The Play of Mourning.

Playing is a form of responsiveness that involves a shift from more formal interpretation about defense, unconscious fantasy, or transference to one that employs humor or irony regarding the content of fantasy or poses a more direct confrontation between internal fantasy and external reality. Playing is differentiated from more formal interpretation by the analytic couple's intensity of affective expression, the idiomatic language used to express affect or ideas, or the analyst's more personally revealing reaction to the patient's recruitment of him as an internal object. Two clinical vignettes show how play emphasizes experiences of loss and waste that have been enacted in the patient's life and often in transference-countertransference engagement. Through newly discovered forms of play, these processes are occurring now in real time between patient and analyst and less through frozen memorialization of what never was.

Financial freedom, final fantasy, 'formative ageing': A study of ageing single women and retirement in contemporary China.

This article aims to continue a conversation sustained in this journal during the last three decades; a conversation that seeks to promote critical thinking on age and ageing through the lens of gender and sexuality. I do so by considering a specific group of Chinese women: single women living in Beijing or Shanghai. I invited 24 of them, born between 1962 and 1990, to share their imaginations about retirement, in the Chinese context, where the mandatory retirement age for women is 55 or 50 (60 for men). My aims are three-fold: to insert this group of single women into retirement and ageing studies; to recuperate and document their retirement imaginations; and ultimately, to draw insights from their subjective accounts, to revisit dominant paradigms of ageing, notably so-called successful ageing. Empirical data show how these single women treasure financial freedom, but usually without taking concrete steps towards its accomplishment. They also embrace a diversity of imaginations about where and with whom they want to spend their retirement life, and what they want to do - both long-held dreams and new careers. Inspired by yanglao, a term they use instead of retirement, I argue the term 'formative ageing' is a more inclusive and less normative way of looking at ageing.

Editorial: Modeling and Fantasy Rehearsal: From Self-Injury to Self-Efficacy.

Trendy depictions of nonsuicidal self-injury in the media appear to promote real-life self-injury, according to an analysis by Lee and colleagues1, published in this issue. The researchers studied rates of emergency visits to all hospitals in Korea for self-injury, before and after video broadcasts disseminated a song called "Barcode." The song compared parallel cuts on the forearm to the barcodes used at checkout counters; an appealing protagonist glamorized self-injury. The timing of increases in rates of self-injury supported the hypothesis that the song engendered imitation -- that social contagion can be fostered by the mass media. In response to this finding, editorial comment places this article in the context of vast amounts of other research on the role of modeling (a.k.a. imitation learning) and fantasy rehearsal (a.k.a. imaginal practice) as general principles of human learning and behavior. Numerous scientists have documented the role of imitation learning, both before and after seminal studies by Albert Bandura. Research strongly contradicts the "catharsis hypothesis" and supports social learning theory's predictions that symbolically enacting aggressive actions does not "get anger out" or "release aggression," but provides practice that promotes behaviors in the same response class. A large set of studies supports the conclusion that media violence tends to increase real-life aggression. Fantasy rehearsal has been used to produce results similar to real-life practice for skills in sports, surgery, dance, musical performance, anxiety reduction, anger control, social skills, and cognitive restructuring. Nonetheless, the idea that media models and technology-assisted fantasy rehearsal have real-life effects has been forcefully disputed, and thus research such as the present study on "Barcode" must continue. But this editorial declares that the time has come when the available evidence demands energetically and systematically finding, creating, and harnessing positive models and positive fantasy rehearsal methods in the service of healthy psychological functioning. It declares that such a time arrived long ago.

On brutal gestures: trauma, destruction, and forms of mental illness.

The Bohemian writer Milan Kundera narrates, more than once, an experience from his years of life under an authoritarian regime. It is the memory of a violent fantasy of rape, one in which libido and destruction are mingled. Based on this memory and how he wrote about it, we present two forms of mental illnesses (by activation and by passivation) and relate them to the model proposed by Green to think about depressive states through passivation. The first form of mental illness, by activation, is the result of an overly successful active defense against anxiety. The second form, by passivation, is a paradoxical reaction to agony in the face of deadly psychic states. Arguing that this second form of mental illness is frequently identified in individuals during periods of political change, we consider that the intricacy between the drives of destruction and the libido, even when it generates fantasies or brutal gestures, can reveal itself as an episodic attempt of an active defense amid the predominance of passivation generated by post-traumatic helplessness.

