There are several choices in English on the meaning of “confront”. These include the right one: To face without flinching or avoiding. An example in a sentence: “The test of a free society is its capacity to confront rather than evade the vital questions of Choice.”

There is another meaning “To stand facing or opposing, especially in challenge, defiance or accusation.”

English is a pretty limited language in many ways. I imagine the thought of facing something (which is what the word came from and originally meant way back “front” being “face”) was so horrifying to the types who write dictionaries they knew it would be bad!

In essence it is an action of being able to face.

If one cannot, if he avoids, then he is not aware.

Awareness is the ability to perceive the existence of. In the dictionary it also fails to confront that and says “Awareness: the quality or state of being aware.” And Aware means: “marked by realization, perception or knowledge.”

So these chaps couldn’t confront and so conceived awareness to be figure-figure.

We are moving out of the range of language when we want to say:

“He could stand up to things and wasn’t always shrinking back into himself and avoiding, so he could be fully conscious of the real universe and others around him.”

And that’s what Confront means.

If one can confront he can be aware.

If he is aware he can perceive and act.

If he can’t confront he will not be aware of things and will be withdrawn and not perceiving. Thus he is unaware of things around him.

That’s the tech of it.