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Psychoanalytic theory of development, in the establishment of a sense of self, is used as a framework in examining particular aspects of modern figurative sculpture. The
sculpture provides access to preverbal images of self and object. Three qualities of modern figurative sculpture which enable it to be particularly accessible to psychoanalytic study include: the "dual or fused identity" of material and ideational images; "the constant play with the permutations of inside/outside"; and the use of "verticality as a dominant organizing principle of body image and self-object representation." Schilder's notion of an inner self which is perpetually engaged in both construction and destruction is viewed in juxtaposition with artistic efforts to create an image of man which transcends physical realities. Henry Moore's fascination with internal spaces is viewed in relation to notions of inside/outside, containment, boundaries, and object relations. Kestenberg's notion that "the beginning of a self-representation which is both spatial and ideational is the perception of the body-self as a one-piece unity, upright in space" is explored in relation to work of Gonzales, David Smith, and Brancusi. Verticality is an essential aspect of self-representation, growth, and ascendancy.