Fantasy, Psychoanalysis 

Freud placed dreams at center stage of our psychic lives, relegating fantasy to a minor role, and even claiming that happy people do not fantasize. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Person challenges this view, arguing that, far from being only a substitute gratification, fantasy is central to our lives and essential to our well-being. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly While many people?as well as early psychoanalytical theorists?discounted fantasies and daydreams as insignificant, such essential constructs help charge and organize our lives and even contribute to cultural formulation and change, argues clinical psychiatrist Person (Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters). For this accessible, textured and thought-provoking study, she draws on patient anecdotes, interviews and research data. Fantasies assuage needs beyond those of sex or aggression, such as mastery, autonomy and the repair of trauma; Person probes their sources and contents. She also tracks fantasies that unfold and influence life choices, such as "family romances," in which children dream of substitute parents. Other fantasies have broader effects, such as those transmitted from parents or the cultural scripts that help shape male and female identity. Perhaps most intriguing is Person's exploration of the use of borrowed fantasy?such as gay men's affection for iconic divas?and how creative fantasists such as Theodor Herzl transmuted their visions into world-changing actuality. Behavioral Science Book Service and Psychotherapy Book Club alternates. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the Author Ethel S. Person is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. A major contributor to psychiatric and psychoanalytic literature, she is author or editor of ten books, including Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters: The Power of Romantic Love and By Force of Fantasy: How We Live Our Lives. She lectures frequently here and abroad. She lives in New York City. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.