Is a defendant competent to assist trial counsel in presenting an adequate defense?

Furthermore, "At trial, a defendant is confronted with the prosecutorial forces of organized society and immersed in the intricacies of the substantive and procedural law. A defendant who is not competent to assist trial counsel in presenting an adequate defense may be unjustly convicted because he lacks competence to respond to the criminal accusations against him. A post-conviction proceeding, on the other hand, is not part of the criminal process itself; it is a collateral attack on the judgment and is considered civil in nature.... The defendant's guilt or innocence is not at issue; rather, a post-conviction proceeding is a new proceeding in which the petitioner raises constitutional challenges to the original conviction which have not already been adjudicated." (People v. Owens (1990) 139 Ill.2d 351, 151 Ill.Dec. 522, 527, 564 N.E.2d 1184, 1189, citations omitted.)