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The relationship between sex-typing (androgynous vs traditional) and differences in fantasies of 19 men and 37 women was investigated. They completed May's test as a measure of fantasy pattern and the Bem Sex-role Inventory to ascertain sex-type. Analysis indicated that, while fantasy patterns were related to gender as expected from May's work, they were not related to sex-typing.
Previous research has described a greater use of fantasy and imagery during masturbation by men, than women. This study suggests that this gender disparity results from the increased frequency of bilateral speech representation found in the female brain. Support for this theory was obtained by comparing the use of autoerotic fantasy and imagery in another group distinguished by their degree of cerebral lateralization: dextral vs. sinistral males. The prediction that masturbatory fantasy and imagery would be more common in the more lateralized dextral males was partially confirmed in this study.
Two forms of thinking about the future are distinguished: expectations versus fantasies. Positive expectations (judging a desired future as likely) predicted high effort and successful performance, but the reverse was true for positive fantasies (experiencing one's thoughts and mental images about a desired future positively). Participants were graduates looking for a job (Study 1), students with a crush on a peer of the opposite sex (Study 2), undergraduates anticipating an exam (Study 3), and patients undergoing hip-replacement surgery (Study 4). Effort and performance were measured weeks or months (up to 2 years) after expectations and fantasies had been assessed. Implications for the self-regulation of effort and performance are discussed.
E-A.C. are avoided in our practice and literature. However, they often blur the distinction between transferential illusion and reality, more so in training analyses. E-A.C. excite the patient's curiosity, exhibitionism and 'primal scene' fantasies with their concomitant anxieties. Such fears lead patients to phobically avoid analysing these encounters, whose effects analysts may also dread. However, calling attention to the avoidance may promote significant analytic developments. Illusion on the psychoanalytic stage is a regressive force which brings out significant affects and internalized relationships. Affects focus the patient's attention. E-A.C. occur in a 'transitional space' where fantasy and reality become both confused and differentiated, allowing for playfulness, creativity and emotional growth. The reality elements within psychoanalysis are reviewed: the patients' actual experience, the contract, the setting and the analyst's personality. The setting becomes the container of a mute symbiotic transference that may turn persecutory when the analytic routine is altered by an E-A.C. Hence, patients and analysts alike become anxious after an E-A.C. E-A.C. reminds us that analysis--like life!--is a constant dynamic interplay between fantasy and reality.
Results of an exploratory study of fantasies of first-time expectant fathers and non-expectant males are presented. Data collection instruments included the Imaginal Processes Inventory, the Sex Role Inventory, and the Affectional Relationship Inventory. The fantasy pattern of expectant fathers differed minimally from that of non-expectant males. Fantasy pattern of the expectant fathers appeared to be influenced by their sex role orientations and involvement in the pregnancy.
Some psychoanalytic theories relating to necrophilia are reviewed, supplemented by other relevant theoretical abstracts. A psychoanalytic case of a young man with necrophilic fantasies is described, emphasizing separation anxiety, sadism and anal masturbation, all compellingly manifest in the transference and rooted in infantile trauma. The material is compared with that of other analysts working with similar pathology, then discussed in relation to perversions generally. Finally, it is argued that if the prognosis depends on whether core fantasies are amenable to analysis in the transference, then there may be therapeutic justification for keeping adolescence open by blocking the developmental move forward, on the grounds that these fantasies would quickly be rendered inaccessible under the normal repressive processes of young adulthood.
A discussion of "The Psychodynamics of a Beating Fantasy," by Wayne Myers, M.D. This paper emphasizes the role of the parental ambivalence towards the patient in the formation of beating fantasies described by Dr. Myers. It is postulated that excessive maternal ambivalence interfered with the normal resolution of ambitendency during the patient's second year, particularly with the impact of the discovery of sexual differences which takes place at that time. Under such circumstances, a split in both self- and object representations occurs, with a heightening of unbound aggression--the combination of which might well have led to the formation of the maternal aspect of the beating fantasy. Subsequent primal scene expousre, along with the excessively ambivalent paternal attitude toward the patient could only intensify the aggression and the already faltering sense of self and object. Through defensive identification with the aggressor in relation to both parents, the aggression was warded off but also led to confusion in her sense of sexual identity and further problems of self- and object constancy.
