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Ellman (2008 citing Freud 1915) notes that the earliest representations are encoded as thing-representations without symbolic value. Although non-symbolized, the thing- presentations can act as basic motivators for complex conflicted responses. Such theorization, together with Shevrin’s (2002) psychoanalytic interpretation of neuroscientific studies of Fabiani, Stadler, Wessels (2000) on ‘veridical memories’, which leave ‘sensory signature’, are consistent with the clinical findings that the earliest, pre-symbolic life experiences/happenings can be symbolizable through psychoanalytic (re)constructive work with language prosody, dreams, fantasies, transferential enactments, especially relevant for patients with posttraumatic symptomatology (Mancia 2006; Papiasvili 2014; 2016). VII. Dba. Neurobiology of Symbolic Play Enactments of Earliest Traumas Theodore Gaensbauer (2011) studied symbolic play re-enactments of traumatic experiences incurred during the earliest preverbal times in life of children. A striking feature of reenactment behavior in early childhood is that some children traumatized in the preverbal period appear able, months or even years after their original trauma, to carry out behavioral actions or symbolic play reflecting their traumatic experience, which their caregivers were certain had never been discussed (Gaensbauer 1995, 2000, 2002, 2004). A characteristic feature of traumatic reenactments in young children as seen over time is that while core themes can remain constant, children's reenactments will not be exact replicas of what the child has experienced or witnessed. Even though there appears to be an innately programmed set of neuronal pathways that prime the child to internally represent and behaviorally reenact what he or she has experienced, these neuronal pathways do not operate in isolation from other parts of the brain, and the child's mind is not simply a passive receptacle upon which these pathways are traced. Within the perceptual-cognitive-affective-sensorimotor templates dictated by the traumatic experience, the particular forms that traumatic reenactments may take can be highly variable, or, looked at from a different perspective, creative. They may be manifested through a variety of expressive pathways (through different sensory modalities, through behavioral actions, through symbolic play with toys, etc.) and reflect varying perspectives (first vs. third person). Templates may be broken down and expressed in fragments, particular elements (including elements not part of the original experience) may be added or subtracted, different aspects may be emphasized at different points in time, and/or the purposes or goals of the actions may be satisfied by different means. Over a more extended period, a traumatic experience is likely to manifest itself in the form of traumatic themes, such as a preoccupation with violence or death, or through more symbolic forms of expression, such as a clown with sharp teeth rather than a knife. It is this capacity to creatively rearrange or “play” with the internalized elements of a traumatic experience, even when much of the rearranging may take place out of conscious awareness, that provides pathways to therapeutic intervention.
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