Imagination from Fantasy to Delusion

Oppenheim, Loïs

doi:10.4324/9780203859957

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…One helpful way of elucidating the essence of the concept of delusion is to contrast it with the idea of fantasy. Fantasy, Oppenheim (2013) explained, is a function through which the individual can represent and understand the workings of their imagination, yet fantasy is also a product of imagination. Thus fantasy, a particular kind of preconscious primary process ideation, remains accessible to the individual's consciousness which makes it possible for it to be impacted on by the secondary process (Oppenheim, 2013).…”

Section: Psychosis Paranoia and Delusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fantasy, Oppenheim (2013) explained, is a function through which the individual can represent and understand the workings of their imagination, yet fantasy is also a product of imagination. Thus fantasy, a particular kind of preconscious primary process ideation, remains accessible to the individual's consciousness which makes it possible for it to be impacted on by the secondary process (Oppenheim, 2013). Fantasy can be integrated into the ego in order to be used for integration of and mastery over the experiences of the self – communicable as language situated in the real, and as literature, art or music (Oppenheim, 2013).…”

Section: Psychosis Paranoia and Delusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus fantasy, a particular kind of preconscious primary process ideation, remains accessible to the individual's consciousness which makes it possible for it to be impacted on by the secondary process (Oppenheim, 2013). Fantasy can be integrated into the ego in order to be used for integration of and mastery over the experiences of the self – communicable as language situated in the real, and as literature, art or music (Oppenheim, 2013). Delusion, on the other hand, differs in a fundamental way: it evades influence from the secondary process (Oppenheim, 2013).…”

Section: Psychosis Paranoia and Delusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fantasy can be integrated into the ego in order to be used for integration of and mastery over the experiences of the self – communicable as language situated in the real, and as literature, art or music (Oppenheim, 2013). Delusion, on the other hand, differs in a fundamental way: it evades influence from the secondary process (Oppenheim, 2013). Where imagination can be used to repair the mind, delusion does the opposite, further solidifying and increasing the disturbing affects that it attempts to explain (Oppenheim, 2013).…”

Section: Psychosis Paranoia and Delusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Feared Therapist: On Being Part of the Psychotic Patient's Paranoid Delusion

Saayman¹

2020

Brit J Psychotherapy

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Psychosis can be understood as, in part, a disorder of the self. The various factors that contribute to the development of psychosis and the consequences of psychotic symptoms potentially impede the development of the patient's subjectivity, and can lead to a complete breakdown of the patient's ability to accurately represent their subjective experiences. The development of paranoid delusions partially functions to compensate for the patient's inability to make sense of their subjective experiences in relation to an acknowledged other, in this case the psychotherapist. When the patient confronts the psychotherapist with their paranoid delusion and implicates the psychotherapist as a dangerous object, the psychotherapist is potentially exposed to a complex and disturbing dynamic where their own subjectivity may be drawn into question. This paper aims to explore the psychotherapist's experiences of this dynamic in a clinical setting by making use of a composite narrative of a psychotic patient with paranoid delusions that implicate the psychotherapist. The psychotherapist's experiences are discussed via the following three themes: constructing the patient's subjectivity; the psychotherapist's use of their own experiences; and holding the balance between opposing realities.

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Section: Psychosis Paranoia and Delusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Psychosis Paranoia and Delusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Psychosis Paranoia and Delusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Psychosis Paranoia and Delusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Feared Therapist: On Being Part of the Psychotic Patient's Paranoid Delusion

Saayman¹

2020

Brit J Psychotherapy

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“…Even when it seems that she is able to accept the reality, a minute later she resumes her denial of the paralysis. When Solms again demonstrates to her the difference in mobility between her right and left arms, the patient replies that she does not wish to be seen as ill and that “in her mind's eye she sees her arm moving, while with her physical eyes she sees that her arm is not lifting as it should” (Oppenheim, , p. 5). It is clear in this case that the internal image of the moving arm is just as real as the physical perception, and that the two perceptions can coexist without contradicting each other.…”

Section: The Disjunction and Twofold Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Delusion and bi‐ocular vision

Masi¹

2015

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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The delusional experience is the result of a grave disjunction in the psyche whose outcome is not readily predictable. Examination of the specific mode of disjunction may help us understand the nature and radical character of delusion. I will present the therapy of a psychotic patient who after many years of analysis and progresses in his life continues to show delusional episodes although limited and contained. In his case, the two visions, one delusional and the other real, remain distinct and differentiated from each other because they both possess the same perceptual character, that of reality. He has a bi-ocular vision of reality and not a binocular one because his vision lacks integration, as would necessarily be the case if the two visions could be compared with each other. The principle of non-contradiction ceases to apply in delusion. A corollary of the failure of the principle of non-contradiction is that, if a statement and its negation are both true, then any statement is true. Logicians call this consequence the principle of explosion. For this reason, the distinction between truth, reality, improbability, probability, possibility and impossibility is lost in the delusional system, thus triggering an omnipotent, explosive mechanism with a potentially infinite progression. The paper presents some thoughts for a possible analytic transformation of the delusional experience.

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Studying Higher Mental Functions: The Example of Imagination

Zittoun

2015

Psychology as the Science of Human Being

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Imagination from Fantasy to Delusion

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

The Feared Therapist: On Being Part of the Psychotic Patient's Paranoid Delusion

The Feared Therapist: On Being Part of the Psychotic Patient's Paranoid Delusion

Delusion and bi‐ocular vision

Studying Higher Mental Functions: The Example of Imagination

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