ABSTRACT
The idea of wish-fulfilment through the attainment of an identity of perception is a key concept in the link between unconscious wishes on the one hand and objects relationships on the other. It provides a basis for the notions that follow, of actualization and role-responsiveness, and their relation to countertransference. The chapter provides an Anna Freud Lecture in Vienna in 1975 on the 75th anniversary of The Interpretation of Dreams. A short historical review precedes brief comments on the psychoanalytic concepts of unconscious phantasy and unconscious wish. This is followed by a consideration of some of Freud's thoughts about the identity of perception, with special reference to the idea of wish-fulfilment. The remarks made by Freud, on wish-fulfilment gained through the attainment of an identity of perception, provide a basis for looking at psychoanalytic theory from a different perspective—one that is extremely relevant to the concept of internal object.
