The author tries to define the function served by recognition and acceptance of the reality of O in the analytic process, which, as he argues, entails the acceptance of the unknowable component of reality.

He later asserts that the acceptance of this unknowable factor, together with the knowable component of reality, significantly influences the psychic functioning of a human being. Such a triangular cognitive relationship is necessary to achieve an abstract way of thinking.

Claiming that an individual pursues certainty, the author introduces the concept of cognitive ambivalence in this context. The recognition of this pursuit of certainty in oneself, which is limited by the acceptance of an unknowable factor, implies the recognition of cognitive ambivalence in oneself. The acceptance of this ambivalence means that a human being desires certain and unbounded knowledge, at the same time realizing the impossibility of attaining such knowledge.

The author analyses different variants of disorders in a triangular cognitive relationship, with the exclusion of either an unknowable or a knowable factor. A dual cognitive relationship leads to either a cognitive omnipotence or to a sense of cognitive inability. In this context, the author analyses the Oedipus myth and clinical material.