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in metaphors; and (3) psychoanalytic unconscious symbolism. Kubie's proposal combines psychoanalytic symbolism with the non-analytic notions of symbolism, and in the process potentially obscures the specific nature of psychoanalytic symbolism (Blum 1978). In terms of symbol formation, Kubie (1953) saw the symbolic process as a break between the 'I' and the 'non-I', between the inner and outer worlds. IV. Ac. Felix Deutsch (1959) proposed a theory of symbol formation in which lost objects are restored by retrojection of new sensory objects—that is by the projection of an aspect of the body on to the primitively differentiated object which is then reintrojected into the body ego. Thus, lost narcissistic and part objects are linked to the body image and body ego and are recreated and preserved in the unconscious associated with repressed perceptions, affects and ideas. There is a degree of convergence in the views of Klein, Kubie and Deutsch in the role of displacement and condensation, as well as introjection and projection across ego boundaries in symbol formation. IV. Ad. Charles Rycroft (1956), a British ‘Independent’, whose work was widely read, recognized and further developed in North America perhaps even more than in Great Britain at the time, similarly proposed that symbolism was not an exclusively primary process or exclusively in the service of the unconscious, but a general tendency of the mind. The primary and secondary process as well as conscious and unconscious mental activity are on a continuum, and symbolism would serve both unconscious fantasy and reality- enriching imagination. Rycroft delineated words as a special class of secondary process symbols which can be treated as other symbols by the primary process in dreams and schizophrenia. IV. Ae. According to David Beres (1960, 1968, 1980), psychoanalysis distinguishes between the conscious sign and symbol, which is the representation of an unconscious mental content by a substituted representation. The former aims at communication with delay of discharge; the latter achieves immediate discharge by repression and distortion of the unconscious content. Communication in this instance may be a secondary result and is effected unconsciously. Symbol formation is viewed as an unconscious process by which a conscious perception replaces an unconscious mental representation. At the same time, the symbol may have another meaning which is not repressed and is readily understood. The meaning of the symbol that arises out of unconscious mental activity is not recognized and its interpretation is resisted by powerful forces of ego defenses.
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