ABSTRACT
The work of objectification is a type of mental accomplishment that results in the recognition and acknowledgement of perspectives outside the self. It produces a mental image of the other, an object in our technical sense of the term. Thinking is the basic, inherent response of the infant to the demand made by experience for work; it acts to relieve the pressure of experience by making experience understandable and therefore capable of being appropriately responded to. This chapter focuses on the particular characteristics of the use of language as such. It describes three main aspects of the work of contextualization: objectification; imagination; and symbolization. Although the precise nature of consciousness is still unclear from both a psychoanalytical and a philosophical viewpoint, becoming conscious can be understood as a form of contextualization. It is also clear that this specific form of contextualization, namely becoming conscious, is greatly facilitated by other prior forms of contextualization.
