pre-verbal memories, experienced as powerful emotions without any words or narrative attached to them

This is possibly tangential and maybe I'm misreading what a pre-verbal memory is but I can relate this case-study reading which I read in a Bruce Fink book. It is also worth noting my stating of the facts as they occurred below may give the impression that this wasn't occurring on an unconscious level, which would be incorrect.

Pre-language (pre-symbolic) can be pre-meaning too. I can't remember who it was (lacan, freud, or someone else) that had a female analysand who was unable to enter shops by herself one day. Upon analysis it was revealed that one day at about the age of fourteen entering a shop and seeing a facial reaction (a shopkeepers laughter) was what triggered the event. It was then further revealed that at a much earlier time when the girl was 4-6 she had been groped by a shopkeeper. Because she hadn't understood sexual relations due to her young age (she didn't read meaning into the act, 'she was only touched') she developed no symptoms; after learning about sexual relations she saw the same facial expression and suddenly the event took up a new meaning for her which is when the symptoms developed.