A phantasy of infection.

'A phantasy of infection' is a case study of the role of unconscious phantasy in the experience of illness. This paper discusses a phantasy that was brought to light during the psychoanalysis of a homosexual man who has been diagnosed as HIV-positive. The paper concentrates on the difference between this patient's conscious knowledge of his infection and an unconscious phantasy which was reawakened and elaborated in this situation. Detailed clinical material is presented to illustrate the point that the often unexpected and strange relation the patient has to his infection can be explained only through an understanding of such unconscious phantasies as they are lived-out and analysed in the transference.