Built into the mind is an instinctual base of reactions and attitudes that cannot be altered but merely compensated for.

When a story’s problem revolves around the unsuitability of someone’s essential nature to a given situation or environment, the central issue is The Preconscious.

The solution lies in the character conditioning itself to either hold its tendencies in check or develop methods of enhancing areas in which it is naturally weak in reason, ability, emotion, or intellect.

Excerpted from
The Zen of Story Structure

DEFINITION: The Preconscious: innate responses.

SYNONYMS: unthinking responses, immediate responses, impulse, impulsive response, instinctive response, innate response, reflex.

DYNAMIC PAIR: The Subconscious, basic drives and desires.