Unconscious Fantasy and Emotion Schema

In the clinical situation, there are both verbal and non-verbal interactions. Patients express themselves, whether in words or otherwise, in direct or disguised ways, whether consciously or unconsciously. Such conscious or unconscious ideas and feelings are related to personal desires, relationships with important people in their present or past life, or in the transference relationship. These ideas and feelings are organized in the brain/mind as emotion schemas. Wilma Bucci argues that emotion schemas derive from subsymbolic and symbolic processes, which may be conscious or unconscious. It is important to note that the term "emotion schema," is used much less frequently than the term "mental representation." Since too many people consider the term "mental representation" a static concept, the term "emotion schema" can be a shorthand for "emotionally infused mental representation." This paper proposes that the construct of unconscious fantasy overlaps with that of emotion schema. The importance of priming phenomena between the members of the therapeutic dyad is discussed. Each person's unconscious fantasy can serve as a prime for the other.