Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories(^32) 2. Freud: Psychoanalysis © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
turned toward the outer world and acts as a medium for the perception of external
stimuli. In other words, what we perceive through our sense organs, if not too threat-
ening, enters into consciousness (Freud, 1933/1964).
The second source of conscious elements is from within the mental structure
and includes nonthreatening ideas from the preconscious as well as menacing but
well-disguised images from the unconscious. As we have seen, these latter images
escaped into the preconscious by cloaking themselves as harmless elements and
evading the primary censor. Once in the preconscious, they avoid a final censor and
come under the eye of consciousness. By the time they reach the conscious system,
these images are greatly distorted and camouflaged, often taking the form of defen-
sive behaviors or dream elements.
In summary, Freud (1917/1963, pp. 295–296) compared the unconscious to a
large entrance hall in which many diverse, energetic, and disreputable people are
milling about, crowding one another, and striving incessantly to escape to a smaller
adjoining reception room. However, a watchful guard protects the threshold between
26 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
FIGURE 2.1 Levels of Mental Life.
King
Reception
room
Anteroom
Screen
Eye of consciousness
Final censorship
Preconscious
Censorship
Unconscious
Doorkeeper