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Sex, shame and the transcendent function: the function of fantasy in self development
Author(s) -
Knox Jean
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of analytical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.285
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1468-5922
pISSN - 0021-8774
DOI - 10.1111/j.0021-8774.2005.00561.x
Subject(s) - fantasy , shame , psychic , psychology , unconscious mind , agency (philosophy) , context (archaeology) , self , psychology of self , sense of agency , psychoanalysis , psychodynamics , social psychology , function (biology) , narcissism , epistemology , philosophy , art , medicine , paleontology , alternative medicine , literature , pathology , evolutionary biology , biology
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.