The level of Preconscious processing exists.
Are you able to recall what you spoke about a few weeks ago? or Have you ever recall some memories of your childhood while sleeping? Some may say "Yes." and Others may say "No." Then, here is another question. Is it a conscious memory or an unconscious memory? Many people must answer to former question quiet easily but they must have trouble in answering to latter question. Then, where the problem stems from? It is because there are too many ambiguous concepts and memories which cannot be classified easily as one of them.(conscious or unconscious)
Hence, I argue that there is another level of information processing called 'preconscious' which is located between conscious processing and unconscious processing.
At first, I would like to define what conscious means and unconscious means exactly. Both are the types of brain's information processing. Our brain perceives information or stores memories through different level of process. One process is conscious processing which means aware of and responding to one's surroundings or having knowledge of something. Another is unconscious processing which means not awake and aware of responding to one's environment or done of existing without one realizing. Since now, some researchers have divided the level of brain's processing into these two ways. However, as I mentioned above, the concepts are too enormous and vast to define whole concepts in just two ways. Therefore, surely, another process would exist between two. It would be 'preconscious.'
Then, what is preconscious and how it affects to other information processing? According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the preconscious mind is a part of the mind that corresponds to ordinary memory. These memories are not conscious, but we can retrieve them to conscious awareness at any time.
A good example that proves firmly the existence of preconscious is hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy is an effective way of helping people make changes in their life, like breaking unwanted habits such as smoking, dealing with phobias, stress and anxiety and so on. Also, it helps people reach at their full potential overcoming their hidden trauma. Interesting part is a person who are in the state of hypnosis, can slowly address deep inner issues and using own natural inner resources to resolve them. It is similar to preconscious level because no one is able to recall their inner mind in the state of conscious and even in the unconscious state. Therefore, It is easy way to understanding preconscious that it plays a role as a kind of a gatekeeper between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. It allows only certain information to pass through and come into conscious memory.
I will refer to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality more specifically. This theory absolutely supports my argument. He explained human mind using ice berg metaphor. Conscious awareness is the tip of the iceberg, while the unconscious is represented by the ice hidden below the surface of the water. Between then, preconscious exists. Below is the summary of Sigmund Freud's theory. This shows not only apparent differences between conscious and unconscious processing but also concept of preconscious which includes both traits.
1. The conscious mind includes everything that we are aware of. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. A part of this includes our memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily at any time and brought into our awareness. Freud called this the preconscious.
2. The preconscious mind is the part of the mind that represents ordinary memory. While we are not consciously aware of this information at any given time, we can retrieve it and pull it into consciousness when needed.
3. The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our behavior and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences.
However, some people would disagree with my argument. They will refine brain's information processing only in two ways. In other words, they will argue that brain does only two types of information processing - conscious and unconscious processing.- They can argue like, 'Preconscious is an ambiguous concept. So it is difficult to accept and adapt.' or 'There are little researches that can support your argument. It is not logical.' However, these are not true.
First, preconscious is not an ambiguous concept. It is more of accurate process that connects the ambiguous boundary surrounded of a conscious sphere and unconscious sphere. It is like a middle step of them.(but closer to conscious awareness.) Second, an authoritative researcher, Sigmund Freud claimed that there is a level of preconscious. Also, researcher, C.G. Jung established and extended his theory based on the concept of 'preconsious'. He claimed personal unconsciousness which is similar concept to preconscious. Moreover, aside from their theory, when you think certain situation, you can easily perceive what preconscious is. For instance, it is hard to answer what did you do last week on this time. We should think about it quite long time, not immediately can aware.
As a result, preconscious exists. It plays a role as a gatekeeper between conscious processing and unconscious processigng. Famous authoritative researcher Sigmund Freud and other researchers acknowledged that and several cases such as hypnosis also represents its existence. The reason why we should focus this issue is related to the development of human brain processing levels. In contemporary society, we have to remember lots of information and store memories. Thus, more accurate and advanced quality of human mind research is needed to prevent side effects or unexpected problems in information processing such as loss of memory. Therefore, setting a obvious standard or classification of information processing should be preceded.
Further, if human mind research academy officially accepts that preconscious exists, research of human mind will extend more and deepen. Also, researchers can have wider perspectives of studying human mind because preconscious processing includes more concept of human mind. Moreover, plenty of ambiguous concepts and memories can be explained more obviously.
