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PubMed1992

Effects of fantasy contexts on children's learning and motivation: making learning more fun.

Two studies examined the effects of embedding instructional materials in relevant fantasy contexts on children's motivation and learning. In Study 1, Ss showed marked preferences for computer-based educational programs that involved fantasy elements. In Study 2, Ss worked with these programs for 5 hr. One program presented purely abstract problems. Others presented identical problems within fantasy contexts. Some Ss chose among 3 fantasies; others were assigned identical fantasies. Tests on the material occurred before, immediately after, and 2 weeks after the experimental sessions. Ss showed significantly greater learning and transfer in the fantasy than in the no-fantasy conditions. Having a choice of fantasies made no difference. Motivational and individualization strategies for enhancing interest and promoting learning are discussed.

Achievement↗
PubMed2002

The analysis of a pre-adolescent girl with primal scene fantasies.

This paper presents the analysis of Daphne, a ten-year-old girl whose prominent primal scene fantasies organized the analytic process in a rather unusual way, creating challenging technical problems and offering the analyst the opportunity to learn more about the formation of primal scene fantasies and their potential impact on psychic development and function. The data are consistent with the view that primal scene fantasies become organized in response to the cognitive requirements of development--to answer the enigmas of sexual difference, genital sensations, procreation, and parental rejection; that these fantasies arise from phase-specific libidinal and aggressive struggles such as voyeurism, exhibitionism, sadism, and homoerotic fantasy; and that they influence superego development. Daphne, however, appeared to have used the primal scene fantasy in a rather extraordinary way to organize and integrate the vicissitudes of development and especially to master conflict. Moreover, the analytic work demonstrates the technical difficulty of distinguishing between primal scene fantasy and primal scene exposure. Another technical issue was raised by the remarkable discrepancy between this little girl's relatively high functioning behavior and demeanor both in school and at home, and the outpouring of sexual material that emerged and flooded our sessions. Why was there such a discrepancy? How should I manage the sexualized nature of the material? Several colleagues, reflecting on the overstimulated quality of the analytic productions, questioned whether I "should have done something" to stop it. In the hours, I certainly felt perplexed by the discontinuity between her presentation and her fantasies. Thus, I ask the reader to follow me in the process of uncovering the particular way in which the analytic data revealed themselves.

Child↗
PubMed1992

Associations between sexual experiences and fantasies in a nonpatient population: a preliminary study.

We have been interested in devising some methodology short of psychoanalytic therapy to study the relationship of conscious fantasy to personality trends and behavior. Presented here is a pilot study, utilizing the questionnaire technique, the sample consisting of 193 students enrolled at one prestigious urban university, that reports on the prevalence and content of conscious sexual fantasies in a normal (nonpatient) population and their relationship to sexual behaviors. Factor analysis suggested four experience and four fantasy clusters. Those individuals who score high on one experience factor are apt to score high on all other experience factors as well. The same is true of the fantasy factors. Our findings indicate that low sexual activity and low levels of sexual fantasy go together, whereas more sexual experience is connected to a greater range of sexual fantasy. Consequently, erotic fantasies cannot be viewed as compensation for lack of sexual outlet. Instead, there is a positive correlation between the two domains of sexual fantasies and sexual behaviors. Our overall results lead us to conclude that by and large, people are sexual generalists not specialists.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Use of a Holocaust fantasy for the consolidation of identity.

The early phases of an analysis are presented to describe a Jewish woman who, in her adolescence, chose a Holocaust fantasy as a means of consolidating her sense of identity. Her fantasy did what any fantasy or symptom does: it served as a compromise formation allowing expression of unacceptable drives while at the same time displacing, disguising, and defending against those drives. This fantasy was unique, however, because the Holocaust was a real event. Two questions are raised: Did the quality of her drives or her fears of them influence her choice of this particular fantasy? Once chosen, did the use of a fantasy based on a reality contribute to the development of her rigid character structure? Similarities between this woman and Holocaust survivors are noted. It was felt that she differed from Holocaust survivors in that she could choose this fantasy, which would have been too real for a Holocaust survivor, and she could use this fantasy constructively to work through intrapsychic conflicts.

Concentration Camps↗
PubMed2004

Power, desire, and pleasure in sexual fantasies.

