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Theory & Psychology
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Biting the Bullet

The Nature of Unconscious Fantasy

Vesa Talvitie

University of Helsinki, vesa.talvitie{at}helsinki.fi

Juhani Ihanus

University of Helsinki, juhani.ihanus{at}helsinki.fi

The idea of unconscious fantasy plays a central role in psychoanalysis. In terms of cognitive orientation, however, the logic behind it is difficult to determine because psychoanalysis has not succeeded in establishing how and where such fantasies exist. This article introduces the reasons why psychoanalysts think in terms of unconscious fantasies: the very notion facilitates the interconnection of the analysand’s patterns of behavior and her/his emerging contents of consciousness. The authors put forward arguments in favor of an instrumentalist view of unconscious fantasies, and suggest that the talk about them abstracts the functioning of the brain. In the spirit of neuropsychoanalysis, a connection is also created between the phenomena found in clinical psychoanalytic practice and the findings of neuroscience and the empirical study of implicit knowledge.

Key Words: cognitive science • fantasy • imagery • psychoanalysis • repression • unconscious

Theory & Psychology, Vol. 15, No. 5, 659-678 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354305057268
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