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would be taken up and developed by Donald Winnicott (1965), Hans Loewald (1962), Piera Aulagnier (1975/2001, 2015), Jean Laplanche (1997), André Green (2000), and others. Virgil’s special attuned presence is the prerequisite for the dawn of Dante as the subject, his self, and his internal life to gradually emerge.
IX. CONCLUSION
Most broadly, representation is a core concept in all sciences and fields of knowledge that explore the functioning of the human mind, from philosophy to neurobiology and cognitive sciences, visual arts and literature, to psychoanalysis.
In Europe, analysts emphasize the continuity of evolution of psychoanalytic theories and clinical approaches pertaining to representation, starting with Freud’s own evolutionary arc of the development of the concept. From the beginning of his studies, Freud was interested in the theme of representation, by exploring the way perceptions or experiences may become conscious, rooting his inquiry in the biological functioning of the mind, its relationship with language, and subsequently, through Topographic and Structural theories (First and Second Topography respectively), its connections with the body and the unconscious. Representation was further developed by Melanie Klein and W. R. Bion, who emphasized symbolization, emotional experience, and the alpha function. In the psychoanalysis of children, representation influence the parent-child relationship, affective development and is shaped by the parents’ past experiences and traumas. European analysts stress that even if it is not a concept original to psychoanalysis, Freud put it at the service of psychoanalysis, modifying its meaning, definition, and role in the construction of the psychic apparatus over the course of three decades. Many psychoanalysts in Europe have followed this path, extending application of representation and its intertwining with other concepts of psychoanalysis, with the same flexibility and creativity as Freud. In this sense, European analysts tend to view "representation" as a shifting and chameleon-like concept, elusive in its definition, a sort of ‘passe-partout’ for psychoanalytic theories. At the same time, the very polysemy of its theoretical status makes representation a very useful concept for the development of new ideas and for clinical reflection.
In Latin America , representation denotes the act or effect of re-presenting and re-
producing by image or symbol.
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