Starting from the theoretical aporias linked to the question of the prevalence of the economic factor and its links (or lack of them) with the register of representation, the author attempts to account for the vagaries of the transformational processes of the psychic apparatus. Drawing on the analysis of the case of a child suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) the author analyses the defensive impact of these symptoms and their effects of avoiding the internal world and depressive anxieties. By studying the phenomena of discharge through action and attention disorders, this clinical material highlights how the prevalence of the economic register can be understood as a dysfunction of the thinking apparatus. This hypothesis is explored in the light of psychoanalytical theories that account for the processes of transforming energetic and primary elements into secondary representations capable of nourishing daydreaming activity and the construction of containers for thought.