ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author illustrates the unfolding of the 'aborted hope' phantasy as it is manifested in the psychoanalytic psychotherapy context of a patient with salient narcissistic features. Dreams and clinical material are used to highlight the transference-countertransference ramifications. The author begins with P. Webster's entries of hope, 'to long for with expectation of obtainment' and a longing to have and possess and combines this with H. N. Boris's conception of hope as 'preconception of how things and experiences should be'. He defines hope as the longing for a dependence on the image of parental figures, and specifically to the paternal representation. The 'aborted hope' phantasy has a delusional quality in the sense that, the representation of experience is missing, control supplants relatedness, and the reality of life is not acknowledged; instead it is veiled by a subjective meaning of undesirableness.