The effects of bilateral stimulation using eye movements on sexual fantasies with follow-up.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Sexual fantasies represent a common aspect of human sexuality that can support sexual well-being but also contribute to psychopathology. The latter warrants intervention and bilateral stimulation with eye movements (EMs) may be a suitable intervention for impairing mental imagery of sexual fantasies. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of multiple rounds of EMs on sexual fantasies, gauge the effect over time with a one-week follow-up, and assess how impaired sexual imagery may influence behaviour and behavioural intention. METHODS: Twenty-eight participants (14 male, Mage = 44.10, SDage = 9.77) selected a favoured sexual fantasy and engaged in five repeated rounds of an EM task, either face-to-face or via telehealth. Baseline phenomenological characteristics of sexual fantasies were compared against repeated measures after each round of EMs and at one-week follow-up, as well as hypothetical behavioural intention and frequency of fantasy masturbation. RESULTS: All sexual fantasy characteristics (e.g., vividness, sensations, arousal, believability) diminished progressively between each round of EMs. These characteristics increased from round five to follow-up. However, they remained significantly reduced compared to baseline. Participants' hypothetical behavioural intention and frequency of masturbation associated with their sexual fantasies also reduced post-EM task. LIMITATIONS: Use of self-report measures; participants' mental imagery could not be measured directly; and no comparison groups were included. CONCLUSIONS: As an imagery impairing task, bilateral stimulation with EMs is effective for diminishing the phenomenological properties of sexual fantasies, extending upon extant literature. Collectively, the progressive research regarding EMs and sexual fantasies encourages replication in specific populations (e.g., individuals with problematic or harmful sexual fantasies).

Growing Up Wild: Reflections on Early Middle Childhood as Captured by Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

A pattern of psychic fragmentation followed by consolidation occurs throughout life and can be seen in all developmental stages. Using Neil Gaiman's novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the authors focus on the experience of disorganization and re-organization in early middle childhood. The frequency with which young boys use fantasy to contain affects and impulses makes the literary genre of magic realism especially well-suited for the exploration of psychological states during early middle childhood.

Integrating drones into NHS patient diagnostic logistics systems: Flight or fantasy?

Healthcare accounts for approximately 5% of emissions in developed nations, and the public healthcare provider in the United Kingdom (UK), the National Health Service (NHS), has set a target to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 without detriment to its quality of patient care. With Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs; a.k.a. drones, UAS, or RPAS) starting to be used in healthcare systems outside the UK, there is interest in how they could be integrated into NHS operations to transport diagnostic specimens. Reflecting on a business-as-usual analysis of current NHS diagnostic specimen logistics across the Solent region (southern UK), this paper critically evaluates the practical reality of integrating UAV deliveries of this commodity, identifying the benefits and challenges that must be addressed to realise commercial services, including dangerous goods legislation, cargo stability, routing, and weather. In the analysis, 14 out of 79 surgeries could be realistically served by a 5m wingspan vertical take-off/landing (VTOL) UAV: seven directly, and seven via ground-based transfers. The results suggested that an average of 1,628 samples could be served by UAV each week, resulting in 42 flights/week with 10 taxi services to cover periods where weather limited flying. This equated to an approximate total service cost of £2,964/week if regulations develop to relax UAV personnel constraints. The introduction of UAVs reduced the marginal external costs (greenhouse gas emissions, congestion, and air pollution) by £196 per week and cut travel times to UAV served sites by 72% (weather permitting). Tailpipe emissions (excl. taxis), vehicle-kilometres travelled, and van costs were reduced by 20%, 20%, and 23% (respectively), but the overall system cost increased by 56%. Whilst this increase is likely to make the introduction of UAV services financially challenging, the benefits in terms of emissions and journey time savings may offset some of the additional cost and warrant further investigation.

"Never Land": Where do imaginary worlds come from?

We assume "Imaginary worlds" to be unreal and unfamiliar: high fantasy. I argue they are real and familiar to authors because they comprise memory elements, which blend experience, knowledge, beliefs and pre-occupations. These "bits and pieces" from memories can generate a world, which readers experience as pure imagination. I illustrate using J.M. Barrie's "Never Land" and J.R.R. Tolkien's "Middle-Earth."

Sleeping poorly is robustly associated with a tendency to engage in spontaneous waking thought.

