Symbol Formation and Transformation in Theory and in Practice

Abstract

In this article I will provide a brief sketch of some of the pressures present in
and characteristic of Brazilian and Latin American intellectual life, and of
the transcultural approach that shaped my personal psychoanalytic thought.
On the basis of clinical material, I will then present my reflections on symbol
formation and transformation—a subject that has become central to my thinking
and research—and show that I have always approached this subject by trying to
connect (establish bridges between) different psychoanalytic cultures and different
fields of knowledge and at the same time firmly grounded in my Kleinian training
at the British Society.