Function Of Fantasy Research Articles

Adventures of pleasure: conceptualising consensual bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism as a form of adult play

ABSTRACTThis paper will illustrate how the consensual sexual practice of bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism (BDSM) can be interpreted as a form of adult play. Terminology and language used by BDSM practitioners frequently drawn from imagery of play, fun and games and narratives around BDSM-related activities are reflective of this. Drawing upon empirical data along with various psychological and sociological theoretical perspectives, this paper will explore the conceptualisation of consensual BDSM as a form of adult erotic play. Vygotsky proposed that fantasy play is a tool used by children for the purpose of liberating themselves from situational constraints, thus enabling them to explore thoughts, behaviours and emotions that would not otherwise be possible. The current paper argues that this function of fantasy can be applied to adult practitioners of BDSM, and advances this argument by theorising that consensual BDSM is a form of socio-dramatic play for adults, which serves an erotic and/or pleasurable purpose. Play enables experimentation with creativity, language, physical nuances and social roles and conventions; this paper argues that engaging in BDSM allows similar experimentation with gender, social non-conventions and physical and psychological sensations, and proposes that this kind of adult play is signified by an erotic element. Taken from a wider study into the lived experience of consensual BDSM, data were collected via nine in-depth, semi-structured interviews with self-identified BDSM practitioners in the United Kingdom recruited using a snowball sample, and analysed using the template approach within an interpretive phenomenological framework, as described by Merleau-Ponty, M. [(1945/1962). The phenomenology of percepetion (C Smith, trans.). London: Routledge]. The participant experiences elicited in the research reveal commonalities between their engagement as adults in BDSM and typical features of socio-dramatic play in children, such as the role of imagination, the creation and maintenance of a separate reality and a sense of fun.

Le désir et la trace : écritures de l’impensable

ObjectivesThe aim of this article is to explore the function of the unconscious trace in its articulations with desire and with the effects of creation. Starting from the psychoanalytic field, the article explores the areas of art history and aesthetics, since art and creation (literary or other) are the receptacles of the unthinkable. Returning to the idea that the artist is in advance of the psychoanalyst, this article proposes to distinguish the function of aesthetic emotion and creation in the way the real is processed, in particular the emergence of writing for two subjects, one the analysand and the other the writer. MethodThis article sets three elements in perspective: (a) questioning derived from the author's analytical practice, where aesthetic emotion in the processing of the real has proved crucial; (b) theoretical considerations on the notions of trace and detail set in the area of psychoanalysis, aesthetics and art history; (c) consideration of a fragment of analysis derived from the author's clinical practice, and of the works of a writer. This method is in tune with the tripartite nature of psychoanalysis itself – treatment, research, conceptualisation – and it opens up towards other domains liable to cast light on the issues of the unconscious: aesthetics, art history, literature. ResultsThis article shows the importance of the trace in the psychoanalytic process and the recognition of the unconscious. It evidences the conceptions of history and time that are specific to subjectivity, and restates that the psychoanalytic cure, far from seeking to fill the gaps in memory, focuses on a form of deconstruction aimed at the subject's fantasy. Following the path from remembrance to fantasy is not possible without working on the trace and the drive that it entails. The trace, like the symptom, calls up the real for the subject, and its interpretation relates to subjective truth. The analytic experience and the aesthetic experience are presented here for what they have in common–they find their orientation from the real. The exploration of the trace with the artist or the art historian shows the paradox of any processing of “a real”: sometimes approached as a sedimented narrative, sometimes as the blow of a truth, as a break. This shows that there is no possible processing of the real without accepting the unexpected and the unforeseen, and that in this journey aesthetic emotion can have a knotting function. DiscussionThis article proposes consideration of the trace underpinning the origins of psychoanalysis. The links between the trace, its registration, and subjective truth are examined. The function of fantasy in the reshaping of the trace and the real is also explored. The work by Carlo Ginzburg, Jacques Rancière and Daniel Arasse open up the exploration of the trace towards the domains of aesthetics and art history, and evidence the paradox that is specific to any processing of the real. The aesthetic dimension of the unconscious is broached and discussed on the basis of the trace and detail. The function of beauty in the relationship of the subject with the real and the emergence of creation is explored by way of the narrative of a subject and the work by Imre Kertesz. The article focuses on the idea that in the move from aesthetics to subjective truth there is an ethical challenge. ConclusionThe article sets out a general conclusion returning to a conception of history and time that is specific to subjectivity. In the issue of the trace, there is a major challenge for the recognition of unconscious desire and humanness itself: the function of the trace is linked to the question of causality, and subjective response in the encounter with the real. Aesthetics and art history open up these considerations towards other areas of efficacy of the unconscious, and the question of aesthetic emotion can be seen in its specific knot function.

