Summary In opposition to the traditional empiricist understanding of phantasy as a copy of perception and therefore as a weakened form of experience, this paper interprets phantasy as an independent and creative modus of consciousness that is responsible for the individuation of the subject. The article reconstructs Husserl’s approach to phantasy as a specific kind of intentional operation as well as its relationship with mood-intentionality, bodily-kinesthetic expressivity and with hyletic anticipation as a structure of sensibility. In this way, the bi-valence (...) of human experiential orders is claimed and the concept of bodily phantasy is pointed out. This leads the phenomenological analysis closer to the psychoanalytical approach to fantasy. The latter is investigated with reference to Freud’s concept of primary processual thinking and Gaddini’s understanding of bodily phantasy as a specific individuation factor within the personal history of bonding. (shrink)

Recent research has revealed the widespread effects of emotion on cognitive functions and memory. However, the influence of emotional valence on verbal short-term memory remains largely unexplored, especially in children. This study measured the effect of emotional valence on word immediate serial recall in 4–6-year-old French children (N = 124). Results show a robust effect of emotional valence on recall performances and recall errors. More precisely, we observed a facilitating effect of the positive valence of words: it allows better performance (...) and causes few recall errors. On the contrary, the data indicated a disruptive impact of negative word valence: the latter causes very low recall performance and is associated with a high proportion of recall errors. These findings add new evidence of the influence of emotion on children’s verbal short-term memory. Our results are discussed in relation to current semantic and attentional explanations of the emotional enhancement of memory. (shrink)