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This article discusses the use of certain traditional psychoanalytic models—in particular, Freud's drive-theory-related conception of the unconscious—and attempts a theoretical reformulation of them. These considerations are based on a general theory of my own about the origins and development of mental structure, on which I have worked for some decades and which is presented in a number of books (Imbasciati, 1983, 1991, 1994, 1998a, 1998b; Imbasciati & Calorio, 1981). Mental structure is deemed to be a construction of functions resulting from the progressive formation of symbols codifiable in memory. A symbolopoietic process generates a structure that is itself symbolopoietic; psychic structure as a whole is a symbolopoietic construction that has built itself up symbol by symbol in contiguous and progressive connection from the fetal period on. The theory takes account both of the typically psychoanalytic affective vertex and of that of cognition. The term “symbol” is used in its widest sense.
The main concept developed in this article is that the unconscious, regarded as the essence of the whole of psychic structure, can be identified in the symbolopoietic process. I must apologize at the outset for the large number of references to my own publications in this article—an inevitable consequence of the sheer volume of work I have devoted to the subject. I apologize, too, for any passages that those unfamiliar with my work may find difficult to understand, and, finally, for the fact that, owing to the need to condense many concepts into a few pages, little space may appear to have been left for comparisons with