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criterion.” (Campos 1994, p. 48-49). For Avzaradel then, pictograms are the representation of the figurability of the world/body, the foundation of imagistic representational activity. The second approach necessary to understand symbols is that they can be vehicles that are not only denotative, but also expressive, constructed in the interrelationship between the subjectivities of the patient and the analyst, the mother and her baby. Here, Avzaradel draws on Hanna Segal (1982), who also points to the symbols’ communicative function. Symbols are the fruit of this interrelationship, giving the emotional charge a chance to be expressed, often poetically so. This direction goes from the pre-linguistic to the linguistic world, and it always begins with the apprehension of reality through sensory experiences, as already stated by Antonio Houaiss’ “... so that the verbal form obtained can be a vector for ideas, emotions, sensations, intuitions, feelings, ...” (Houaiss 2005, p.14). Overall, Avzaradel theorizes the complex path(s) of how the world of all representations is formed, including progressive development of verbal thought, leading to the construction of words. Avzaradel emphasizes that, especially when psychoanalysts work with patients with significant areas of mental non-representation, the construction of verbal thought implies the development ad infinitum of signified and signifiers that not only carry the meanings but also enrich those meanings by giving them a color and the richness that characterizes the complexity of the symbolization process. V. Be. Myrta Casas de Pereda (Uruguay) A Lacanian analyst, Casas de Pereda, in her article: “Research in Psychoanalysis” (1996) defines symbolization as: a "process and production that has the subject in its division as a goal” (p. 1). She conceptualizes symbolization as a process, which occurs in different degrees and on two levels. In the first level it coexists with repression, which in its turn requires triangulation and includes the superego prohibition of incest. The second level refers to the narcissistic (imaginary) dimension "a work of symbolization around the presence-absence (in a binary relation) where contiguities or metonymic similarities could be combined" (p. 2). Symbolization may use primary as well as secondary repression; and may also employ narcissistic defenses such as disavowal, representation by opposite, and turning upon oneself. She illustrates her symbolization theory with two vignettes from her clinical practice, as a child analyst: A 5-year-old patient, in the midst of disorganizing anxiety, explains to his analyst that he could not draw the rain because the paper could get wet. For her, this psychotic child, functioning on a concrete level, had not achieved any level of symbolization. Another example is a 2 year and 8-months-old girl who was playing with an imaginary friend. This game, which arises shortly after abrupt life changes – moving houses and a mother’s miscarriage – became essential. For her analyst, this imaginary friend is this girl’s creation to substitute the mother’s absence and to deal with the unknown. The game illustrates a process of symbolization around the presence-absence.
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