Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

November 26, 1963. UNCONSCIOUS FANTASY AND DISTURBANCES OF CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE. Jacob A. Arlow, M.D.

In the Abraham A. Brill Memorial Lecture, Dr. Arlow examines the disturbance in conscious experience resulting from the presence of an unconscious fantasy. Such fantasies reveal themselves in parapraxes, symptoms, dreams, action, and character formation. For example, the fantasy of being beaten is often at the root of a masochistic character disorder. In spite of the fact that the concept is well documented clinically and an essential part of our theoretical understanding, many questions remain when we try to understand the problem in terms of the structural theory.

It is still uncertain what the nature, form, and function of unconscious fantasies are. Are they simply vehicles for the instinctual energies of the id or do ego and superego play a role in their formation? Paradoxically, the states of consciousness and unconsciousness appear to be of secondary importance, and preoccupation with this aspect of the problem may have burdened rather than helped our understanding. More relevant is the nature of the data of perception, the level of cathectic potential, and the state of the ego's functioning, including reality testing, defense, adaptation, and integration. Since fantasy activity is a constant ongoing process, Dr. Arlow prefers the term 'unconscious fantasy function' to the more static term 'unconscious fantasies'.

It is well known that the analysis of metaphorical expression very often leads associatively to repressed fantasy material. The central concept in Dr. Arlow's presentation is that in a similar manner the analysis of alterations in experiencing the external world and of the self may lead to repressed fantasy material. This becomes understandable when we realize that unconscious fantasy activity provides the 'mental set' in which sensory stimuli are perceived and integrated. Both