Dream, Phantasy and Art

Hanna Segal's work, especially on symbolism, aesthetics, dreams and the exploration of psychotic thinking, has established her as a respected figure in psychoanalysis, particularly in psychoanalysis of the Kleinian tradition.

In "Dream, Phantasy and Art" she reworks her ideas on these topics and brings them alive in a new integration which links them afresh to the work of Freud, Klein and Bion.

Throughout the book the clinical illustrations she has selected spotlight the theory.

In a mutually enhancing relationship, theory and clinical example are combined, and then applied, to create the author's original theories of art and aesthetics.

The book begins with Freud's theory of dreams, illustrated by Segal's own clinical material, then moves on to a discussion of the concept of phantasy as used by Freud and Klein, and its relation to dreams and to thinking.

This is followed by a discussion of thinking based on Segal's paper, "Notes on Symbol Formation" (1957), which she develops further by linking it with Bion's work.

Then comes a discussion of pathological aspects of dreaming that occur when symbolic thinking fails. Finally, in the last two chapters, Segal returns to one of her earliest and most consistent interests - art, aesthetics and the imagination, showing the relation between "real" and "failed" art.