He did this more and more in symbolic interpretations and his general theory or metapsychology. Nevertheless, he had at the outset established what seems to me the basic method of psychoanalysis. First, one collects data in the form of the words of free association. Second, one formulates particular wordings into themes. Third, one proceeds from the themes into a description of the dream, parapraxis, symptom, or even a whole character or identity as a coherent system.
Meaning is the central fact of human existence with which psychoanalysis has to deal.