The preceding describes some of the confusion which abounds in practically all areas of clinical medicine and particularly in occupational injuries. In essence, this confusion devolves to a primary failure on our part as clinicians; the failure to differentiate fact from fantasy. In the clinical arena, this is the failure to differentiate between that which is clinical pathology in the peripheral neuromusculoskeletal system and that which is no less real for the patient, a fantasy arising from image-driven, adaptively-initiated activation of specific neuronal groups in the somatosensory or somatomotor cortex, descriptively referred to as "hysterical" or "psychogenic." A common experience of neurologists and other clinicians conducting a sensory examination of the extremities is the presence of nondermatomal or glovelike sensory changes of the feet or hands. Nondermatomal sensory changes are known to engage any part of the body surface. These have often been referred to as hysterical; however, in the clinical sensory examination for touch, vibration, and pinprick, the patient has no control over the area or boundaries of the activated receptive fields in the somatosensory cortex. Fantasies of the patient, provoked by the context of examination, initiate an adaptive response which can expand or contract the boundaries of the somatosensory receptive fields. These sensory changes are unconscious and represent alteration of receptive fields in the somatosensory cortex. The brain is re-entrantly connected. Activation in one area promotes activation in adjacent and associated areas remote from the primary receptive field. The brain organizes its own activity. "Perception thus is not imposed on the brain; rather the brain selects the perceptual mode.... stimulus energy, according to numerous studies from brain-activation, is only a weak determinant of the magnitude of response in primary sensory areas. . . ." The most intense brain activation in the somatosensory cortex is provoked, not by peripheral stimulation, but by adaptive preparation referred to as somatotopical tuning, probably due to an increase in excitatory post-synaptic potentials (EPSPs). Many patients present to neurologists and other clinicians with complaints of numbness and tingling in the fingers, hands, arms, or face and occasionally, as in one of my patients, the entire body.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
This paper is intended as a contribution to understanding why, up until recently, there have been so few case reports of actual abuse and its sequelae in the psychoanalytic literature. We suggest that psychoanalytic insights into the nature of psychic reality, while indispensable to the evolution of psychoanalytic thinking, have nonetheless had the adverse effect of collapsing any distinction between unconscious fantasies and repressed memories. Moreover, the idea that knowledge of external reality is itself mentally constructed also has diminished interest in uncovering trauma and "real" history. We present a report of an adult analysis that illustrates the recovery of a dissociated memory of sexual abuse that occurred during adolescence, as a springboard to discuss problems analysts have had in dealing with trauma theoretically. We hypothesize that repressed memories and conscious fantasies can often be distinguished insofar as they may be "stored" or encoded differently, and that consequently the sequelae of trauma and fantasy often, but not always, can be disentangled. We describe some different modes of encoding trauma and some different ways of remembering, reexperiencing, and reenacting it. And, finally, we suggest why traumatic memories are increasingly accessible to patients today.
Drawing on ancient legends involving the goddesses Demeter and Kore/Persephone, this study describes highly overdetermined unconscious fantasies associated with the acute anxieties and conflicts of separation-individuation. These fantasies, often aggressive in nature, involve condensation of generational and gender roles, and of oral and genital motifs. It is suggested that the pre-oedipal child of either sex experiences itself as a 'kore' (Greek for 'girl'), that is, as feminine in primary identification with the mother, and that the set of anxieties underlying these fantasies may therefore be called the Kore complex, a developmentally earlier counterpart of the Oedipus complex.
Despite the absence of psychoanalytic studies to support the position, family romance fantasies have been assumed to be similar in form and function in both the adopted child and the blood kin child. My studies, documented herein from the analyses of three adoptees, reveal that knowing one is adopted results in modifications of the fantasy and that certain types of adoptees seem incapable of effectively creating the paradigmatic family romance fantasy.
Drug addiction is considered in terms of an addiction syndrome, and a theory for its motivation is proposed, based on the treatment of several drug addicts in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. It is suggested that the main cause of the addiction syndrome is the unconscious need to entertain and to enact various kinds of homosexual and perverse fantasies, and at the same time to avoid taking responsibility for this. It is hypothesised that specific drugs facilitate specific fantasies and using drugs is considered to be a displacement from, and a concomitant of, the compulsion to masturbate while entertaining homosexual and perverse fantasies. The addiction syndrome is also hypothesised to be associated with life trajectories that have occurred within the context of traumatogenic processes, the phases of which include social, cultural and political factors, encapsulation, traumatophilia, and masturbation as a form of self-soothing. This hypothesis about the traumatic origins of the addiction syndrome is illustrated with data from the psychoanalyses of addicts.
