HYSTERICAL FANTASIES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH BISEXUALITY
Sigmund Freud (1908)
Summary:
The delusional fantasies of the paranoid, centered on the greatness and sufferings of the self, are universally known and appear in
typical, monotonous forms. We are also familiar with the strange stagings of certain perverts to obtain sexual satisfaction. However,
it may be novel to many to learn that similar psychic formations occur regularly in all psychoneuroses, especially in hysteria. These
hysterical fantasies are important for understanding the cause of neurotic symptoms.
Young people's fantasies, known as daydreams, are a common source and archetype of all these fantasy creations. These
daydreams, although present in both sexes, are mainly erotic in women and erotic or ambitious in nature in men. However, even
in men's daydreams, the erotic factor is usually important, as their achievements are bound to please a woman.
These daydreams are desires born of deprivation and longing, providing a key to understanding nightdreams, which are
complicated and misinterpreted versions of these daydreams. Daydreams are carefully cultivated and reserved with shame, being
easy to recognize in someone who walks down the street immersed in their fantasy.
Hysterical attacks, according to my observations, are daydreams that emerge involuntarily. These fantasies can be conscious or
unconscious, and once they become unconscious, they can become pathogenic, manifesting in symptoms and attacks. A patient,
warned about her fantasies, found herself crying in the street when she recalled a fantasy of a relationship with a famous pianist,
who had left her in misery with her imaginary son.
Unconscious fantasies may have always been unconscious or have been conscious and then forgotten by repression. These
fantasies are linked to the person's sex life, being identical to those used for sexual satisfaction during masturbation. When the
person renounces masturbatory satisfaction and finds no other form of sexual satisfaction, the unconscious fantasy can resurface
and manifest itself as a pathological symptom due to the lack of sublimation of the libido.
For a number of hysterical symptoms, unconscious fantasies are the closest previous psychic stages. Hysterical symptoms are
unconscious fantasies figured by "conversion" and are often related to sexual sensations and motor innervations that originally
accompanied the phantasy when it was conscious. This process represents a way of restoring primary sexual satisfaction, even if it
is never fully consummated.
In studying hysteria, we soon turn to the fantasies from which the symptoms proceed. The psychoanalytic technique allows these
unconscious fantasies to be deduced from the symptoms and made conscious for the patient. We have discovered that the content
of the unconscious phantasies of hysterics corresponds to the situations of satisfaction that the perverts consciously perform. The
delusional formations of the paranoid are similar fantasies that have become immediately conscious and are related to sado-
masochistic components of the sexual drive. Similarly, certain hysterics express their fantasies in conscious actions, such as faking
sexual assaults or assaults.
All information about the sexuality of psychoneurotics is obtained through psychoanalytic inquiry, which reveals the unconscious
fantasies hidden behind the striking symptoms. The link between fantasies and symptoms is complex because of the difficulties
unconscious fantasies face in expressing themselves. Generally, a symptom does not correspond to a single unconscious fantasy,
but to several, following a composition subject to laws.
Here are a number of formulas to understand the nature of hysterical symptoms:
1. The hysterical symptom is the mnemic symbol of certain traumatic impressions and experiences.
2. The hysterical symptom is the substitute, through "conversion", for the associative return of these traumatic experiences.
3. The hysterical symptom is the expression of a wish fulfillment.
4. The hysterical symptom is the realization of an unconscious fantasy in the service of wish-fulfillment.
5. The hysterical symptom serves sexual satisfaction and represents a part of the person's sexual life.
6. The hysterical symptom corresponds to the return of a modality of sexual satisfaction repressed since childhood.
7. The hysterical symptom arises as a compromise between two opposing instinctual impulses.
8. The hysterical symptom may represent various unconscious non-sexual movements, but it always has a sexual significance.
1
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Sigmund Freud (1908)
Summary:
The delusional fantasies of the paranoid, centered on the greatness and sufferings of the self, are universally known and appear in
typical, monotonous forms. We are also familiar with the strange stagings of certain perverts to obtain sexual satisfaction. However,
it may be novel to many to learn that similar psychic formations occur regularly in all psychoneuroses, especially in hysteria. These
hysterical fantasies are important for understanding the cause of neurotic symptoms.
Young people's fantasies, known as daydreams, are a common source and archetype of all these fantasy creations. These
daydreams, although present in both sexes, are mainly erotic in women and erotic or ambitious in nature in men. However, even
in men's daydreams, the erotic factor is usually important, as their achievements are bound to please a woman.
These daydreams are desires born of deprivation and longing, providing a key to understanding nightdreams, which are
complicated and misinterpreted versions of these daydreams. Daydreams are carefully cultivated and reserved with shame, being
easy to recognize in someone who walks down the street immersed in their fantasy.
Hysterical attacks, according to my observations, are daydreams that emerge involuntarily. These fantasies can be conscious or
unconscious, and once they become unconscious, they can become pathogenic, manifesting in symptoms and attacks. A patient,
warned about her fantasies, found herself crying in the street when she recalled a fantasy of a relationship with a famous pianist,
who had left her in misery with her imaginary son.
Unconscious fantasies may have always been unconscious or have been conscious and then forgotten by repression. These
fantasies are linked to the person's sex life, being identical to those used for sexual satisfaction during masturbation. When the
person renounces masturbatory satisfaction and finds no other form of sexual satisfaction, the unconscious fantasy can resurface
and manifest itself as a pathological symptom due to the lack of sublimation of the libido.
For a number of hysterical symptoms, unconscious fantasies are the closest previous psychic stages. Hysterical symptoms are
unconscious fantasies figured by "conversion" and are often related to sexual sensations and motor innervations that originally
accompanied the phantasy when it was conscious. This process represents a way of restoring primary sexual satisfaction, even if it
is never fully consummated.
In studying hysteria, we soon turn to the fantasies from which the symptoms proceed. The psychoanalytic technique allows these
unconscious fantasies to be deduced from the symptoms and made conscious for the patient. We have discovered that the content
of the unconscious phantasies of hysterics corresponds to the situations of satisfaction that the perverts consciously perform. The
delusional formations of the paranoid are similar fantasies that have become immediately conscious and are related to sado-
masochistic components of the sexual drive. Similarly, certain hysterics express their fantasies in conscious actions, such as faking
sexual assaults or assaults.
All information about the sexuality of psychoneurotics is obtained through psychoanalytic inquiry, which reveals the unconscious
fantasies hidden behind the striking symptoms. The link between fantasies and symptoms is complex because of the difficulties
unconscious fantasies face in expressing themselves. Generally, a symptom does not correspond to a single unconscious fantasy,
but to several, following a composition subject to laws.
Here are a number of formulas to understand the nature of hysterical symptoms:
1. The hysterical symptom is the mnemic symbol of certain traumatic impressions and experiences.
2. The hysterical symptom is the substitute, through "conversion", for the associative return of these traumatic experiences.
3. The hysterical symptom is the expression of a wish fulfillment.
4. The hysterical symptom is the realization of an unconscious fantasy in the service of wish-fulfillment.
5. The hysterical symptom serves sexual satisfaction and represents a part of the person's sexual life.
6. The hysterical symptom corresponds to the return of a modality of sexual satisfaction repressed since childhood.
7. The hysterical symptom arises as a compromise between two opposing instinctual impulses.
8. The hysterical symptom may represent various unconscious non-sexual movements, but it always has a sexual significance.
1
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