's unconscious was barely thirty years old and the entry treated it cautiously as "merely a working formula, to be improved and developed... and to be tested by its practical results." That test largely went against it: psychoanalysis dominated Anglo-American psychiatry into the 1950s, then lost ground to drug treatment and cognitive-behavioural therapy, and the 1980 DSM-III stripped Freudian theory out of formal diagnosis. Yet the broad idea survived in a different form — cognitive psychology and neuroscience now take for granted that most mental processing is inaccessible to introspection, though this "cognitive unconscious" has little to do with libido, censors or the Oedipus complex. Note also that the second passage on this page is not about the unconscious at all; it is a stray fragment on unconformability in geology, misfiled by the scanning of the original volume.
Written for this edition, 2026.