For some time, psychoanalytic authors have been discussing the possibility of connecting the specifically psychoanalytic concept of symbol (as formulated by Ferenczi and Jones) with the more general concept in the philosophy of language. The author discerns a strong tendency to declare symbolization an ego function at the expense of unconscious processes of figuration. Primarily, she criticizes Lorenzer's concept of the dichotomy between symbolically mediated "normal" activity and cliché-bound neurotic behavior.