ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of whether the term unconscious fantasy continues to be central to the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Lyons-Ruth and the Boston Change Process Study Group focuses particular attention on this view of therapeutic action and argued that it may be the next major step in the growth of psychoanalysis. Traditionally, thinking in terms of unconscious fantasy demands from an analyst at least implicit loyalty to the belief that the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis is tied to the process of interpretation, and that a patient must be analyzable as a prerequisite. Freud saw ghosts as pathological epiphenomena of unconscious fantasy, whereas Klein saw unconscious phantasies as developmental necessities that are potentially transformative. Sullivan, recognizing that self-discordant, perceptual data must have an opportunity to structurally reorganize internal narrative for psychoanalysis to be a genuine 'talking cure', emphasized the powerful relation between personality change and what he called 'the detailed inquiry' by the analyst.
