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Kristeva presents some clinical material about a neurotic woman whose mode of discourse produces a phallic and sadistic domination over her audience/analyst. Kristeva reminds the readers of Freud's remarks on Dora, where he stressed the inability of the hysteric to maintain continuous linear narration, as the tale of hysteria leaves unfilled gaps in the memory, as well as secondarily formed gaps to fill in the original ones. Furthermore, while she agrees that narration is an integral part of free association, Kristeva also contends that free association is not solely about narration, but also comprises other enunciative modalities.
According to the French structuralists, every tale follows a curve of logic that itself forms part of a larger structure where the hero is the grammatical subject, the action is the verb and the dénouement of the plot is the object. The story thus becomes an extension of the logic of the sentence, modulated by the logic of binary conflict (between the hero's good and bad companion) and a quest. As the meaning of the story, or even of a sentence, remains unclear, it requires the participation of the readers to complete the missing meaning with their own creativity.
In psychoanalytic narrative, the object of listening is fantasy, an imaginary act or scenario. What is then, asks Kristeva, the discourse of fantasy? Recent observations, inspired by cognitive psychology, seem to confirm the Kleinian concept of ‘protophantasy’ found in babies: a quasi-narration or ‘pre-narrative envelope’ that articulates drives and desires aimed at the object (the breast) to ensure the survival of the young, phobic and sadistic ego. This pre-narrative envelope requires words from the other to construct itself permanently as phantasy and amounts to an emotional experience based on the drives in an interpersonal context.
Kristeva considers the phallic stage of psychosexual development to be of critical importance in consolidating symbolism. The castration c