Key words: genetic interpretation, interpretative act, construction and reconstruction
The contribution is an exercise in ‘close reading’ of the essay written by Siegfried Bernfeld in 1932 and it aims at reconsidering its historical value by deconstructing the conceptual structure which lies behind the text. The reader is invited to look at Bernfeld’s essay from two different perspective. On the one hand, the text is read as a forerunner of the development that followed and contributed to shape the tradition (perspective 1: the historicization of the concepts). On the other, the text is considered as a repertoire of concepts that remained forgotten and eluded while are now seen and valued by the present day readers (perspective 2: the deconstruction and reconstruction of the concepts). According to this reading, Bernfeld’s most original contribution is the concept of Deutungakt: the act of conferring meaning (Bedeutung) to the psychic phenomena.