ABSTRACT

The author explores some ideas about couple relationships and therapy with couples. In Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 1–73, we observe the emotional impact on Lady Macbeth of her husband's letter from the front. In her actions we almost literally see the crown with which, in her proleptic imagination, Macbeth has already been crowned by fate and metaphysical aid. In Act 1, Scene 7, lines 1–83, we see that Lady Macbeth has correctly anticipated her husband's complex, conflicting emotions. And she experiences them as evidence of his betraying both himself and her. It is important to note that the germ of the idea of a proleptic state of mind is at the heart of psychoanalytic theory as part of the differentiation between what is variously termed primary vs. secondary processes or the pleasure principle vs. the reality principle. By the expression negative proleptic imagination the author means the state of mind where what is imagined is feared or hated.