One hundred and sixty-two participants (ages 21-45) wrote open-ended sexual fantasies and completed self-report measures of rape myth acceptance, adversarial sexual beliefs, and attitudes toward women. We coded fantasies using a newly developed scoring system that includes themes of dominance, submission, sexual pleasure, and sexual desire. Men fantasized about dominance more than women did; they also tended to focus more on the desire and pleasure of their partner. Desire and pleasure were more closely linked in the fantasies of men than in the fantasies of women, for whom the two were distinct constructs. Although fantasies of submission were not associated with problematic attitudes for either gender, men's fantasies of dominance were associated with greater acceptance of rape myths. For women, greater rape myth acceptance was associated with emotional and romantic fantasy themes.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Sexual fantasies of sexually distressed and nondistressed men and women: an empirical comparison.

Sexual fantasies are seen as an important source of information and a modality for treatment procedures in sex therapy programs. While drive-reduction models view fantasy as a symptom of a deficiency state, cognitive-behavioral approaches take fantasies as an index of a satisfying sex life. While current data tend to support the behavioral position, no systematic comparison has been undertaken of men and women with and without sexual distress. This study compared written examples of sexual daydreaming, masturbatory and coital fantasies as well as habitual patterns of employing fantasies during sexual activities of the above mentioned groups. Other psychotherapy clients served as control. Sex differences were sparse and the comparison between distressed and nondistressed tended to support the behavioral position. Although sexual fantasizing is positively related to a satisfying sex life, fantasies are often used for reducing aversive emotions. Subjects older than 35 years showed fewer fantasies and lower correlations between daydreaming and sexual activity.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Sexual fantasy and activity patterns of males with inhibited sexual desire and males with erectile dysfunction versus normal controls.

The fantasy patterns of patients with sexual difficulties have only recently received attention. Research has shown that females with inhibited sexual desire fantasize less than normal controls during foreplay and coitus, masturbation, and general daydreaming. This study is a continuation of the investigation of sexual fantasy and activity patterns and specific sexual dysfunctions. A fantasy questionnaire was completed by 37 men reporting a satisfying sex life and 35 males who came to a sexual dysfunction clinic complaining of either erectile dysfunction or inhibited sexual desire. This study indicates the frequency of sexual fantasy during foreplay and/or coitus, during general daydreaming and during masturbation is significantly less in the inhibited sexual desire males than in the control group and/or the erectile dysfunction group. The erectile dysfunction group and the control group were virtually identical in their frequency of fantasy during foreplay and/or coitus. The content of fantasies in all three groups is similar. The frequency of fantasy during masturbation was greatest in the erectile dysfunction group. The frequency of masturbation was greatest in the inhibited sexual desire males.

Coitus↗
PubMed1990

Fantasy formation: a child analyst's perspective.

Unconscious fantasy is the principal unit of psychoanalytic investigation. Though individual fantasies, either conscious or unconscious, may emphasize drive, defense, or superego interests, all fantasy life develops from a limited number of themes; these themes concern drive-related issues, experiences of helplessness, or combinations of both. Fantasy formation and fantasy content undergo developmental change. Sensorimotor, behavioral memories occur prior to fantasy and are influential in determining repetitive behavioral enactments. The complexities of infant behavior do not require the postulation of fantasy or representational memory. A complex, innate, instinctual organization of the newborn, similar in many respects to that of other newborn mammals, and distinct from the psychological organization of the older infant, is suggested as an explanation of these phenomena.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

"Someday ..." and "if only ..." fantasies: pathological optimism and inordinate nostalgia as related forms of idealization.

Fantasies whose core is constituted by the notions of "someday" and "if only" are ubiquitous in human psyche. In severe character pathology, however, these fantasies have a particularly tenacious, defensive, and ego-depleting quality. The "someday" fantasy idealizes the future and fosters optimism, and the "if only" fantasy idealizes the past and lays the groundwork for nostalgia. The two fantasies originate in the narcissistic disequilibrium consequent upon the early mother-child separation experiences, though the oedipal conflict also contributes to them. Both can be employed as defenses against defective self and object constancy as well as later narclssistic and oedipal traumas. This paper attempts to highlight the metapsychology and behavioral consequences of these fantasies as well as their unfolding in the treatment situation. It suggests six tasks to be especially important for analytic work with such patients: (1) providing and sustaining a meaningful "holding environment"; (2) employing "affirmative interventions"; (3) helping the patient unmask these fantasies and interpreting their defensive, narcissistic and sadomasochistic aspects; (4) rupturing the patient's excessive hope, analyzing the effects of such rupture, and facilitating the resultant mourning; (5) reconstructing the early scenarios underlying the need for excessive hope; and (6) paying careful attention to countertransference feelings throughout such work.

