The Psychoanalytic Symbol was best described by Ernest Jones (1916). He noted that a Psychoanalytic symbol is formed when there has been repression of the abstract connection between a representation (manifest symbolic form) and that, which is represented (latent symbol).

The process of ongoing development during the latency years may be defined in terms of normal and pathological aspects of both functional and maturational elements.

Poetic symbols are verbal, visual or musical expressions that fit latent concepts and abstractions to representations that evoke awareness and clarify meaning.

Clinical data support the position that the latency state is a socially guided configuration of ego structures, and the related view that drive strengths are sustained during the latency period.

Transcendent symbols are cryptic representations, which are interpreted by devout believers to be manifestations of the transcendent immanence of deity in all things. The words and powers of gods are thought to be conveyed to man by the manifest forms of transcendent symbols

The term “symbolizing function” refers to the actions of the brain mechanisms that produce symbols. The ontogenesis of the symbolizing function is a product of an interplay between the biological maturation of the brain and shaping developmental influences contributed by the environment.

The latency age period encompasses the confluence of two processes: the experience of childhood and the traversal of the developmental defile from which will issue the characteristics of adulthood. Those who assess the latency-age child must be alert to impediments to and digressions from normal and effective functioning in both processes.

Using earlier impressions as a source, memories shape the representations used to interpret the world. Affects associated with recall of these memories activate denial. Substitute formations (symbols) to which attention is directed in response to denial populate the memory contents that shape conscious psychic reality.

Poor reality testing in the area of response and an intensified impact of reality in the interpersonal area introduce conflicts that cannot be resolved in reality. The age appropriate cognitive function of the early latency child enables the resolution of this conflict through the intensified use of repression, fragmentation, and displacement. These defenses produce psychoanalytic symbols. The synthesis of such symbols into distracting fantasy patterns, becomes a primary adjustment technique in childhood.