FANTASY AND ITS TRANSFORMATIONS - A CONTEMPORARY FREUDIAN VIEW

Over the past fifty years changes have occurred in the theoretical pos itions of the Contemporary Freudian and Klein groups in the British So ciety, but fundamental differences remain. This paper considers the me aning of the term 'the unconscious', with particular reference to the censorship lying between consciousness and the Preconscious system-or, in the authors' model, consciousness and the present unconscious. The distinction between the present unconscious and the past unconscious is described Emphasis is placed on the difference between phantasies i n the present unconscious, which exist in the 'here-and-now' and those in the past unconscious, which are for the most part reconstructions based-among other things-on the analyst's theories of mental functioni ng and of child development. Thus, transference phantasies are phantas ies in the present unconscious. The authors go on to emphasise the imp lications of the distinction between the present and past unconsciouse s for analytic work, stressing the need to focus on phantasies and ass ociated conflicts in the present unconscious before turning their atte ntion to reconstruction of the past. Finally, they point to the concep t of dialogue with one's introjects (internal objects) as represented in unconscious phantasy, to the stabilising function of (present) unco nscious phantasy and to the need to interpret conflict and resistance.