The Conception of Unconscious Phantasy
Psychoanalytic experience has taught us that there are non-conscious systems which, by analogy with conscious phantasies, can be described as phantasy-systems of the unconscious. In cases of neurotic apathy these phantasy systems of the unconscious are the objects of the libido. We know well that, when we speak of unconscious phantasy systems, we only speak figuratively. We do not mean more by this than that we accept as an indispensable postulate the conception of psychic entities existing outside consciousness. Experience teaches us, we might say daily, that there are unconscious psychic processes which influence the disposition of the libido in a perceptible way. Those cases, known to every psychiatrist in which complicated symptoms of delusions emerge with relative great suddenness, show clearly that there must be unconscious psychic development and preparation, for we cannot regard them as having been just suddenly formed when they entered consciousness.