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Concept of representation proliferates theoretical corpus of metapsychology, clinical theories and passages among the layers of the unconscious, perception, memory, object relations, intersubjectivity and the field, ego and self, trauma, fantasy and phantasy, interpretation, symbolization, and development of psychic structure. Multiple meanings and different emphases owing to the complicated polysemy, plasticity and ambiguity of the concept in Freud, combined with different translations and interpretations, history of thought and culture, led to different accounts and definitions of representation in European, North American and Latin American psychoanalytic thought. Recent internationally recognized North American dictionaries (Auchincloss ad Samberg 2012; Akhtar 2009; More and Fine 1990) define representation as both a process and its products (contents), variably closely connected with symbolization: Close connection between the representation and symbolization is particularly evident in Auchincloss and Samberg’s (2012) “Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts”, which, under the single entry ‘Symbolism / Symbolization / Representation/ Symbolic Representation’, defines Representation as a universal representational capacity of the human mind whereby one element is used to stand for another. The products of such processes are known as representations, symbolic representations or symbols as indirect representations of varying complexity. A representation may be comprised of reality details of intrapsychic self- experience and/or other or self in relationship to another individual ( self and object representations) , that may evoke, refer to, and/or symbolize complex emotional responses. According to an earlier reiteration of “ Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts” by Moore and Fine (1990) , representation is a likeness or image that gives an impression of the original. A psychic representation is then more or less consistent reproduction within the mind of a perception of a meaningful thing or object. It may be subject to an increase or decrease in cathexis (emotional investment) depending on the ebb and flow of dynamic forces. As such, it constitutes a substructure of the ego and is regarded as one of the ego's contents. Referencing Edith Jacobson (1964) and Joseph Sandler and Bernard Rosenblatt (1962), More and Fine describe the maturational process towards stable self and object representational world, predicated on gradual differentiation between internal and external, self and nonself and attainment of self and object constancy. Ideational representation is defined as the psychic representation providing the basis for thoughts or ideas . Instinctual representation refers to the presence in the self representation of aspects of the individual's drives (id); the ego itself and superego are also represented. Just as a person has an image in his or her mind of his or her talents, abilities, weaknesses, inhibitions, constraints, anxieties, moral and ethical standards, he or she also has an image of the nature of the drives, their intensity, pliability, displaceability, and readiness for taming or sublimatory transformation. Salman Akhtar’ s (2009) “Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis” defines mental representation as the ‘relatively permanent image’ (Rycroft 1968, p. 142) of something
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