Chapter 9. Elements of Psycho-Analysis

The mechanism of projective identification enables the infant to deal with primitive emotion and so contributes to the development of thoughts. The interplay between the depressive and paranoid-schizoid positions is also related to the development of thoughts and thinking. It has been pointed out (by Melanie Klein and Hanna Segal) that symbol formation is related to the depressive position. It is compatible with a connection between a capacity for thinking and the interplay between the two positions. It would seem that there is a connection between Ps ⇌ D and ♀♂ yet the dissimilarity makes it hard to see what form the connection, if there is one, could take.1 The bringing together of elements that have apparently no connection in fact or in logic in such a way that their connection is displayed and an unsuspected coherence revealed, as in the example from Poincaré,2 is characteristic of Ps ⇌ D. The operation Ps ⇌ D is responsible for revealing the relationship of ‘thoughts’ already created by ♀♂. But in fact it seems as if Ps ⇌ D is as much the begetter of thoughts as ♀♂. The development requires examination in some detail.

The earliest observation I have been able to make seemed to suggest that development of thinking through Ps ⇌ D depended on the production of signs. That is to say the individual had to bring together elements to form signs and then bring signs together before he could think. In his case ‘writing’ preceded not talking only but thinking. His actual speech was incomprehensible if I tried to unravel it by applying my knowledge of ordinary words and grammar. It became more meaningful if I thought of it as a doodling in sound,

rather like tuneless and aimless whistling; it could not be described as speech, poetic speech, or music. Just as aimless whistling fails to be music because it does not obey any rule or discipline of musical composition, just as doodling fails to b