The proleptic unconscious and the exemplary moment in psychoanalysis

In this paper I argue that a central feature of manifestations of the unconscious in clinical work is its proleptic dimension. In its essence, the proleptic unconscious is anticipatory and futural in its orientation. The classical view of unconscious mental life posits the existence of a spacial location filled with positive content there to be discovered; but this view risks reification and a clinical approach in which the analyst "finds what she is looking for." By contrast, the propleptic unconscious is without content; it is the to-be-realized. Such realizations at times take on an exemplary function. Exemplification points toward future uses rather than an enduring set of underlying principles. Thus, the subject is interpolated by realizations of the proleptic unconscious toward future possibilities and emerging ways of being. Analysts within the American ego psychological tradition, whose work grappled with the problem of reification of unconscious content, anticipated the proleptic unconscious. Clinical examples are discussed.