Descartes' self-referentiality (Theory of consciousness, cogito)

In the self-referentiality of the res cogitans, Descartes found the pivot of a new understanding of the self and the world. When seen as the reflective self-relation of a cogito me cogitare, this relation is being misunderstood. The familiarity of the mind with itself, which is what matters to Descartes, is rather the prereflective one of consciouusness. Descartes's theory of consciousness hasn't been fully understood yet. Descartes scholars are not even agreed that Descartes did distinguish between consciousness and reflection. On the contrary Descartes's supposed failure to differentiate consciousness from reflection is regarded as the fundamental error in his approach.