We spend approximately-one third of our lives sleeping, and spontaneous thoughts dominate around 20-50% of our waking life, but little is known about the relation between the two. Studies examining this relationship measured only certain aspects of sleep and certain forms of spontaneous thought, which is problematic given the heterogeneity of both conceptions. The scarce literature suggests that disturbed sleep and the frequency of spontaneous waking thoughts are associated, however this could be caused by shared variance with negative affect. We report a comprehensive survey study with a large range of self-reported sleep and spontaneous thought measures (N = 236), showing that poorer sleep quality, more daytime-sleepiness, and more insomnia symptoms, consistently predicted higher tendencies to engage in disruptive spontaneous thoughts, independently of trait negative affect, age and gender. Contrarily, only daytime sleepiness predicted positive-constructive daydreaming. Findings underscore the role of sleep for spontaneous cognition tendencies.

Third Abstraction: Motives and techniques.

When we look at an image/picture, and make it impossible to recognize anything specific from it, which means that this image/picture itself has no associations with any existing thing either in the real world or in the imaginary one, and if this image/picture can still generate under these circumstances meanings and effects, then this is what I mean by the Third Type of Abstraction. The method I use is actually to keep removing all the elements of the image/picture that may lead to fantasies or associations with concrete things and make it stay in a suspended, uncertain and free status. In this way, the freedom of everyone who looks at an image/picture can be provoked out of an uncontrolled state.

LET ME GO: Depression and suicidal fantasies in children.

The paper explores the phenomenology of major depression and suicidal ideation in children, offering a brief overview of relevant findings in psychiatry, with particular reference to statistical evidence, and outlining psychoanalytic models, including Jungian as well as the post-Kleinian and Bionian vertices. Bowlby's seminal contribution to the understanding of mourning processes in relation to Freud's theory is also considered. The case of an eight-year-old boy is examined, with particular attention to a series of drawings that the patient produced over the two years of his psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The therapy was interrupted abruptly by his parents.

Cet article explore la phénoménologie de la dépression grave et de l'idéation suicidaire chez les enfants. Il offre un rapide aperçu des découvertes sur ce sujet en psychiatrie, faisant particulièrement référence aux données statistiques, et donnant les grandes lignes des modèles psychanalytiques, notamment les perspectives Jungiennes ainsi que post-Kleiniennes et Bionniennes. L'apport majeur de Bowlby pour la compréhension des processus de deuil en relation avec la théorie freudienne est également pris en compte. Le cas d'un garçon de huit ans est étudié, en s'appuyant sur une série de dessins que le patient produisit au cours de deux années de psychothérapie psychanalytique. La thérapie fut interrompue abruptement par ses parents.

El presente trabajo explora la fenomenología de la depresión mayor y la ideación suicida en niños, ofreciendo una breve reseña de las conclusiones relevantes en psiquiatría, particularmente en lo referente a evidencia estadística, y describiendo modelos psicoanalíticos, incluyendo una perspectiva Junguiana, así como post-Kleiniana y Bioniana. También se considera la contribución seminal de Bion a la comprensión de los procesos de duelo en relación con la teoría de Freud. Se explora el caso de un niño de ocho años, con particular atención a una serie de dibujos que el paciente produjo a lo largo de dos años de psicoterapia psicoanalítica. La terapia fue interrumpida abruptamente por sus padres.

Searching for Bedrocks: Gender, Biology, and the Question of Ontology.

This paper argues that a conceptual conflation between biology and ontology has had a pervasive influence on psychoanalytic thinking about gender, particularly transgender phenomena. This has made it difficult to think about gender's relationship to the body outside of essentializing fantasies. The origins of the modern term gender and Freud's biological emphasis are addressed, followed by a more extensive engagement with contemporary psychoanalytic scholarship on trans. Finally, the paper proposes a framework for attending to gender's relationship to the body with greater nuance, turning to Freud's late drive theory to help us think in this complex area.

The Narcissistic dynamics of submission: the attraction of the powerless to authoritarian leaders.

