The author contemplates the nature of symbolic function while reviewing the most important theories on the subject and proposing a model for its development. Despite the discovery that the symbols appearing in dreams and insanity were the same to reoccur in art, religion and folklore, symbolism has never been approached systematically. Freud came across symbolism during the 1910/1916 period and he hypothesized it to be of innate origin, thus adding it to the psychoanalytic theory with no modification. Despite analysing the nature of creativity, psychoanalysis could not outline the process of developing and learning symbolism as it occurred in the neonatal mind. Recently, as supported by infant observation and neuroscience, it was hypothesized that the newborn started to learn symbolism from the moment he/she begins sharing a “hypercathectic” emotional state with his/her mother. Through maternal “hypercathexis” and identification, the newborn learns both the mechanism that creates symbols and the process of presentation, thus developing the working-through pathway that is going to form the preconscious, consciousness and the sense of reality. To shed light on the developing of symbolism is greatly important for the therapy of severe pathologies and psychosis, both likely caused by an altered development of symbolic function.