ABSTRACT
The notion of retrogression involves a particular psychic movement and quality. It is clinically inseparable from its result, the work of figurability, whose major manifestation is the dream: these two notions have their place within a theoretical ensemble that aims to account for the coherence of endo-hallucinatory phenomena. Retrogressive psychic functioning is complementary to progressive functioning, which extends from the wish to its enactment or representation, while the retrogressive movement extends from the wish to its endo-hallucinatory realisation or figurability. As a movement and dynamic, retrogression provides a canvas allowing for the formation of figurations and establishes the loom on which ideational contents are deployed. The retrogressive process tends to create intelligibility where suffering, associated with a barely organised state, had reigned. It thus makes it possible to gain access to infantile traumas experienced before the advent of speech, but cannot be reduced to that. An atmosphere of unease, anxiety and even depersonalisation often characterises these states.
