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It is proposed that certain déjà vu experiences may be the result of a sudden partial decathexis of the current situation, and a concomitant recathexis of primitive experiences which
readily allow certain symbolic representations to force themselves into conscious awareness as a discrete and circumscribed experience in the perceptual ego, carrying with it only a strong sense of the familiar rather than discrete memories. The drive investment that cathects the current situation or object to be "familiarized" (déjà vu) may be derived in substantial part from the "face-gestalt configuration" of the symbiotic and, later, nonsymbiotic mother, described as an early crucial organizer of the psyche.