In the field of psychology, the conscious mind contains all of the thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any given moment. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. The subconscious refers to that part of consciousness that we are unaware of. It is information that we are not actively aware of in the moment, but that can influence us nonetheless, such as things that are heard, seen or remembered. The unconscious mind, on the other hand, is a term coined by Freud to refer to a part of the mind that cannot be known by the conscious mind, and includes socially unacceptable ideas, wishes and desires, traumatic memories and painful emotions that have been repressed.
The information stored in the subconscious or the preconscious mind may not be on the surface, but is accessible. You can become aware of this information if your direct your attention towards it, like in a memory recall. For instance, you’re in intense conversation with someone and a dog passes by casually, you will not notice the dog, but when asked to recall, you might be able to remember the dog’s size, color and path in the scope of your vision.
The unconscious mind stores the primal, instinctual thoughts which we cannot deliberately access. Our overt behavior may give signs of the unconscious forces that drive them, but that is involuntary. The countless memories and experiences collected through out childhood and as toddlers contribute to forming the person we are today. Yet, we cannot recall most of those memories, other than a few incidents of relatively larger significance. These are unconscious forces (beliefs, patterns, subjective reality) that drive our behavior.
