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being when projective identification prevails since symbolism proper requires three elements, the symbol, the object being symbolized and the person recognizing the symbol as the symbol of the object. A condition for this is recognition of separateness of the object. If a part of the ego is completely or almost completely identified with the object, boundaries are lost, part of the ego becoming confused with the object while the symbol is confused with what is being symbolized. Only with entry into the depressive position can separation, separateness and loss be acknowledged allowing true symbolization to come into being. Thus, symbols are used to overcome the loss of an object, while symbolic equations appear to deny such a loss. The true symbol is thus a precipitate of a mourned object representing the object, and so as a creation of the subject, can be used freely and creatively. Therefore, the capacity to mourn and acknowledge loss is another condition that needs to be fulfilled when we speak of a true symbol. Developmentally thus, Segal considers that symbol formation begins very early in life, probably as early as the emergence of object relations. For the early ego, there is no distinction between first symbols and original objects. For her, this is the developmentally normative symbolic equation; the symbolic equation develops its character and functions along with changes in the organization of the ego and object relations. Thus, both the content of the symbol and the way symbols are formed and used, reflect the state of the ego's development and its way of dealing with its objects. If symbolism is seen as a three-term relationship —the ego, the symbol, and the thing symbolized—, then problems in symbol formation must be examined in the context of the ego’s relationship to its objects. The theoretical precision and differentiation between Melanie Klein´s symbolic equation and symbolization was a meaningful contribution of Hanna Segal (1957): “I should like at this point to summarize what I mean by the terms ‘symbolic equation’ and ‘symbol’ respectively, and the conditions under which they arise. In the symbolic equation, the symbol-substitute is felt to be the original object. The substitute's own properties are not recognized or admitted. The symbolic equation is used to deny the absence of the ideal object, or to control a persecuting one. It belongs to the earliest stages of development” (p. 395). Segal considers that, while the symbolic equation belongs to the paranoid-schizoid position, the symbol corresponds to the depressive position. Only the symbol created to deal with loss is available for the formation of the ego. “The symbol proper, available for sublimation and furthering the development of the ego, is felt to represent the object; its own characteristics are recognized, respected, and used. It arises when depressive feelings predominate over the paranoid-schizoid ones when separation from the object, ambivalence, guilt, and loss can be experienced and tolerated. The symbol is used not to deny, but to overcome the loss. When the mechanism of projective identification is used as a defense mechanism against depressive anxieties, symbols already formed and functioning as symbols may revert to symbolic equations” (p.395).
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