The term "representation" has two meanings in psychoanalysis: sense "A," which is the conscious or pre-conscious evocation in internal mental space of an object or person, even an event in the external world; and sense "B," which refers to one of the two expressions (or "translations") of a drive within psychic processes, the other being the "quota" or charge, of affect.

Sense A is the conventional meaning in philosophy and psychology. It is also found in Freudian metapsychology, a fundamental contribution of which was to describe it according to sense B, which is specific to psychoanalysis. Thus, there are two dimensions to representation, the first focused on the internal/external distinction (internal space of representation/external space of perception and action), the second on psychic topography (whether it involves the first topographical subsystem of conscious/preconscious/unconscious or the second of id/ego/superego,...