Back to Table of Contents
This contact with the new refers both to bonding relationships and to the influence of the cultural environment. It includes “What was previously inscribed, while its components will be ordered by a new term, which places them in an ensemble that previously did not exist... the new symbolic order makes them different and therefore their meaning also changes” (p. 105). Thus, for Berenstein, symbolization is a process that remains active throughout life; in order to achieve new meanings it is necessary to create the opportunity for them to occur: "There was no place waiting for it" [in the intrapsychic world] and when a place is offered, it changes the meaning that existed up to that moment" (p. 105). He states: “Two paths open from the trace and the inscription (in the psyche): that of unconscious representation and that of symbolization. The first recreates what can appear as an object created from the investments proposed to the other by the ego. In this way, the absence of the other is ensured and especially stands as a defense against what is perceived as foreign from the other, that which is not capable of representation. This work consists of preparing the ego for what may be impossible and avoiding it as a result since there is no inscription or memory. The presence of the other systematically eludes and exceeds representation.” (p. 108) “The new" (p. 105) refers to what did not have a previous inscription. This new path that is not the one expected in early childhood and initially does not include object relations. It is a symbolizing path in which new relationships or new parts of a relationship are included. It implies a psychic reorganization a posteriori, beyond childhood. For Berenstein, the new may bring "a new symbolic order" (p.105): “Symbolization contains an absence of what left a trace and substitution for another term that replaces it” (p. 108). This process requires the presence-absence of the other and originates both from the internal world, and also from the intersubjective world. V. Bd. Ruggero Levy (Brazil) In “From Symbolizing to Non-Symbolizing within the Scope of a Link: from Dreams to Shouts of Terrors Caused by an Absent Presence”, Levy (2012) has enriched the understanding of the symbolization process and also its flaws. Strongly influenced by Bion, also referencing Winnicott and Green, Levy uses Bion's model of the early mother-baby relationship of Containment: container-contained (See the separate entry CONTAINMENT: CONTAINER-CONTAINED): In this relationship, the baby introjects the mother’s alpha function apparatus. It is this apparatus that allows the subject to make contact with his/her emotional life and to be able to transform emotions into alpha elements. For Levy, symbol formation represents the 'truth' of emotional experience ; he explores "what happens when this 'truth' needs to be distorted, attacked, or destroyed because of the psychic pain associated with it or because of the unbearable meaning it carries?"
894
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online