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[PEP Editor’s Note: Due to the use of symbols in this article, a PDF Original is available showing the original formatting.]
The domain of thought may be conceived of as a space occupied by no-things; the space occupied by a particular no-thing is marked by a sign such as the words ‘chair’, or ‘cat’ or ‘point’ or ‘dog’. The attempt to free this domain from associations of space perception is supported by use of concepts such as ‘thought’ or ‘thinking’ or ‘in the mind’, but a thought continues to have the penumbra of associations proper to ‘the place where …‘ the no-thing is. This is also true of feelings and emotions, however expressed.
The ‘objects’ with which psychoanalysis deals include the relationship of the no-thing and the thing. The personality that is capable of tolerating a no-thing can make use of the no-thing, and so is able to make use of what we can now call thoughts. Since he can do so, he can seek to fill the ‘space’ occupied by the thought; this makes it possible for the ‘thought’ of space, line, point to be matched with a realization that is felt to approximate to it. In this respect
contrasts with
and new uses can be found for
that cannot be found for
. The search for, and discovery of, elements perceived in space is part of the procedure by which elements of category 1 begin to acquire meaning; the negative quality of the definitory hypothesis is discarded or replaced by new elements that saturate the (ξ) elements of ψ(ξ).1 It is convenient to postulate the existence of a mind represented entirely by points, positions of objects, places where something used to be, or would be at some future date. Objects perceived in space contribute to the transformation of these elements (analogous to ξ) into specific no-things.2