ABSTRACT
Phantasies related to pregnancy can usually be found, like several other mental issues, in the folklore and legends of different cultures. Gaelic peasantry believes certain creatures will abduct the newborn baby and exchange it with a horrible gnome known as the “Changeling”. The degree of toxicity of these phantasies will depend on the existence of a function capable of metabolising them, in agreement with Bion’s description of “alpha function”, which transforms sense information into “alpha elements”. Such transformations will provide the mind with material to create “dream thoughts” that allow the discrimination between phantasy and reality or between conscious and unconscious. Donna is a forty-two-year-old, married woman who consulted due to marital conflicts and ambivalent feelings about becoming pregnant. Phantasies associated to pregnancy are present in all women; however, the configuration of these phantasies might be different on a continuum from one extreme of favouring impregnation, to another of conflicting with it.