This paper is intended as a contribution to understanding why, up until recently, there have been so few case reports of actual abuse and its sequelae in the psychoanalytic literature. We suggest that psychoanalytic insights into the nature of psychic reality, while indispensable to the evolution of psychoanalytic thinking, have nonetheless had the adverse effect of collapsing any distinction between unconscious fantasies and repressed memories. Moreover, the idea that knowledge of external reality is itself mentally constructed also has diminished interest in uncovering trauma and "real" history. We present a report of an adult analysis that illustrates the recovery of a dissociated memory of sexual abuse that occurred during adolescence, as a springboard to discuss problems analysts have had in dealing with trauma theoretically. We hypothesize that repressed memories and unconscious fantasies can often be distinguished insofar as they may "be stored" or encoded differently, and that consequently the sequelae of trauma and fantasy often, but not always, can be disentangled. We describe some different modes of encoding trauma and some different ways of remembering, re-experiencing, and re-enacting it. And, finally, we suggest why traumatic memories are increasingly accessible to patients today.
Young children are often viewed as being unable to differentiate fantasy from reality. This article reviews research on both children's and adults' beliefs about fantasy as well as their tendency to engage in what is thought of as "magical thinking." It is suggested that children are not fundamentally different from adults in their ability to distinguish fantasy from reality: Both children and adults entertain fantastical beliefs and also engage in magical thinking. Suggestions are offered as to how children and adults may differ in this domain, and an agenda for future research is offered.
This study examined the relationships between the Sustaining Fantasy Questionnaire (SFQ) and the 16 PF for 63 college students. The questionnaire is a self-report measure of characteristic fantasies used to reduce negative affect and maintain self-esteem. High scores on the fantasy scales having to do with power and revenge, death and illness, withdrawal and protection, and restitution, and on the scales measuring negative affect and the inability to produce comforting images were all associated with 16 PF indications of psychological distress.
Central Venous Catheter (CVC) allows the administration of drugs, parenteral nutrition and blood sample taking for laboratory tests, avoiding continuous damage to the peripheral veins. Most of the psychological traumas caused by crude treatments also decrease and therefore CVC may initially be experienced as the end of continuous physical injuries. Nevertheless, it often happens that other sorts of psychological trauma, due to fantasies and fears elicited by the CVC, arise in children and their families. The CVC is often felt as a dangerous and invasive "foreign body". Moreover after it has been used for a long time it may create a psychological state of dependency and it frequently becomes the only means of salvation. This makes removal particularly difficult and it is felt as a "cutting" of the CVC at the end of the therapy. Young patients elaborate complex fantasies about the starting point, the route and the end point of the catheter. Their parents are often unknowing accomplices of these fears, partially because they project their own experience and also because they are conditioned by the way they have elaborated the information provided by the assistance staff. Since the handling of CVC is under the parent's responsibility when the child is not in Hospital, we should be able to help the patients and their families to cope with this experience in the most suitable way. This makes it possible to avoid both excessive worries and the tendency to underestimate the risk of infection. This is why we consider that submitting children and their family members to interviews, surveys and spontaneous drawing is wise in order to evaluate the existence, nature and extent of the fantasies. This helps to modify possible distortions both of perception and behavior.
A systematic investigation of patients' attitudes and fantasies on a psychiatric research unit showed that initial attitudes were most indicative of whether or not the patient was willing to cooperate with the regimen. Surprisingly, being subjected to no research was associated with negative attitudes at mid-hospitalization. Negative attitudes were also associated with poor clinical competence rating of the primary physician. At the end of their hospitalization, most of the patients had positive attitudes toward the unit and the fantasy theme that was most prevalent at that time was "research is therapy."
Explored death fantasies of young adults through use of life scripts and future time perspective questionnaires. Results indicated a significantly younger age of death from disease and accident as opposed to natural causes. Type of death fantasied was markedly at variance from health statistics, with most projecting a benign end for themselves (old age).