Finding unconscious phantasy in the session: Recognizing form

Translations of summary

The concept of unconscious phantasy has played – and still does play – a central role in psychoanalytic thinking. The author discusses the various forms by which unconscious phantasies manifest themselves in the analytic session as they are lived out and enacted in the transference relationship. This paper also aims at expanding the kleinian theory of symbol formation by exploring the impact that emotional aspects connected to early “raw’, “pre‐symbolic’ phantasies have in the analysis and how their corporeal elements interlock with the signifying process. The author follows the expressive forms of primitive unconscious phantasies as they appear in a psychoanalytic session and proposes that the emotional effect that can be experienced in the communication between patient and analyst depends in great measure on “semiotic’ aspects linked to primitive phantasies that are felt and lived out in embodied ways. Rather than a move from unconscious phantasies that typify symbolic equations to those showing proper symbolization, these can coexist and simultaneously find their way to what is communicated to the analyst. As early phantasies bear an intimate connection to the body and to unprocessed emotions when they are projected into the analyst they can produce a powerful resonance, sometimes also experienced in a physical way and forming an integral part of the analyst's counter‐transference.

A la découverte du fantasme inconscient dans la séance: la reconnaissance de la forme

Le concept de fantasme inconscient a joué – et joue encore – un rôle essentiel dans la pensée psychanalytique. L'auteure de cet article discute des différentes formes qu'empruntent les fantasmes inconscients en séance, au gré de leur actualisation et de leur mise en acte dans la relation transférentielle. L'auteure vise également à élargir la théorie kleinienne de la formation des symboles, en explorant l'impact qu'exercent les aspects émotionnels liés aux fantasmes « crus » et pré‐symboliques sur la cure, ainsi que la façon dont leurs composantes corporelles s'entremêlent avec le processus de mise en sens. L'auteur suit les formes expressives des fantasmes inconscients primitifs au fur et à mesure de leur apparition dans le cours de la séance et suggère que l'effet émotionnel qui peut se produire dans la communication entre patient et analyste dépend dans une large mesure des aspects « sémiotiques » liés aux fantasmes primitifs qui sont ressentis et vécus en même temps qu'ils viennent à s'incarner. Plutôt que de consister en un mouvement qui s’éloigne des fantasmes inconscients caractéristiques des équations symboliques pour se rapprocher de fantasmes proprement symboliques, ces deux aspects peuvent coexister et trouver simultanément à s'exprimer dans ce qui est communiqué à l'analyste. Dans la mesure où les fantasmes primitifs sont intimement liés au corps et aux émotions brutes lorsqu'ils sont projetés dans l'analyste, ils peuvent produire un effet de résonance très intense qui, parfois ressenti de façon physique, fait partie intégrante du contre‐transfert de l'analyste

Unbewusste phantasie in der sitzung finden: die form erkennen

Das Konzept der unbewussten Phantasie spielte und spielt im psychoanalytischen Denken eine zentrale Rolle. Die Autorin diskutiert die verschiedenen Formen, in denen unbewusste Phantasien in der analytischen Sitzung zutage treten, wenn sie in der Übertragungsbeziehung ausgelebt und agiert werden. Sie versucht auch, die kleinianische Theorie der Symbolbildung zu erweitern, indem sie den Einfluss erforscht, den emotionale, mit frühen, „unbearbeiteten”, „präsymbolischen” Phantasien in der Analyse entfalten, und zeigt, wie sich ihre korporealen Elemente mit dem Signifikationsprozess verschränken. Die Autorin beobachtet die expressiven Formen primitiver unbewusster Phantasien, die in der psychoanalytischen Sitzung auftauchen, und vertritt die Ansicht, dass die emotionale Wirkung, die in der Kommunikation zwischen Patient und Analytikerin spürbar wird, in hohem Maß auf „semiotischen” Aspekten beruht, die mit primitiven, in verkörperlichter Weise wahrgenommenen und ausgelebten Phantasien zusammenhängen. Statt den Schritt von unbewussten Phantasien, die für symbolische Gleichsetzungen typisch sind, hin zu solchen zu vollziehen, die Symbolisierung im eigentlichen Sinn repräsentieren, können diese Phantasien gleichzeitig aktiv sein und ihren Weg in die an die Analytikerin gerichteten Kommunikationen finden. Da frühe Phantasien aufs engste an den Körper und an unverarbeitete Emotionen gebunden sind, können sie, sobald sie in die Analytikerin projiziert werden, eine starke Resonanz erzeugen, die manchmal auch körperlich erlebt wird und einen integralen Bestandteil der Gegenübertragung der Analytikerin bildet.