Countertransference↗
PubMed2002

Assessment of the Wilson Sex Fantasy Questionnaire among child molesters and nonsexual forensic offenders.

The Wilson Sex Fantasy Questionnaire (WSFQ; Wilson, 1978) is a 40-item self-report questionnaire that assesses 4 types of sexual fantasies: Exploratory, Intimate, Impersonal, and Sadomasochistic. The goal of the present study was to examine the differences between child molesters (n = 64) and nonsexual offenders (n = 41) on the WSFQ. Comparisons included the four underlying factors, 2 factors associated with the fantasizer's role in the fantasy (active vs. passive), and 2 items most closely related to sexual molestation behavior. Results found that molesters reported higher scores on the Exploratory and Intimate subscales, as well as overall fantasy. Scores on the Impersonal and Sadomasochistic subscales were not significantly different. Molesters also reported higher scores on fantasies where they were the actor, and higher scores on fantasies most closely related to sexual molestation behavior. Subsequent analyses found that both offender groups reported significantly lower levels of fantasies than college comparison subjects and noncriminal sexual deviants. Differences among the 2 study groups are discussed in terms of social and cognitive characteristics of molesters.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

The 'Medea fantasy'. An unconscious determinant of psychogenic sterility.

The author begins by pointing out that myths have always been powerful vehicles for the projection of ubiquitous unconscious fantasies. Having noted the importance of certain male protagonists of the Greek myths in Freud's theories, she observes that their female counterparts exert an equal fascination and suggests that the Medea myth as recounted by Euripides can be invoked to elucidate a central unconscious fantasy found to underlie the psychogenic frigidity and sterility of several of her female patients. The manifestation of this 'Medea fantasy' is illustrated by a clinical account in which a dream is analysed. The author next summarises the Medea story as told by Euripides and attempts a psychoanalytic interpretation of it. She draws attention to features of the 'unconscious truth' inherent in the myth that were shared by all the members of her group of patients. A case history then shows how the progressive understanding and working through of the Medea fantasy led to a change in the analysand's experience of femininity and enabled her to have children. It is postulated that both early infantile sexual fantasies and repressed memories of early object-relations traumas such as maternal depression combine with ubiquitous bodily fantasies to produce the unconscious Medea fantasy.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

History of child sexual abuse and adult sexual fantasies.

The study investigated the hypothesis that women with a history of childhood sexual abuse would report different sexual fantasies from women with no childhood sexual abuse. Women with a history of abuse had more force in their fantasies, had more sexually explicit fantasies, began having sexual fantasies at a younger age, and had more fantasies with the theme of being under someone's control. Women with a history of childhood physical abuse did not have a similar pattern. It was suggested that the sexual fantasies may reflect the sexualizing effect of childhood sexual experiences and that fantasies of the abusive experience may become intrusive.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

On some relationships of fantasies of perfection to the calamities of childhood.

In this paper narcissism conceived of as a fantasy of perfection is further redefined within an evolving structural model of psychic conflict. In pursuit of this goal a number of related propositions are explored. 1. A fantasy of perfection is best thought of as a compromise formation. 2. Fantasies of perfection have a development that is influenced, in part, by the development of the calamities of childhood. 3. Fantasies of perfection function as defences to diminish unpleasure associated with conflict. From this perspective a fantasy of perfection is a component of compromise formations. 4. The threat of the loss of the fantasy of perfection evokes anxiety while the sense the loss has occurred is associated with the experience of depressive affect. 5. Fantasies of perfection are important aspects of the compromise formations that constitute the superego. They are also important components of masochistic and narcissistic compromise formations characteristic of aspects of the ego. These compromise formations are intimately related to defensive identificatory relationships between the ego and superego. Analytic data are presented to demonstrate the value of these theoretical considerations.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

On the universal nature of primal scene fantasies.

