Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Access to Consciousness

Access consciousness is a concept in the study of mind that refers to mental states and information being available for use in reasoning, reporting, and the deliberate control of behavior. In this framework, a mental state is access-conscious when its content can be retrieved and used by cognitive systems, for examp…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 2 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 30× across the literature 🔖 ISSN 2574-612X 🗓 Reviewed July 2026

Overview

Access consciousness is a concept in the study of mind that refers to mental states and information being available for use in reasoning, reporting, and the deliberate control of behavior. In this framework, a mental state is access-conscious when its content can be retrieved and used by cognitive systems, for example to guide decisions, verbal report, or action, as distinguished from phenomenal consciousness, the subjective felt quality of experience. The idea is important in psychology, philosophy of mind, and psychotherapy because it bears on awareness, attention, memory, and the ways in which thoughts and feelings become available to conscious processing or, conversely, remain inaccessible. In clinical contexts, disruptions in the accessibility of memories and mental contents are central to certain disorders and to therapeutic work. Research published by the journal in psychotherapy practice and research relevant to consciousness and accessibility of mental content includes a study of dissociative amnesia and the challenges it poses to therapy, which addresses how memories can become inaccessible to conscious recall and the implications for treatment. Such work illustrates the clinical significance of how mental contents do or do not enter conscious awareness. This page gathers peer-reviewed, open-access research relevant to access to consciousness and its role in psychological functioning and psychotherapy.

Research published in this journal

2 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

2018

Dissociative Amnesia – A Challenge to Therapy  

Staniloiu AngelicaCorresponding author
University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
Exact topic International Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research Cited by 30 doi:10.14302/issn.2574-612X.ijpr-18-2246

How this research is being cited

The 2 articles above have been cited 30 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Access to Consciousness, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in International Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research (ISSN 2574-612X).

Journal editorial board
Karim Sedky · United States Tullio Scrimali · Italy DAMIANA SCUTERI · Italy

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.