a. [SUB- 19.]
1. Psych. a. Partially or imperfectly conscious; belonging to a class of phenomena resembling those of consciousness but not clearly perceived or recognized. b. Belonging to that portion of the mental field the processes of which are outside the range of attention.
1832–4. De Quincey, Cæsars, Wks. 1862, IX. 137, note. The Emperor Hadrian had taken one solitary step … in the elevation of human nature; and not … without some subconscious influence received directly or indirectly from Christianity. Ibid. (a. 1841), Pope, Wks. 1858, IX. 42. How much grander and more faithful to that great theme [Christianity] were the subconscious perceptions of his heart than the explicit commentaries of his understanding.
1886. Myers, Phantasms of Living, II. 285. There exist sub-conscious and unconscious operations of many kinds; both organic, as secretion, circulation, &c.,… and also mental, as the recall of names, the development of ideas, &c.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XX. 48/1. Subconscious presentations may tell on conscious life … although lacking either the differences of intensity or the individual distinctness requisite to make them definite features.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 151. To cultivate the highest powers of the body and mind is to strengthen self-control and that subconscious inhibition which govern us in our habits of life.
absol. with the. 1886. Encycl. Brit., XX. 48/1. We cannot fix the limit at which the subconscious becomes the absolutely unconscious.
c. transf.
1893. Min. 8th Nat. Council Congr. Ch. U. S., 54. This spirit that has always existed in the sub-conscious life of the Church is now rising into the light of consciousness.
1899. Daily News, 7 Jan., 6/4. A sketch of himself … has a subconscious humour one would not have suspected.
2. Partly or imperfectly aware.
1864. Hawthorne, Septimius (1883), 352. He was subconscious that he was trying a bold experiment.
1879. Lewes, Probl. Life & Mind, Ser. III. I. vii. 104. While obeying the prevailing impulse we are conscious and sub-conscious of simultaneous solicitations in different directions.
