Overview

Does the mind consist only of conscious experiences, or do mental states extend beyond awareness to unconscious brain states with genuine representational content? This second volume in Jerome C. Wakefield’s trilogy immerses readers in one of the most enduring debates in intellectual history—the multi-century dispute over unconscious mental states. Beginning with Descartes’ consciousness criterion and Leibniz’s divisibility argument, Wakefield reconstructs successive rounds of argument through Locke, Mill, and others, culminating in a dialectical confrontation between Freud and William James and a novel argument for the importance of dreams in the debate. Building on Volume 1’s analysis of Freud’s conceptual and theoretical arguments, this book examines the empirical dimension: whether phenomena such as memory, unnoticed mental states, gaps in reasoning, post-hypnotic suggestion, and dreams demonstrate unconscious mentation. Wakefield situates Freud’s position within the philosophy-of-mind tradition and shows how Freud’s synthesis helped pivot psychology from Cartesianism to a representational view of mind that underpins modern cognitive science. Combining historical depth with analytic rigor, this volume clarifies what was at stake, what was established, and what remains unresolved—namely, the missing criterion for unconscious representation. Essential reading for scholars and advanced students in philosophy of mind, psychoanalysis, and the history of psychology, it also sets the stage for Volume 3’s engagement with post-Freudian analytic philosophy.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jerome C. Wakefield, DSW,PhD
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:  

9783032166593

ISBN 10:   3032166594
Publication Date:   28 February 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: The Multi-Century Debate Over the Existence of Unconscious Mental States.- Chapter 2 Descartes and the Origins of the Consciousness Criterion.- Chapter 3 Leibniz’s Divisibility Argument for Unconscious Perceptions.- Chapter 4 The Memory Argument for Unconscious Mental States.- Chapter 5 Unnoticed Mental States.- Chapter 6 The Forgotten Consciousness Argument: Descartes to James.- Chapter 7 The Gap Argument.- Chapter 8 Beyond the Memory and Gap Arguments: Perception, Parapraxes, Post-hypnotic Suggestion, Non-conscious Problem Solving.- Chapter 9 Unconscious Cerebration.- Chapter 10 Unconscious Mental States Versus Split-Off Dissociated Consciousness, Part 1.- Chapter 11 Unconscious Mental States Versus Split-Off Dissociated Consciousness, Part 2.- Chapter 12 Descartes' Dream Interpretation as a Challenge to Descartes' Account of Mind.- Chapter 13 Concluding Remarks: The Missing Criterion for Unconscious Representation.

Reviews

Author Information

Jerome C. Wakefield is Professor of Social Work, Associate Faculty in Philosophy and in the Center for Bioethics, School of Global Public Health, and Honorary Faculty at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education, New York University, USA. Author of over 300 publications across psychology, philosophy, and psychiatry, his books include The Loss of Sadness (2007) and Foucault versus Freud (2025).

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions