[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
1. Partial or imperfect consciousness; a state of consciousness in which perception is indistinct; that part of the mental field that is on the border of consciousness.
1879. Lewes, Probl. Life & Mind, Ser. III. I. v. 88. There all the processes are blended, integrated, and in certain relative intensities become states of Consciousness; in lesser intensities, states of Subconsciousness.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XX. 47. The hypothesis of unconscious mental modifications, as it has been unfortunately termed,—the hypothesis of subconsciousness, as we may style it to avoid this contradiction in terms.
1904. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 17 Sept., 692. He probably projects into the mental life of others what is present in his own subconsciousness.
2. A condition of imperfectly realizing or being aware of something.
1881. Nation (N.Y.), XXXII. 290. Brady’s consciousness or subconsciousness of the shortness and uncertainty of his own tenure.
1896. F. M. Crawford, Corleone, xxxiii. He drove away the sub-consciousness that the thing was not yet done.
