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I don't Recall ever before having the wish to watch an old movie while reading a psychoanalytic book. But, after finishing the chapter on David Lynch's Blue Velvet in Knafo and Feiner's Unconscious Fantasies and the Relational World, other readers may also be so inclined. Although very tempted, I have thus far resisted the impulse mostly because I don't remember enjoying the film very much the first time around. I am quite sure, however, that if and when I do give in to my curiosity I will be strongly influenced by the interpretations Knafo and Feiner elaborate in their discussion of the movie's sexuality, violence, and perversion. Indeed, I found their carefully detailed, engaging study of the film far more interesting than the actual movie. They make clever use of Lynch's cinematic creation to revisit and expand on the Freudian concept of the primal scene fantasy. As a literary or cinematic device it works well. The chapter on Blue Velvet is only one of several that explore artistic material to illustrate psychoanalytic concepts once considered fundamental to psychoanalytic practitioners.
One goal of this book is to establish the usefulness, indeed one might say the necessity, of attending to the centrality of unconscious fantasies in our analytic work. While the authors approve of the interpersonal/relational shift in current psychoanalysis, which emphasizes the effects of real experience in understanding our patients, they also fear that something may be lost if we are not careful. They “envision this book as an attempt to restore unconscious fantasy to its proper place in theory and practice” (p. 3). This effort might be seen as part of a larger informal project underway in psychoanalysis to rediscover the intrapsychic that some think has been overshadowed by the ascendance of the interpersonal.
For example, in a recent interview in this journal, Edgar Levenson (2005) spoke to this view when he said he had come to realize, at some point in the course of his think