“The Dawn of Unconscious Phantasy”
Robert Oelsner - "In this presentation I wish to explore the early stages of the development of unconscious phantasy seen as the very origin of thinking. In order to do so I will first briefly remind you of some of Freud’s statements and the extensions made by Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion and a vignette of a young girl whose rich phantasy-work will give us a background to contrast with the cases of two severely disturbed boys I will present in the clinical section. Both boys’ precarious psychic functioning may help illustrate the oscillation between an arrest and the dawn of unconscious phantasy."
Scientific meetings are open to psychoanalysts and other mental health professionals interested in evolving psychoanalytic theory and the application of psychoanalytic concepts to clinical work with patients.
Learning objectives:
1. Attendees will learn to identify unconscious phantasy as it emerges in the therapy hour.
2. Attendees will learn to distinguish neurotic unconscious conflicts and phantasies from states were unconscious phantasy is yet about to develop.
3. Attendees will learn how to intervene such as to enhance the development of mental representations in cases where there has been a developmental arrest.
4. Case material of several child patients will help to best understand the subject of unconscious phantasy and its arrests, also applicable to adult cases.
About the Presenter
Robert Oelsner, MD, FIPA is a Training and Supervising Analyst of the NPSI and PINC and also a Child and Adolescent IPA Certified Analyst. He was trained in the Psychoanalytic Institute of Buenos Aires and teaches and supervises in the U.S., Europe and Argentina. He is the author of over 200 psychoanalytic articles, book chapters and congress presentations. He is also the editor and co-author of "Transference and Countertransference Today". The Dawn of Unconscious Phantasy is a chapter in the upcoming book Finding Unconscious Fantasy edited by Paula Ellman and Nancy Goodman, to be published by Routledge. Dr Oelsner has special interest in the works of Bion, Meltzer and the so called Contemporary Kleinian authors. He is a guest in the German Psychoanalytic Society (DPG) where he presents his work and supervises at Interregional Candidate Meetings of the German Institutes.
