For understanding systems of reasoning and arguing about psychoanalysis in interviews and French newspaper articles, Moscovici (1961, 1976, 2008) proposed the model of systems and metasystems. In the first part of the seminar, this model will be presented and a tentative explanation will be offered for the disappearance of the model in the scientific literature. In the second part, recent research on social representations of societal issues such as political attitudes, social solidarity, immigration or globalisation will be presented that illustrates the heuristic value of re-actualizing the model of systems and metasystems.