Fantasy and the Fear of Infanticide

Although the psyche employs many defenses to ensure its survival, perhaps it has created no more subtle or complex tool for that purpose than fantasy. How can one define it or begin to translate with any degree of accuracy its elusive essence? The first task is to acknowledge its presence—its ever-presence. Whether we observe the play of a young child or the communications of an adult, we inevitably become aware of a hidden dimension that frequently appears to direct what is going on. Just as there are individuals who deny dreaming, so are there those who appear not to fantasy. The absence of fantasy, however, is as diagnostic of unconscious psychic functioning as its presence. Fantasy-making appears to come as naturally to most children as breathing; their lives appear to require it. A child's reluctance, refusal or inability to reveal any fantasy, as well as his immersion in it, therefore suggests the possibility of an unusual degree of pathology. There is no reason to believe that because fantasy is less evident in the lives of adults, either, it does not continue to play a significant and frequendy determining role. Defensive fantasies are the product of necessity and arise or disappear in response to the demands of inner and outer reality.

Exploring the defensive uses of fantasy carries us from the classical to the modern age of psychoanalysis, from the era of the nuclear concept of the Oedipus complex to the current acceptance of the central position of the parent-child relationship. Although nearly three-quarters of a century have passed since the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams and almost fifty years since Freud's last modification of his theory of fantasy, there have been few really significant additions to his concepts. In searching for the causes of this phenomenon,