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KMID : 0385320000110020316
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Journal of Korean Psychoanalytic Society
2000 Volume.11 No. 2 p.316 ~ p.325
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Symbolism in Psychoanalysis
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Hwang Ik-Keun
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Abstract
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Psychoanalytic interest in symbolism has a long history, originating in Freud’s observations about the similarities between forms of representation found in primitive cultures and those characterizing neurotic symbols and dream symbols. Freud understood all symbols to result from unconscious, primary process mental activity, the goal of which was reducing anxiety by repressing unacceptable wishes and ideas. Symbolism is a form of indirect representation, and symbolization is a uniquely psychic process in which one mental representation stands for another, denoting its meaning not by exact resemblance but by vague suggestion, or by some accidental or conventional relation. In psychoanalysis symbol has a conscious manifest form but also latently represents unconscious mental content, and the relationship between symbol and its referent is not arbitrary but is based on some perceived similarity or analogy. By the late fifties and sixties and under the theoretical sway of ego psychology, the psychoanalytic approach of symbolic phenomena had become more encompassing and committed to a systematic investigation of central role of symbolizing function and consequences of its impairment. Appreciating the implications of ego psychology, many theoriticians consider symbolization and ego functioning to be very similar terms. Symbolism is considered to serve defensive, adaptive, neurotic, artistic, and realistic purposes.
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KEYWORD
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Symbolism, Psychoanalysis
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