preconscious /-kon″shəs/ [L, prae, before, conscire, to be aware] , 1. adj., before the development of self-consciousness and self-awareness. 2. n., (in psychiatry) the mental function in which thoughts, ideas, emotions, or memories not in immediate awareness can be brought into the consciousness, usually through associations, without encountering any intrapsychic resistance or repression. 3. n., the mental phenomena capable of being recalled, although not present in the conscious mind.
