Trauma, memory and fantasy: the psychic reality

Abstract

With the raging debate particularly in the United States regarding the

establishment through the path of psychotherapy or psychoanalysis of the

reality of traumatic events, the author insists on a rigorous use of the terms

of the debate. The Freudian theory, surrounding the concept of psychic

reality could not bear only on the unconditional support of either parts:

recovered memories/false memories. On the contrary, emphasis must be

put on the originality of the concept of psychic reality, which distinguishes

itself from both eventful reality and pure imagination. Th e author underlines

the specifi cally psychoanalytical approach of access to memory, and uses it

to criticize notions of recovered memory as well as false memories, while

reaffirming what would be a fundamental ethic of psychoanalysis and any

other psychotherapy claiming to be inspired by it.