Parental Presence and Countertransference Phenomena in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Children and Adolescents

One of the characteristics of psychotherapeutic work with children and adolescents is parental presence, which introduces additional parameters into the setting and function of the therapist. Parental presence makes the existence of the external world constantly present, increasing the risk of bias in interpreting and understanding the intrapsychic world. Interference is common in the therapeutic setting, and mostly challenges the therapist's tolerance. Meetings with parents may trigger fantasies in the therapist's mind, which interfere with the game of identifications with the child and the fantasized parents. The common bond with the child creates conscious and unconscious reactions, and there is always the risk of the therapist being overwhelmed and losing his or her capacity to understand object relations and transference phenomena. The therapist's function may be influenced either through weakening of the symbolizing capability or through hampering the capability to understand the child's function of fantasy. Parents are always present, while the therapist's countertransference movements evolve. Given that the technique of interpretation is not always available, the main goal is to use countertransference challenges in the service of the child's psychotherapy, by understanding the child's internal reality, resistance, and experience, as well as the intensity and nature of external experiences within the family.

The Function of Fantasy as a Subversive Genre in Literature

The Function of Fantasy as a Subversive Genre in Literature

Sustainable Fictions – Geographical, Literary and Cultural Intersections in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien s The Lord of the Rings (1954/1955), one of the founding texts of fantasy literature and the centrepiece of a number of writings about the geography, history and mythology of ‘Middle-earth’, has long become a cult phenomenon. We argue that in this influential text, Tolkien offers a fictional exploration of sustainability. Combining an application of Geographic Information System techniques with textual analysis and interpreting text and spatial data in conjunction, we show that there is a systematically varying distance between our real world and the physical features of Tolkien's ‘Secondary World’, as regards climate and vegetation patterns. There is an emphasis on land degeneration, a ‘missing forest problem’ which prompts a closer look at the role of woods and trees in Tolkien's work. It emerges that the preservation of trees is at the centre of Tolkien's sustainable fictions. For the author, it was a function of fantasy, which he sets against a dystopian and secular modernism as well as the destructive aspects of modernity, to provide (positive) ‘escape’, ‘consolation’ and ‘recovery’, which is achieved through a final vision of the successful preservation of the environment.

The Fantasy of the Elite Force Aviator: On Dolls and Desire

This article explores the relationship between mimesis and fantasy. Taking as its starting point James DerDerian's claims regarding the changing face of the military-industrial complex and its increasing use of the entertainment and cultural industries, the article argues that this move can only be fully understood if it is viewed alongside a consideration of the ideological function of fantasy, especially as it is set out in the work of Slavoj Žižek. The article focuses on one particular piece of mimesis, namely the “Elite Force Aviator: George W. Bush 12-inch Action Figure” to explore the phantasmatic kernel of the war on terror. The article also considers how the global image sphere has become the site for a conflict between competing fantasies, and aims to show how certain examples of countermimesis might be used to break the hold of the fantasies that currently coordinate our reality.

Sex, shame and the transcendent function: the function of fantasy in self development

This paper explores a developmental approach to the sense of self-agency and to its influence on conscious and unconscious fantasy. I suggest that the emerging sense of self-agency offers an over-arching framework for our understanding of the nature and function of fantasy. In this context, intrusive and compulsive sexual fantasies which a person experiences as perverted and shameful, can be seen to serve differing psychic purposes, depending on the level of self-agency which is predominant. The fantasies can serve both as warning signals of the dangers of relationship and as opportunities for the mind to reflect on its own processes. Differing psychodynamic theories of fantasy are examined in terms of the developmental sense of self-agency that they represent.

Psychoanalysis and sexual fantasies.

Psychoanalysis began as a depth psychology, heavily based on the sexual experiences and memories of patients. A long-term treatment, utilizing a free association method, psychoanalysis has provided a window onto the meanings and functions of fantasy, including sexual fantasy. Although psychoanalysis has produced some scientific research, the field has tended to rely on observational data collected from individuals studied in depth. Sex research on the other hand, carried out by investigators from different disciplines is based on empirical investigation. Each field has made contributions fundamentally important to the other. In this article, we review psychoanalytic ideas about human sexuality and distinguish those that have been invalidated by systematic research from those that remain useful. Perhaps, the single most important revision of psychoanalytic theory during the past century was concerned with the psychological development of girls and women. We separately discuss the development of the sexes, and stress the need for bridge building between psychoanalysis and sex research.

Sex differences in the frequency and functions of fantasies during sexual activity

A questionnaire about the frequency and effects of different thoughts during heterosexual activity was returned by 66 females and 75 males in a random sample of college undergraduates and graduate students. A high response rate (91%) was obtained, and the male and female respondents were shown to be generally similar in sexual experience. Frequency data confirmed an earlier study of the same population in finding that, during sexual activity, males think more about past sexual experiences and ongoing behavior, while females think more about imaginary experiences. Effects data indicated that these frequency differences occur because females use fantasy more than males to increase arousal, to decrease anxiety about sexual activity, to compensate for less-than-ideal sexual experience, and to enhance even a satisfactory experience. Males, in contrast, use thoughts of real experience more often than females to increase arousal and to control and direct sexual activity.

Structure and Functions of Fantasy

Structure and Functions of Fantasy

A function of fantasy in the borderline child.

Borderline children have made a partial commitment to the independent reality of the external world, but their integration with external reality is markedly incomplete. The Borderline Study Group, working with a patient group of eight children, focuses on the commitment to the narcissistic world of the pleasure ego, as expressed in the childrens' fantasies. The notion that borderline conditions reflect an incomplete transition from the pleasure to the reality ego suggests important directions for study.