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Overall, the study corroborated the hypothetical conjecture that the emergence of unconscious symbolism of the primary process pre-dates by several months the emergence of conscious language symbolism of the secondary process (Piaget, 1929; Berk 2006; Winnicott, 1971; Mahler et al,1975; Blum,1978; Papiasvili and Mayers 2012). Additionally, the study advanced the notion that the mental constructions of the switching of perspectives, a developmental prerequisite of making use of analytic interpretation, develops first in the unconscious nonverbal symbolic domain, and only then does it reach the communicative symbolic domain, developing fully only with the onset of adolescence. VI. B. Intersection of Cognitive Psychology and Psychoanalytic Theory Wilma Bucci (1985, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2011), in her multiple code system, describes three levels of the mental apparatus: the subsymbolic, nonverbal symbolic, and verbal symbolic systems. The subsymbolic system includes visceral functioning, sensory- motor registers, procedural memory, implicit memory and physiological levels of emotion. The Nonverbal Symbolic System processes visual images that can emerge in dreams and become linked to the verbal system. The Verbal Symbolic System consists of verbal thought and language and involves secondary process functioning. It aids in self-reflection, as well as in identifying and regulating emotion experienced at subsymbolic and nonverbal symbolic levels. According to Multiple Code Theory, referential links allow for the translation of subsymbolic emotion into images and verbal representations. One of the methods of investigation is a microanalytic examination of a single session in an ongoing treatment, where two distinct perspectives are followed: “We see the analyst's perspective on the material, and the researcher’s perspective examining that of the analyst. While both of those perspectives are necessarily partial, their convergence provides support for each, as well as some new emergent understanding concerning the interplay of subsymbolic and symbolic processes in working with dissociated material in the context of the therapeutic relationship” (Bucci 2005, p. 871). Bucci’s (1997, 2001, 2005) Multiple Code Theory of the ubiquitous referential process between the three experiential systems (nonverbal non-symbolized, nonverbal symbolized- dreams, and verbal symbolic domain) recognizes the central positions of emotions as image- action schemata, through which the referential links, previously dissociatively or repressively blocked, are promulgated. Through picking up on the seemingly peripheral fleeting images of sensation and somatic states in the free associative process, analysis can (re)build interpretatively the ‘missing links’ between sensations, emotions and words. Psychosomatic symptoms or acting out can result from a disconnection between the systems, either secondary to a deficit or through defensive functioning (e.g., somatization). Triggering of a traumatic memory that is not linked to the symbolic system can lead to subsymbolic somatic and arousal patterns that are not symbolically processed, giving rise to psychosomatic symptoms, panic disorder, or phobias. However, unlike the models of Klein and Bion, where internal conflicts around aggression are central, Bucci's (1997, 2011) focus is
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