Trovare la fantasia inconscia nella seduta: riconoscerne la forma

Il concetto di fantasia inconscia ha avuto –e ha tuttora‐ un ruolo centrale nel pensiero psicoanalitico. L'autrice prende in esame le varie forme attraverso le quali le fantasie inconsce si manifestano nella seduta analitica, come sono vissute e agite nella relazione di transfert. Questo articolo si propone, inoltre, di espandere la teoria kleiniana della formazione del simbolo, esplorando l'impatto che gli aspetti emozionali collegati alle fantasie presimboliche “grezze” e non elaborate hanno sull'analisi e come questi elementi corporei si intrecciano con il processo significante. L'autrice segue le forme espressive delle fantasie inconsce primitive, per come si manifestano nella seduta analitica e propone che l'effetto emotivo che si può vivere nella comunicazione tra paziente e analista dipende in gran parte dagli aspetti “semiotici’ collegati alle fantasie arcaiche che vengono sentiti e vissuti in modalità corporea. Piuttosto che essere considerate come un movimento evolutivo dalle fantasie inconsce che caratterizzano l'equazione simbolica a quelle che mostrano una simbolizzazione vera e propria, le fantasie precoci possono coesistere e trovare contestualmente una loro via d'accesso a ciò che viene comunicato all'analista. Dal momento che le fantasie precoci hanno un intimo legame con il corpo e con emozioni non elaborate, quando sono proiettate nell'analista, esse hanno una profonda risonanza, a volte sentita anche a livello somatico e costituiscono parte integrante del contro‐transfert dell'analista.

El hallazgo de la fantasía inconsciente en la sesión. reconocer la forma

El concepto de fantasía inconsciente ha jugado y sigue jugando un papel central en el pensamiento psicoanalítico. La autora analiza las distintas formas de manifestación de las fantasías inconscientes en la sesión analítica a medida que se viven y se ponen en acto en la relación transferencial. Este trabajo también apunta a expandir la teoría kleiniana de la simbolización mediante la exploración del impacto de los aspectos emocionales conectados con las fantasías tempranas “en bruto”, “presimbólicas”, sobre el análisis, y de la manera en la que se entretejen sus aspectos corporales con el proceso de significación. La autora da seguimiento a las formas de expresión de fantasías inconscientes primitivas cuando aparecen en la sesión psicoanalítica, y propone que el efecto emocional que puede experimentarse en la comunicación entre paciente y analista depende, en gran medida, de aspectos “semióticos” vinculados con fantasías primitivas que son sentidas y vividas de maneras corporeizadas. Antes que un pasaje de fantasías inconscientes que tipifican ecuaciones simbólicas a otras que exhiben una simbolización apropiada, se propone que ambas pueden convivir y formar parte de lo que se comunica al o a la analista. Como las fantasías tempranas están íntimamente conectadas con el cuerpo y con las emociones sin procesar, cuando se las proyecta en el o la analista pueden producir una fuerte resonancia que, a veces, se experimenta de manera física y forma parte integral de la contratransferencia.

Key words:

• unconscious phantasy
• body
• pre‐verbal
• symbolic
• symbolic equation
• semiotic
• embodiment
• Isaacs
• Kristeva

Notes

1. Made at a Wednesday meeting.

2. See Segal (1952), Meltzer (1986), Harris‐Williams (2010) and Lia Pistener de Cortinas (2009) among others.

3. “& I have gained a sure inkling of the structure of hysteria. Everything goes back to the reproduction of scenes. Some can be obtained directly, others always by way of fantasies set up in front of them. These fantasies stem from things that have been heard but understood subsequently & They are protective structures, sublimations of the facts, embellishments of them, and at the same time serve for self‐relief. Their accidental origin is perhaps from masturbation fantasies” (Freud, 1897a, p. 239).

4. These phantasies included the primal scene, castration and seduction by an adult. Laplanche offers an interesting critical discussion on Freud's need to refer to this notion of primeval times (Freud, 1915d, 1916; Laplanche and Pontalis, 1973; Perron, 2001).

