ABSTRACT
In 1930 Melanie Klein wrote “The Importance of symbol formation in the development of the ego”, which was concerned with the case of a four-year-old schizophrenic boy. In spite of the indifference that Dick displays towards the toys presented to him in the session, Klein begins to interpret from the start. It is this fact that interested Jacques Lacan. Lacan shows how acting on the symbolic leads to the production of the ego and the imaginary. Lacan tries to show that the structuration of reality is not determined by the mirror phase, but rather it depends on the primacy of the symbolic. The sixties bring an axiomatic change in Lacan’s teachings. Lacan tries to show the discordant character of the imaginary and symbolic registers. In October 1967, Lacan gave the closing address to the Journees on childhood psychosis organized by M. Mannoni.
