Finding Unconscious Fantasy in Narrative, Trauma, and Body Pain

"Reading this book leads to deeper and more secret levels of the psychoanalytic experience, those that allow a contact with the Unconscious and its fantasies which, from obscurity, steer and powerfully influence the destiny of individuals, groups and sometimes entire nations. The path of exploration chosen by the authors is the most effective and convincing: the clinic, presented here at a high quality level and complemented by refined and harmoniously consistent theoretical reflections. This publication has a decidedly international flavor and provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive view on the subject of unconscious fantasies, a dimension of the human psyche about which Psychoanalysis has developed a specific and absolutely unparalleled expertise."-Stefano Bolognini, President, International Psychoanalytical Association.

"Nancy Goodman and Paula Ellman propose a creative structure for revisiting the concept of Unconscious Fantasy. A dialogue is developed among excellent clinicians/authors belonging to different psychoanalytic cultures, based on clinical presentations. They focus on 'finding the unconscious fantasy in the psychoanalytic encounter' which 'brings processing and meaning to what was previously unrecognized'-- in my words an 'as yet situation' - even in situations of trauma or physical pain. This book generously opens multiple perspectives, so the readers continue this dialogue exploring how they create in their own work the best conditions with their patients for the unspoken to be heard. I highly recommend this book."-Haydée Faimberg, author of The Telescoping of Generations.

"An essential text book for all psychotherapists and psychoanalysts on how to discover the unconscious fantasy in psychoanalytic treatment. This book may be read as a mystery novel with two smart detectives, Nancy R. Goodman and Paula L. Ellman, in search of discovering the unconscious fantasies of the clinical cases of body pain and trauma with colleagues from across the globe of analytic thinking."-David Rosenfeld, MD, Ex Vice President IPA, Professor for Buenos Aires University, recipient of Sigourney and Hayman Awards and author of The Body Speaks: Body Image Delusions and Hypochondria.

"Character is destiny, and unconscious fantasies form the mind-molding DNA that pattern each person’s unique character. In these engaging remarkably candid contributions, clinicians of diverse theoretical backgrounds offer clinical reports alive in their actuality, each account followed by a dialogue of serious questions and reflections. These frank discussions expose and explore the rocky paths by which those hidden soul-shaping fantasies can be uncovered. This is analysis in vivo. Reading this work offers the stimulation and learning that comes from taking part in a seminar with master clinicians. Here, analysis lives."-Warren S. Poland, M.D., author of Intimacy and Separateness in Psychoanalysis.

"Paula Ellman and Nancy Goodman have produced a most unusual book that functions at one and the same time on a number of different levels. The book itself can perhaps be best considered as scholarly research in action. It brings together writers from varying clinico-theoretical orientations, asking each to consider the concept of unconscious phantasy not as a theoretical concept but as something discovered, a living evolving phenomenon in their clinical work. The editors in their scholarly introduction, foreground a tension in psychoanalysis that takes it origin at the earliest beginnings of our discipline- a kind of clinico-theoretic bifurcation between the concepts of ‘trauma’ and ‘unconscious fantasy. The editors are to be congratulated on having done much to repair this split and in so doing show how different ways of thinking can enrich each other. The book will be a most valuable research and clinical reference, a real ‘workbook’ for all psychoanalytically oriented clinicians"-David Bell, author of Psychoanalysis and Culture: A Kleinian Perspective.

"Reading this book leads to deeper and more secret levels of the psychoanalytic experience, those that allow a contact with the Unconscious and its fantasies which, from obscurity, steer and powerfully influence the destiny of individuals, groups and sometimes entire nations. The path of exploration chosen by the authors is the most effective and convincing: the clinic, presented here at a high quality level and complemented by refined and harmoniously consistent theoretical reflections. This publication has a decidedly international flavor and provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive view on the subject of unconscious fantasies, a dimension of the human psyche about which Psychoanalysis has developed a specific and absolutely unparalleled expertise."

Stefano Bolognini, President, International Psychoanalytical Association.

"Nancy Goodman and Paula Ellman propose a creative structure for revisiting the concept of Unconscious Fantasy. A dialogue is developed among excellent clinicians/authors belonging to different psychoanalytic cultures, based on clinical presentations. They focus on 'finding the unconscious fantasy in the psychoanalytic encounter' which 'brings processing and meaning to what was previously unrecognized'-- in my words an 'as yet situation' - even in situations of trauma or physical pain. This book generously opens multiple perspectives, so the readers continue this dialogue exploring how they create in their own work the best conditions with their patients for the unspoken to be heard. I highly recommend this book."

Haydée Faimberg, author of The Telescoping of Generations.

"An essential text book for all psychotherapists and psychoanalysts on how to discover the unconscious fantasy in psychoanalytic treatment. This book may be read as a mystery novel with two smart detectives, Nancy R. Goodman and Paula L. Ellman, in search of discovering the unconscious fantasies of the clinical cases of body pain and trauma with colleagues from across the globe of analytic thinking."

David Rosenfeld, MD, Ex Vice President IPA, Professor for Buenos Aires University, recipient of Sigourney and Hayman Awards and author of The Body Speaks: Body Image Delusions and Hypochondria.

"Character is destiny, and unconscious fantasies form the mind-molding DNA that pattern each person’s unique character. In these engaging remarkably candid contributions, clinicians of diverse theoretical backgrounds offer clinical reports alive in their actuality, each account followed by a dialogue of serious questions and reflections. These frank discussions expose and explore the rocky paths by which those hidden soul-shaping fantasies can be uncovered. This is analysis in vivo. Reading this work offers the stimulation and learning that comes from taking part in a seminar with master clinicians. Here, analysis lives."

Warren S. Poland, M.D., author of Intimacy and Separateness in Psychoanalysis.

"Paula Ellman and Nancy Goodman have produced a most unusual book that functions at one and the same time on a number of different levels. The book itself can perhaps be best considered as scholarly research in action. It brings together writers from varying clinico-theoretical orientations, asking each to consider the concept of unconscious phantasy not as a theoretical concept but as something discovered, a living evolving phenomenon in their clinical work. The editors in their scholarly introduction, foreground a tension in psychoanalysis that takes it origin at the earliest beginnings of our discipline- a kind of clinico-theoretic bifurcation between the concepts of ‘trauma’ and ‘unconscious fantasy. The editors are to be congratulated on having done much to repair this split and in so doing show how different ways of thinking can enrich each other. The book will be a most valuable research and clinical reference, a real ‘workbook’ for all psychoanalytically oriented clinicians"

David Bell, author of Psychoanalysis and Culture: A Kleinian Perspective.

"[T]he analyst/writers in this volume do not only address the theoretical concepts of unconscious fantasy and its derivatives in the treatment of trauma and debilitating somatic pain, but also provide an unusually authentic, honest, process-near clinical guide for how to work and understand this kind of treatment experience."

Carla Rentrop, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. To read this review in full, please see the following: Rentrop, C. B. (2021) Finding unconscious fantasy in narrative, trauma and body pain: a clinical guide: edited by Paula L. Ellman and Nancy R. Goodman, London and New York, Routledge, 2017, 226 pp., $52.95, ISBN: 978-1-138-955001-1. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 102:411-416