Symbolization refers to the psychological process by which inner experiences – such as a feeling, a memory, or a mental image – are translated into language.
According to psychoanalytic theory, it is only through symbolization that something emotionally significant becomes graspable, communicable, and workable. What we can put into words can be reflected upon, shared with others, and integrated. Without symbolization, experiences often remain diffuse, overwhelming, or incomprehensible – and they continue to affect us without being named. For example, an unconscious feeling of fear or loss may manifest itself in physical symptoms or repetitive behaviors until it is symbolized.
Language, in this context, is not just a label applied after the fact – it is the very medium through which psychic reality takes shape.
Function in Lacan‘s theory: For Jacques Lacan, symbolization is a central element in the formation of the subject. The subject enters the order of the Symbolic – that is, language, law, and meaning – through the act of symbolization. Only what has been symbolized can be psychically processed.
The unconscious, according to Lacan, is structured like a language – it consists of signifiers, linguistic-like units that form chains and networks. In this sense, symbolization means that something initially experienced as bodily or affective – raw and unformed – is transferred into a field mediated by language, where it can be thought, interpreted, and processed.
“The Real can only be inscribed in the Symbolic if it is symbolized.”
(paraphrased from Lacan, Seminars XI and XIII)
What cannot be symbolized – perhaps because it was experienced too early, too overwhelming, or not yet linguistically accessible – remains within the subject as a symptom or a gap. Symbolization is therefore not only a linguistic act, but also an ethical and therapeutic one: it creates structure, makes meaning possible . and forms the basis of any psychic integration.
