Mindy Shattuck, age 14, of Lake Charles, La., for his question:

WHAT IS THE SUBSCONSCIOUS?

Subconscious is a term used to describe mental processes such as thoughts, ideas and feelings that go on in a person's mind without his being aware of them.

Psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and psychologist generally use the term "unconscious" to mean the same thing that most non medical persons mean by "subconscious." Other words that once had the same meaning include conscious and paraconscious.

The existence of mental processes that are active in the mind without being conscious was first studies scientifically by a French neurologist named Jean Charcot in the 1800s. He and his pupils studied the unconscious by means of hypnosis.

The doctor who first realized clearly the importance of unconscious thoughts and feelings in human psychology was Sigmund Freud of Austria. He developed the method of psychoanalysis for treating mentally ill patients. This method also serves as a way of learning what goes on unconsciously in a patient's mind.