Extract From 'Photography Degree Zero' (Reflections on Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida)

(p.41) 'Psychoanalytic theory has described how, in the primitive stages of emergence of language, sound imagery joins with other forms of imagery (visual, tactile, and so on) around certain early encounters with the real to establish "elementary signifiers" of the unconscious: certain "image fragments" become associated with certain early experiences which thereby make a "lasting impression" on the infant/child; these images, and the emotional charge they carry, remain in the unconscious mind of the adult; from time to time, some conscious event (for example, looking at a photograph) will have some aspect to it which will "allow" an associative connection with the unconscious fragment; the emotional charge carried by the unconscious fragment will then "spark" across the gap to the configuration in conscious perception, investing it with a "feeling" for which there is no rational explanation.'