5. In his paper on Repression, Freud writes: “In our discussion so far we have dealt with the repression of an instinctual representative, and by the latter we have understood an idea (Vorstellung) or group of ideas which is cathected with a definite quota of psychical energy (libido or interest) coming from an instinct. Clinical observation now obliges us to divide up what we have hitherto regarded as a single entity; for it shows us that besides the idea, some other element representing the instinct has to be taken into account, and that this other element undergoes vicissitudes of repression which may be quite different from those undergone by the idea. For this other element of the psychical representative the term quota of affect has been generally adopted (Affektbetrag). It corresponds to the instinct in so far as the latter has become detached from the idea and finds expression, proportionate to its quantity, in processes which are sensed as affects” (1915c, p. 152).

6. “a. The earliest phantasies are built mainly upon oral impulses, bound up with taste, smell, touch (of the lips and mouth), kinæsthetic, visceral, and other somatic sensations; these are at first more closely linked with the experience of ‘taking things in’ (sucking and swallowing) than with anything else. The visual elements are relatively small.

b. These sensations (and images) are a bodily experience, at first scarcely capable of being related to an external, spatial object. (The kinæsthetic, genital and visceral elements are not usually so referred.) They give the phantasy a concrete bodily quality, a ‘meness’, experienced in the body. On this level, images are scarcely if at all distinguishable from actual sensations and external perceptions. The skin is not yet felt to be a boundary between inner and outer reality.

c. The visual element in perception slowly increases, becoming suffused with tactile experience and spatially differentiated. The early visual images remain largely ‘eidetic’ in quality – probably up to three or four years of age. They are intensely vivid, concrete and often confused with perceptions. Moreover, they remain for long intimately associated with somatic responses: they are very closely linked with emotions and tend to immediate action. (Many of the details referred to here so summarily have been well worked out by psychologists” (Isaacs, 1948, p. 92).

7. Kristeva connected the linguistic and semiotic approach to the psychoanalytic one. Whilst she was inspired by Klein's ideas on early phantasies her theoretical approach is closely related to that of Lacan. Kristeva's proposal of “the semiotic” has many things in common with Kleinian and post‐Kleinian views of early processes of mental functioning but, it seems to me that the theoretical differences become clearer in connection to the notion of “the symbolic”. Kristeva wrote that she added to the Kleinian understanding of symbols the importance of the phallic stage which appears to her to be “critical in consolidating symbolism and thought cathexis in the patient” (Kristeva, 2000, p. 744). She linked this to Lacan's description of the role of the paternal phallus on the development of language. Her ideas were contested by Segal who stated that whilst Kristeva was right in saying that Klein did not explicitly speak of the infant's relation to the father in symbol formation, she has not taken into account the work of the post‐Kleinians such as herself and Britton who stressed the importance that the paternal role has on the development of symbolic functioning (Segal, 2001; Britton, 1989). There are, however, many differences that I cannot address here for reasons of space between Kleinian and Lacanian theories in respect to the formulation of the role of the father and specifically to the symbolic meaning of the phallus on the development of symbolic function, as well as the difference between the Kleinian notion of symbol formation and Lacan's notion of “The Symbolic order” (see Borossa et al., 2014).

8. In Timaeus. In Kristeva's words “Khora, as he [Plato] calls it, is a space before space, a nurturer‐and‐devour at once, prior to the One, the Father, the word, and even the syllable. It is a modality of sense prior to signification, what I call ‘the semiotic’” (Kristeva, 1984, pp. 19–106; 2014, p. 73).

9. There are many studies of the interaction between infants and their mothers that look at the semiotic aspects involved in the communication between them. See, for example, Powers and Trevarthen (2009), Stern (1974), Trevarthen (1986, 1993) and Salomonsson (2007)

10. “When these pre‐verbal emotions and phantasies are revived in the transference situation, they appear as ‘memories in feelings’, as I would call them, and are reconstructed and put into words with the help of the analyst. In the same way, words have to be used when we are reconstructing and describing other phenomena belonging to the early stages of development. In fact we cannot translate the language of the unconscious into consciousness without lending it words from our conscious realm’ (Klein, 1975, p. 180).

11. From a different point of view one could say that Laplanche's concept (1997) of the enigma brought by the other would have a place here. So the issue of closeness and separateness, of distance which is experienced in a physical way, has an emotional psychic concomitant that is the psychic separateness that leaves the patient with an unbearable sense of not knowing where I am in relation to her and where she is in relation to me.