Sexual Fantasy, unconscious phantasy, and the dynamics of attachment

We are delighted to welcome Dr Christopher Clulow to present the second webinar in our 2025 series on sexuality and desire. As dreams pave the royal road to the unconscious, sexual fantasies can provide a lens through which to understand unconscious phantasies. Fantasy-driven sexual encounters (enacted privately, within a couple's relationship, or outside of it) can express emotional conflict that is rooted in developmental experiences. In this webinar, Dr Clulow will illustrate how the dynamics of attachment are linked with the expression and form of sexual fantasy, and how the unconscious phantasies that shape the internal world of object relations are linked with the conscious imaginings of daydreams. Integrating psychoanalytic and attachment theory, it will be explored how by attending to sexual fantasies (which are more commonly enacted rather than spoken about in the context of couple psychotherapy), clinicians may be able to help couples to explore and modify dynamics that inhibit adult intimacy.

Dr Christopher Clulow is a Consultant Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, a Senior Fellow of the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology, and a Fellow of the Centre for Social Policy, Dartington. He is a past Director of Tavistock Relationships, and until recently was editor-in-chief of the international journal Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. He has published extensively on couple and family relationships, most recently from an attachment perspective, and continues in an emeritus capacity to teach in the UK and abroad.

Ticket holders will receive access to a recording of the webinar following the event.

CPD points have been applied for