Unlike the early psychologists, who were almost entirely concerned with conscious thought, Freud was fascinated by the idea that our emotions, wishes, and thoughts could operate wholly outside of consciousness. Moreover, unacceptable wishes and impulses would be pushed back into the unconscious to protect the person from anxiety. However, these repressed desires would rarely sit calmly out of awareness, but rather come back to do mischief, generally in disguised form. These partially expressed impulses formed the symptoms that psychoanalysis was designed to cure.