Epilogue

Abstract

The coinage and continual usage of subconscious epitomize De Quincey’s lasting interest in cognitive processes that elude awareness but nevertheless influence conscious mentation. They also illustrate his own call for neologisms as a necessity for the intellectual progress of a society. When De Quincey introduced the term to the reading public in 1834, it marked a moment of exposition, denotation, and signification in the ideation of the unconscious that had been underway in various fields, and he continued indirectly promoting the concept of unconscious processes in his published writings. Rather than representing a counter-agent to consciousness, De Quincey pervasively presents the unconscious as a basis for consciousness because it executes a similar set of functions: productive cognitive processes. Cognitive psychologists have been investigating the unconscious for several decades now and have developed ‘a coherent research paradigm that is tightly woven into the fabric of modern scientific psychology’ (Kihlstrom, Barnhardt, and Tataryn 789). Their work provides a theoretical framework that enables the literary critic to analyse and understand nineteenth-century notions of the productive unconscious like the ones in De Quincey’s work: it performs rational complex thoughts, executes automatically triggered responses to environmental stimuli, processes sensory impressions, categorizes and stores memories, and directs our efforts to achieve certain objectives.

As a master of the English language, Mr. de Quincey’s reputation will long survive. His … mind seems to have united the two qualities not often found together, of logical precision and poetic fancy.

Hawke’s Bay Herald ‘Thomas de Quincey’