Ferenczi's conception of identification with the aggressor, which describes children's typical response to traumatic assaults by family members, provides a remarkably good framework to understand mass social and economic trauma. In the moment of trauma, children instinctively submit and comply with what abusers want-not just in behavior but in their perceptions, thoughts, and emotions-in order to survive the assault; afterwards they often continue to comply, out of fear that the family will turn its back on them. Notably, a persistent tendency to identify with the aggressor is also typical in children who have been emotionally abandoned by narcissistically self-preoccupied parents, even when there has not been gross trauma. Similarly, large groups of people who are economically or culturally dispossessed by changes in their society typically respond by submitting and complying with the expectations of a powerful figure or group, hoping they can continue to belong-just like children who are emotionally abandoned by their families. Not surprisingly, emotional abandonment, both in individual lives and on a mass scale, is typically felt as humiliating; and it undermines the sense that life is meaningful and valuable.But the intolerable loss of belonging and of the feeling of being a valuable person often trigger exciting, aggressive, compensatory fantasies of specialness and entitlement. On the large scale, these fantasies are generally authoritarian in nature, with three main dynamics-sadomasochism, paranoid-schizoid organization, and the manic defense-plus a fourth element: the feeling of emotional truth that follows narcissistic injury, that infuses the other dynamics with a sense of emotional power and righteousness. Ironically, the angry attempt to reassert one's entitlements ends up facilitating compliance with one's oppressors and undermining the thoughtful, effective pursuit of realistic goals.

Notas psicanalíticas acerca das arquiteturas do infamiliar na literatura fantástica / Psychoanalytic notes on the architectures of the uncanny in fantastic literature

Defende-se que a literatura fantástica constitui um material valioso de pesquisa para o psicanalista, haja vista que ela está comprometida em evocar no leitor o sentimento do infamiliar (Unheimliche), entendido como a manifestação episódica de um conteúdo atávico do psiquismo que se encontrava até então em estado latente, acarretando a regressão ao narcisismo primário e a dissolução temporária e localizada das fronteiras do Eu. Propõe-se a expressão arquiteturas do infamiliar para designar a conjuntura estético-literária que caracteriza esse projeto narrativo. Para evidenciar a especificidade dos recursos textuais que favorecem esse arranjo, sua sintaxe é contraposta à dos chistes. Então, por meio da referência às concepções de anamorfose, leitor implícito, fantasia e construção, busca-se esclarecer os mecanismos psíquicos relacionados à leitura e à criação dos textos fantásticos, sublinhando o caráter volátil e mutante de suas temáticas e estratégias e a sua íntima relação com a cultura e o social. Pontua-se que o estudo desses artifícios literários podem trazer contribuições significativas para o entendimento das vicissitudes da fantasia e da delimitação dos limites do Eu e da realidade. Ao final, comenta-se o conto O homem de areia, de E. T. A. Hoffmann, à luz da proposta apresentada.

This paper defends that fantastic literature constitutes a valuable research material for the psychoanalyst, given that this literary modality is committed to evoking in the reader the feeling of the uncanny (Unheimliche), understood as an episodic manifestation of an atavistic in latent state psychic content, causing the regression to primary narcissism and a temporary and localized dissolution of the borders of the Self. The expression architectures of the uncanny is proposed to designate the aesthetic-literary conjuncture that characterizes this project. To highlight the specificity of the textual resources that favor this arrangement, its syntax is contrasted with that of jokes. Through the reference to the concepts of anamorphosis, implicit reader, fantasy and construction, one seeks to clarify the psychic mechanisms related to the reading and creation of fantastic texts, underlining the volatile and mutating character of their themes and strategies and their intimate relationship with culture and society. One argues that the study of these literary devices can bring significant contributions to the understanding of the delimitation of Self and reality, and the vicissitudes of fantasy as well. At the end, the short story The Sandman, by E. T. A. Hoffmann, is commented in the light of the this proposal.

Molecular Hydrogen Neuroprotection in Post-Ischemic Neurodegeneration in the Form of Alzheimer's Disease Proteinopathy: Underlying Mechanisms and Potential for Clinical Implementation-Fantasy or Reality?

Currently, there is a lot of public interest in naturally occurring substances with medicinal properties that are minimally toxic, readily available and have an impact on health. Over the past decade, molecular hydrogen has gained the attention of both preclinical and clinical researchers. The death of pyramidal neurons in especially the CA1 area of the hippocampus, increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier, neuroinflammation, amyloid accumulation, tau protein dysfunction, brain atrophy, cognitive deficits and dementia are considered an integral part of the phenomena occurring during brain neurodegeneration after ischemia. This review focuses on assessing the current state of knowledge about the neuroprotective effects of molecular hydrogen following ischemic brain injury. Recent studies in animal models of focal or global cerebral ischemia and cerebral ischemia in humans suggest that hydrogen has pleiotropic neuroprotective properties. One potential mechanism explaining some of the general health benefits of using hydrogen is that it may prevent aging-related changes in cellular proteins such as amyloid and tau protein. We also present evidence that, following ischemia, hydrogen improves cognitive and neurological deficits and prevents or delays the onset of neurodegenerative changes in the brain. The available evidence suggests that molecular hydrogen has neuroprotective properties and may be a new therapeutic agent in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as neurodegeneration following cerebral ischemia with progressive dementia. We also present the experimental and clinical evidence for the efficacy and safety of hydrogen use after cerebral ischemia. The therapeutic benefits of gas therapy open up new promising directions in breaking the translational barrier in the treatment of ischemic stroke.