The scope of this paper is limited to inspecting primal scene fantasies, their meaning and function, as part of the primary organizing fantasies in the psychosexual development of the human being. The aim is to examine how primal scene fantasies, throughout life, reflect the shaping of oedipal sexuality. An infant cannot cathect the use of genital functions or their psychic contents by practising them with his more knowledgeable parents or caring persons. In order to alleviate this deprivation the child creates fantasy self objects, proto fantasies of his sexual parents with whom, in the form of primal scene fantasies, he then tries to work out his sexual libido. In our opinion, the formless, psychically non-structuralized impulses of genital-oedipal sexuality tend to awaken an inner state of mind at any stage of life in which the infantile primitive dynamics, helplessness and readiness to destroy, are again repeated. Not only oral desire and the breast alone are 'good' or 'bad'. The same dynamics apply to every impulse for which the actual capacity for psychic work is insufficient. The new inner impulses brought along with progressing psychosexual development can create such a situation. The unstable cathexis of genital-oedipal sexuality is the universal fate of a human being. The child cannot participate in the sexual activities of adulthood, and is unable to cathect his genital functions under real conditions and with real partners. The cathectic wound thus inflicted on the self and the exclusion experienced are essentially bound together. The theme of inclusion or exclusion, so intertwined with the primal scene fantasies, concerns not only object relations, but self-esteem as well.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Sustaining fantasies and psychopathology in a normal sample.

This study tested the hypothesis that the types of sustaining fantasy (fantasy used as a source of comfort at times of high stress) previously found to be associated with inpatient status also would be related to indications of psychopathology in a college sample (N = 124). The Sustaining Fantasy Questionnaire (SFQ; Zelin et al., 1983) provided a measure of fantasies of power/revenge, death/illness, withdrawal/protection, suffering, love/closeness, and restitution. The F scale of the MMPI and the number of MMPI clinical scales at or above 70 were used as the measures of general pathology. Results indicated that four of the hypothesized six types of fantasy-power/revenge, death/illness, withdrawal/protection, and suffering-related to psychopathology. No specific configuration of scores on the MMPI clinical scales was noted for any of these four types of fantasy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Correlates of fantasy-induced and film-induced male sexual arousal.

Penile circumference and subjective arousal were recorded while 66 men attempted to achieve erection by engaging in fantasy. Similar measures were taken while the same men viewed an erotic film. Not only was fantasy-induced sexual arousal relatively unrelated to film-induced sexual arousal, but the two sets of measures had different correlates. Over and above the contribution attributable to demographic and state variables, the subjects' rated level of fantasy during masturbation and their scores on the Betts QMI Scales predicted significant variance in subjective and physiological arousal. Subjects with low and high levels of fantasy-induced sexual arousal were differentiated on the basis of the vividness of their mental imagery as well as the frequency with which they used the most erotic sexual fantasies when attempting to achieve erection. In contrast to fantasy-induced arousal, film-induced arousal levels were independent of a person's capacity to form images.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Men's erotic fantasies.

Ninety-four men were interviewed about their erotic fantasies. The majority of these men were married and the average duration of cohabitation with a woman was 6.5 years. All admitted to having had erotic fantasies outside their sexual activity and a large majority among them fantasized, at least occasionally, during heterosexual activity and masturbation. The contents during heterosexual activity center on three main themes: confirmation of sexual power, aggressiveness, and masochistic fantasies. Men who have more erotic fantasies during their heterosexual activity have the following characteristics: They have more frequent erotic fantasies outside of sexual activity, they are capable of controlling the timing of ejaculation during coitus, they usually take an active role during their sexual activity, they claim that their regular partner has similar erotic fantasies, they state that their ejaculatory pleasure is more intense when it results from manual or oral caress performed by their partner, they prefer the rear entry coital position, they find seminakedness more erotic than the complete nakedness of a woman, they prefer and have sexual activity during the night, they have had homosexual activities sometime during their life, they tend to leave it to their partner to initiate sexual encounters, and they have experienced psychotherapy.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Rape fantasies as a function of exposure to violent sexual stimuli.

Twenty-nine male students, classified on the basis of questionnaire responses as sexually force oriented or non-force oriented, were randomly assigned to exposure to rape or mutually-consenting versions of a slide-audio show. All subjects were then exposed to the same audio description of a rape read by a female. They were later asked to create their own fantasies. Penile tumescence and self-reports of arousal indicated that relatively high levels of sexual arousal were generated by all of the experimental stimuli. No differences in arousal during the exposure phase were found as a function of the manipulation in the content of the slide-audio show. Sexual arousal during the fantasy period, assessed by means of self-reports, indicated that those who had been classified as force oriented created more arousing fantasies after having been exposed to the rape version of the show, whereas those classified as non-force oriented created more arousing fantasies following the mutually-consenting version. Most significantly, those exposed to the rape version, irrespective of their sexual classification, created more violent sexual fantasies than those exposed to the mutually-consenting version. The possible role of such media-elicited fantasies in the development of antisocial attitudes and behavior is considered. Also discussed are ethical issues arising from implementing or failing to implement research in this area.

Arousal↗