Ideas In Psychoanalysis: Phantasy

'Ideas In Psychoanalysis' is a series of essays which explain psychoanalytical concepts, their relevance to everyday life and their ability to illuminate the nature of human society and culture.

Phantasy adds not only pleasure and emotional resonance but also fear and anxiety to everyday experience, and as such is a defining characteristic of what it means to be human. It is an essential - and contentiously debated idea in psychoanalysis, punctuating the dialogue between ourselves and a world that we are forced both to live in, and live through.