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I.On the Ontogenesis of Fantasy. Maurice Bénassy and René Diatkine. Pp. 171-179.
II.Fantasy, Reality and Truth. Daniel Lagache. Pp. 180-189.
III.On the Concept of Fantasy. J. Sandler and H. Nagera. P. 190.
IV.Fantasy and Other Mental Processes. Hanna Segal. Pp. 191-194.
V.Contribution to the Discussion. Victor H. Rosen. Pp. 195-198.
VI.Some Problems of a Metapsychological Formulation of Fantasy. Heinz Kohut. Pp. 199-202.
Bénassy and Diatkine think that fantasy is one among other ways of fitting human organism to environment by way of integrated ego activity. It is pictured by some as innate and others as acquired, when in reality it is both, the former referring to a more primitive level of ego organization than the latter. To embrace both levels, fantasy must be described in both physico-chemical and experience language. Analysts adhering to the innate position are prone to be pessimists as to the power of culture to effect human change and are willing to accept the sicker cases; analysts adhering to the acquired position are optimists and prone to avoid treating those seriously ill.
According to Lagache, unconscious fantasy includes the reactivation of memory by desire, its more primitive forms underpinning its more evolved forms. Reality exists apart from fantasy which may coöperate or withdraw from it. Thus reality is a correlative of fantasy although itself tinged with it. Truth is the surmounting of the conflict between them.
Sandler and Nagera think that much confusion exists in the literature through failure to distinguish fantasying itself from its vicissitudes. They summarize Freud's views as follows: conscious fantasy is a reaction to frustrating reality, fantasies can be descriptively divided into those of the preconscious and those of the unconscious, a previously conscious or preconscious fantasy, now repressed,