We have attempted in this paper to deal with the unique and puzzling human capacity to evoke in consciousness representation of an absent object and the relationship of consciousness and unconsciousness as qualities of psychic functioning. We assume an unconscious psychic organization, the mental representation, whose nature we do not know, but which is available for transformation to a conscious symbol, image, fantasy, thought, affect or action. We know from the study of dreams and of hallucinations that this transformation can take place without an external stimulus (which would include stimuli from the internal organs). As far as we know, only in man can a thought evoke another thought; only in man can an unconscious element evoke a conscious response.

We have in this study attempted to elucidate the difference between memory and mental representation, and between mental registration and mental representation. As an ancillary problem we have discussed internalization and its relation to incorporation, introjection and identification.