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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 16, 2026

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation

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Published on: March 1, 2017

Fantasy and the Process of Fantasy-Building.

Dominique Scarfone

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association

|September 29, 2025

Summary

This study argues that unconscious fantasies do not exist in the strict sense, proposing instead a process of fantasy-building. This challenges psychoanalytic concepts like primal fantasies and affects.

Area of Science:

Psychoanalysis
Psychology
Psychodynamic Theory

Background:

Revisiting Sigmund Freud's metapsychology on unconscious fantasy.
Examining Michel de M'Uzan's study on unconscious affect.
Addressing the psychoanalytic debate surrounding unconscious mental processes.

Purpose of the Study:

To challenge the notion of strictly unconscious fantasies.
To propose and describe a process of fantasy-building.
To re-evaluate psychoanalytic concepts through this new lens.

Main Methods:

Theoretical analysis of psychoanalytic concepts.
Review of foundational psychoanalytic literature (Freud).
Illustration with clinical material.

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Main Results:

Contends that unconscious fantasies, strictly speaking, do not exist.
Proposes a dynamic process of 'fantasy-building' instead.
Demonstrates the applicability of this concept to various psychoanalytic theories.

Conclusions:

The concept of unconscious fantasy requires revision.
Fantasy-building offers a more dynamic and accurate psychoanalytic model.
This framework can be applied to understand primal fantasies, après-coup, psychosomatic theory, and masochistic fantasies.