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After reviewing the concepts of presence and absence according to psychoanalysis and attachment theory, this piece of work details the two main symbolization systems, in the presence of the object (primary symbolization, mostly preverbal), and in the absence of the object (secondary symbolization, mostly verbal). In order to conceptualize the transition from one system to the other, it seems necessary, today, to consider a space-time gradient of symbolization, which takes into account the concept of gap, before the notion of absence sets in.