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III. EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT IN SIGMUND FREUD
In its various permutations, the concept of representation proliferates Freud’s many discussions of the constituents of mental life and wide range of emotional experiences, including memory, fantasy, trauma, complex attitudes and behavior, experiences of reality, and experiences of (what today would be termed) self with others. While in agreement of the essential facts of Freud’s evolution of the concept, the three regions emphasize different aspects and view Freud’s evolving conceptualization through different lenses. III. A. Composite Terminology in Evolution: Links of Representation with Symbolization and Deep Strada of Psychic Life (North American Perspective) Throughout his opus, Freud used several German words to denote ‘representation’: 1. Darstellung (representation), appearing also as a root of a composite word, as in ‘Darstellungsmittel’ (means of representation) or ‘Darstellbarkeit’ (representability), or, a corresponding verb form dargestelleren (to represent): In the context of the clinical theory and technique, Freud first used this terminology in his papers on hysteria (1893-1895; 1905 [1901]), , phobia (1909a), obsessive neurosis (1909b), paranoid psychosis (1911), narcissism (1914), as well as in Screen Memories (1899), and Interpretation of Dreams (1900). Later, he used it together with the other terminology (below) in his Metapsychology papers (1915a, b, c), Introductory lectures (1916), and in his numerous inter-disciplinary writings applying psychoanalytic notions to wit, art, mythology, religion and society. This is a general term, denoting various methods of substitution, allusion, and psychic work connected with passing between systems Unconscious and Preconscious/Conscious, as in dreams and screen memories, or the unconscious conflict concealed under the formation of manifest symptomatology, dream, attitudes or behavior. Recognizing the ‘ blurring’ between the concept of symbol and that of representation (1916), Freud often modifies and specifies the representation, as in ‘symbolische Darstellung’ (symbolic representation), ‘regressiver Darstellung’ (regressive representation). 2. Repräsentanz (representative): This is a more abstract term of Latin origin, denoting ‘delegation’, used mostly in the specific context of the instinct/drive’s relationship to its representative, relationship between psyche and soma, in his Metapsychology papers (1915a,b,c), as in ‘idea representing the instinct/drive’. The term is often used in its composite form or with a modifying adjective, as in ‘Vorstellungrepräsentanz’ (ideational representative), ‘Triebrepräsentanz’
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