Traumatism, memory and fantasy: the psychological reality

With the ranging 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 rigourous 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. The author underlines the specifically 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.