How Autogynephilic Are Natal Females?

Blanchard proposed that autogynephilia is a natal male's paraphilic sexual arousal in response to the thought or fantasy of being a woman. Furthermore, based on evidence collected from natal males with gender dysphoria, Blanchard argued that autogynephilia is the fundamental motivation among nonhomosexual males (i.e., those not exclusively attracted to men) who pursue sex reassignment surgery or live as transgender women. These ideas have been challenged by several writers who have asserted, or offered evidence, that autogynephilia is common among women. However, their evidence was weakened by problematic measures and limited comparison groups. We compared four samples of autogynephilic natal males (N = 1549), four samples of non-autogynephilic natal males (N = 1339), and two samples of natal females (N = 500), using Blanchard's original measure: the Core Autogynephilia Scale. The autogynephilic samples had much higher mean scores compared with non-autogynephilic natal males and natal females, who were similar. Our findings refute the contention that autogynephilia is common among natal females.

Relations between fantasy and transfer of learning from storybooks.

Prior research presents a mixed picture regarding the circumstances under which children transfer learning of problem solutions from fantastical stories to real-world problems. Two experiments examined 3- to 5-year-old children's transfer of learning from fantastical storybooks that systematically varied in the fantastical abilities of storybook characters. In both experiments, participants heard stories about a character solving physical problems, and then participants attempted to solve analogous real-world problems. In Experiment 1, children heard stories that varied the fantastical abilities and practices of the protagonist; characters either did or did not have the ability to violate physical laws and did or did not use magic to help in solving a problem. Children were more likely to transfer problem solutions from the stories in which characters were presented as having the ability to violate real-world physical laws. In Experiment 2, the fantastical abilities of the characters varied by whether the characters were described as real, as pretend but living in a world where no physical laws could be violated, as pretend and living in a world where some physical laws could be violated, or as pretend and living in a world where many physical laws could be violated. Other than varying the characters' abilities, all characters used realistic solutions to solve the problem. Again, transfer was higher for children who heard about characters with the ability to violate real-world laws. The findings suggest that fantastical stories in which characters have the ability to do impossible things but use realistic solutions to problems can be effective in teaching children how to solve physical problems.

How, when, and what do young children learn from fictional stories?

Fictional stories for children are often designed to teach new information such as vocabulary words and problem-solving solutions. Past work has shown that children can learn real-world information from these fictional sources, but we do not yet understand the full scope of how different variables affect this learning process. The articles in this special issue aimed to address this question, paying particular attention to the ways in which the fantastical elements that are so common in children's media might affect their learning. In this editorial introduction, we draw out common themes from these articles and identify open questions in this field. Specifically, although there is clearly more work to be done, these articles demonstrate that fantasy can sometimes benefit children's learning, that learning is affected by children's prior knowledge and by how the educational information is integrated into the story, and that it is important to disentangle the type of target educational information (e.g., new facts vs. executive function strategies) from the type of fictional context used to teach it.

Sleep well, mind wander less: A systematic review of the relationship between sleep outcomes and spontaneous cognition.

Despite an upsurge of research on spontaneous cognition, little is known about its associations with sleep-related outcomes. This systematic review, following PRISMA guidelines, examined the relationship between sleep and spontaneous thoughts, across different definitions and measurements of sleep outcomes and spontaneous cognition, and a diversity of methodologies. Twenty-one articles with survey and/or experimental designs were identified. Self-reported disturbed sleep-comprising poor sleep quality, more insomnia symptoms, more daytime sleepiness and a tendency towards eveningness-and experimentally induced sleep deprivation were associated with a tendency to engage in disruptive mind wandering and daydreaming, but not positive-constructive daydreaming. Findings regarding circadian fluctuation in spontaneous thoughts were mixed and inconclusive. This systematic review bridges the gap between the sleep and spontaneous cognition research by contributing to the understanding of potential psychological and cognitive mechanisms of spontaneous cognition, as well as by elucidating the emotional and cognitive consequences of disturbed sleep.