Editing Object relations theory (section)

===Unconscious phantasy===
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Klein termed the psychological aspect of instinct '''unconscious phantasy'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> (deliberately spelled with 'ph' to distinguish it from the word '[[Fantasy (psychology)|fantasy]]'). Phantasy is a given of psychic life which moves outward towards the world. These image-potentials are given a priority with the drives and eventually allow the development of more complex states of mental life. Unconscious phantasy in the infant's emerging mental life is modified by the environment as the infant has contact with reality.<ref name="Segal 1981">{{cite book
  | last        = Segal
  | first       = Hanna
  | title       = The work of Hanna Segal: A Kleinian approach to clinical practice
  | publisher   = Jason Aronson
  | year        = 1981
  | location    = New York, NY
  | isbn        = 978-0-87668-422-1 | title-link = Hanna Segal
 }}</ref>

<blockquote>
From the moment the infant starts interacting with the outer world, he is engaged in testing his phantasies in a reality setting. I want to suggest that the origin of thought lies in this process of testing phantasy against reality; that is, that thought is not only contrasted with phantasy, but based on it and derived from it.<ref name="Segal 1981" />{{rp|45}}
</blockquote>

The role of unconscious phantasy is essential in the development of a capacity for thinking. In [[Wilfred Bion|Bion's]] terms, the phantasy image is a preconception that will not be a thought until experience combines with a realization in the world of experience. The preconception and realization combine to take form as a concept that can be thought.<ref>Bion, W. (1962) "A theory of thinking". In ''Second thoughts: Selected papers on psycho-analysis'' (pp. 111–119). London: Karnac. 1967</ref><ref>Bion, W. (1977). Two papers: The grid and caesura. Karnac: London.</ref><ref>Ogden, T. (1990). ''The matrix of the mind: Object relations and the psychoanalytic dialogue''. Lanham, MD: Aronson.</ref> The classic example of this is the infant's observed rooting for the nipple in the first hours of life. The instinctual rooting is the preconception. The provision of the nipple provides the realization in the world of experience, and through time, with repeated experience, the preconception and realization combined to create the concept. Mental capacity builds upon previous experience as the environment and infant interact.
<blockquote>
The first bodily experiences begin to build up the first memories, and external realities are progressively woven into the texture of phantasy. Before long, the child's phantasies are able to draw upon plastic images as well as sensations—visual, auditory, kinæsthetic, touch, taste, smell images, etc. And these plastic images and dramatic representations of phantasy are progressively elaborated along with articulated perceptions of the external world.<ref>Isaacs, S. (1948). "The Nature and Function of Phantasy". ''International Journal of Psycho-Analysis'', v. 29, pp. 73–98 . Retrieved December 17, 2007 from PEP Archive.</ref>
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With adequate care, the infant is able to tolerate increasing awareness of experience which is underlain by unconscious phantasy and leads to attainment of consecutive developmental achievements, "the positions" in Kleinian theory.