ABSTRACT

Symbols link separate and discrete objects and experiences to the general and the abstract, the strange to the familiar, soma to psyche, fact to meaning. Much has been written on what a symbol is, not only by analysts, but also by philosophers, aestheticists, linguists, historians, anthropologists, and students of comparative religion. The analysis of the structure and the content of the symbol is a most important and most stimulating and fascinating study, and it has already yielded enormous riches. Through activation of the transcendent function, a symbol is brought into existence, which helps to create a new relationship between the living and the person now dead. Interest in the development and pathology of the symbolizing process and its transcendent function has inevitably led us to problems relating to analytical technique. Concern with the phenomenon of projective identification is thus most germane to any exploration of the transcendent function.