The transcendent function in adolescence: miracle cures and bogeymen.

This paper proposes that Damasio's mental images, Stern's moments of meeting and Tronick's dyadically expanded consciousness refer to different aspects of the same psychological process as Jung describes in the transcendent function. This proposition is illustrated with two case vignettes of adolescents who functioned on a pre-symbolic level, but who through a transformative experience were catapulted into new developmental trajectories and the beginning of symbol formation.