The author discusses her child's acquisition of language. A journey and separation were involved. She concludes that meaning was cathected in the crucial experiences of communication between mother and child and that this cathexis had the double aim of narcissistic restoration and conservation of the object. The first meaningful utterances are personal creations of the child which are recognized and invested in return by the mother. Meaning in this instance was at first the naming of a class of objects which were simultaneously maternal substitutes and identificatory supports. The cathexis of meaning also opened the way for the cathexis of reality. Meaning permitted an escape from the solipsistic enclosure and was an attempt to control the trauma of loss and separation. Concomitantly it permits the breakup of the dyadic relationship, facilitating displacement onto new objects.