Not only is the communication between trace and delay (i.e., a present which does not constitute but is originally reconstituted from signs of memory) explicitly defined in this letter, but verbal phenomena are assigned a place within a system of stratified writing which these phenomena are far fromdominating: As you know, I am working on the assumption that our psychic mechanism has come into being by a process of stratification (Aufeinanderschichtung); the material present in the form of memory traces (Errinerungsspuren) being subjected from time to time to a rearrangement (Umordnung) in accordance with fresh circumstances to a retranscription (Umschrift).