In this article, you will learn

Preconscious: This consists of anything that could potentially be brought into the conscious mind.

Unconscious (or subconscious) mind: This is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict.’

Psychology tutor, Saul McLeod, explores further into Freud’s three levels of the mind.
Saul Mcleod:
‘Freud described the conscious mind as consisting of all the mental processes of which we are aware, and this is seen as the tip of the iceberg. For example, you may become aware of feeling thirsty so you decide to get a drink.
The preconscious contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware of, but which can easily be brought to consciousness. It exists just below the level of consciousness, before the unconscious mind. The preconscious is like a mental waiting room. Thoughts remain until they succeed in attracting the eye of the conscious.
This is often referred to as available memory. For example, you are presently not thinking about your mobile telephone number, but now it is mentioned you can recall it with ease. Mild emotional experiences may be in the preconscious, but sometimes traumatic and powerful negative emotions are repressed and hence not available in the preconscious.
According to Freud, the unconscious mind is the primary source of human behavior. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see. Our feelings, motives and decisions are actually powerfully influenced by our past experiences, and stored in the unconscious.’
Conclusion of McLeod
McLeod’s explanation clarifies the unconscious mind contains not only negative thoughts from past experiences, but also your deepest desires.
How do you describe your subconscious mind?

Freud’s theory does not take into account the entity of the subconscious. This part of the mind is regularly referred to in therapy.
What is an example of subconscious mind?
Examples of your subconscious mind include fears, beliefs, desires, and memories that you may not be aware of. But some of these can be accessed with some work, such as therapy.
Self-Development Author, Brian Tracy, summarises the importance of the subconscious mind:
‘Let’s first take a moment to consider the fact that your subconscious mind is like a huge memory bank. Its capacity is virtually unlimited and it permanently stores everything that ever happens to you. By the time you reach the age of 21, you’ve already permanently stored more than one hundred times the contents of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.
Under hypnosis, older people can often remember, with perfect clarity, events from fifty years before. Your unconscious memory is virtually perfect. It is your conscious recall that is suspect.
The function of your subconscious mind is to store and retrieve data. Its job is to ensure that you respond exactly the way you are programmed. Your subconscious mind makes everything you say and do fit a pattern consistent
With your self-concept, your “master program.” This is why repeating positive affirmations are so effective―you can actually reprogram your own thought patterns by slipping in positive and success-oriented sound bites.’
The subconscious and unconscious mind are used interchangeably. Michael Craig Miller, M.D. in an article for Harvard Health explains why.
Michael Craig Miller:
‘The term “unconscious mind” is most closely associated with Freud and psychoanalysis. For Freud, it was a key element of the theory he was developing to explain the causes of mental disorders and how to treat them. Put in the simplest terms, Freud theorized that hidden mental contents were making people “ill.” As he understood it, these mental contents had been “repressed” and made unconscious.
As for the term “subconscious,” Freud used it interchangeably with “unconscious” at the outset. But he eventually stuck with the latter term to avoid confusion. He couldn’t have predicted that the confusion would still exist after more than 100 years of discussion.
As a general rule, in most of the professional literature where mental functioning is concerned (including not just psychoanalysis, but also psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience, among others), writers—like Freud—tend to use the word “unconscious” rather than “subconscious.” However, due to the literal definition of unconscious being when a person passes out, the term subconscious is often used instead as a preference.’
The Battle of the Conscious vs the Subconscious Mind

How do you use your conscious and subconscious mind together?
Quite often, your mind can be torn between the beliefs of your conscious and your subconscious. This article by investment manager Ray Dalio on Linkedin explores why this happens.
Ray Dalio:
‘As with animals, many of our decision-making drivers are below the surface. An animal doesn’t “decide” to fly or hunt or sleep or fight in the way that we go about making many of our own choices of what to do—it simply follows the instructions that come from the subconscious parts of its brain. These same sorts of instructions come to us from the same parts of our brains, sometimes for good evolutionary reasons and sometimes to our detriment. Our subconscious fears and desires drive our motivations and actions through emotions such as love, fear, and inspiration. It’s physiological. Love, for example, is a cocktail of chemicals (such as oxytocin) secreted by the pituitary gland.
…I also came to understand that while some subconscious parts of our brains are dangerously animalistic, others are smarter and quicker than our conscious minds. Our greatest moments of inspiration often “pop” up from our subconscious. We experience these creative breakthroughs when we are relaxed and not trying to access the part of the brain in which they reside, which is generally the neocortex. When you say, “I just thought of something,” you noticed your subconscious mind telling your conscious mind something. With training, it’s possible to open this stream of communication.
Many people only see the conscious mind and aren’t aware of the benefits of connecting it to the subconscious. They believe that the way to accomplish more is to cram more into the conscious mind and make it work harder, but this is often counterproductive. While it may seem counterintuitive, clearing your head can be the best way to make progress.’
Conclusion of Dalio’s Theory
Dalio’s theory gives relevance to the feeling of procrastination. Sometimes, when you relax and put things off for a while, you sometimes get a ‘lightbulb’ moment out of nowhere. It is in fact, your subconscious saving the day.
The Power of the Subconscious Mind

Whether you are awake or asleep, your subconscious mind is recording and storing everything. Thanks to your stored memories, feelings and desires, your subconscious plays a huge role in the creation of your dreams. This article on The Wisdom Post explains how it works.
The Wisdom Post:
‘When you fall asleep, it is your conscious mind that is sleeping. However, your subconscious mind will never fall asleep. It works 24 hours a day even when you sleep. Your subconscious mind is controlling your body, your breathing, your organs functionality, your cell’s growth and everything. This is why when you sleep, your subconscious mind is still wide awake. And that simply means that it is your unconscious mind that is solely responsible for your dreams.
This is the point where your subconscious mind connects with your mental images that produce what we call, dreams. And because our subconscious mind thinks in the form of symbols, metaphors, and visual forms, our dreams tend to be projected in that way too. This is why most dreams are indirect and difficult to understand, but they are often connected to our experiences and the events in our daily life.’
Marisa Peer’s Rules of the Mind

In this Rules of The Mind article, psychology expert Marisa Peer explains that the first simple job your mind has is to keep you alive for as long as possible. To do that, your subconscious mind will move you away from pain and towards pleasure. It is highly influenced by the words you say and the pictures you imagine. Your mind loves what is familiar and prefers to avoid anything unfamiliar.
Hypnosis and The Subconscious Mind
Hypnotherapy taps into the subconscious mind, often to bring out deep-ridden traumas from childhood or past events that have left feelings of negativity. The subconscious is thought of as a biological hard-drive. Or like a recorded database for all things about you. Your conscious mind may know that you should quit that unhealthy habit, or exercise more often. But this conscious willpower can only guide you so far. It’s the subconscious that needs rewiring in order to achieve your goals. Why? Because your subconscious beliefs can sabotage your conscious efforts. The more aware you are of your subconscious beliefs, the better you will become at accessing them.
You can often tap into the subconscious mind in instances where you feel a ‘gut instinct’ or intuition. The more you pay attention to this, the better you will be at training your subconscious.
Marisa Peer has helped many clients achieve success in their lives through her unique technique of reprogramming the subconscious mind, called Rapid Transformational Therapy™ (RTT). Based on the science of neuroplasticity, RTT combines the most beneficial principles of Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, NLP, CBT, and Neuroscience.