phantasy

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English[edit]

Noun[edit]

phantasy (countable and uncountable, plural phantasies)

  1. Archaic spelling of fantasy.
    • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIV, in Romance and Reality. [], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, [], →OCLC, page 319:
      What generous self-sacrifice—what a world of gentle affection, were now called forth in Emily by a moment's phantasy, whose life depended on that frailest of frail things, a coquette's vanity!
    • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
      Yet his passion for her had grown fiercer than ever, and he swore to himself that he would win her back from her phantasies.
    • 1931 November–December, H. P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth:
      [] what man has hitherto known only in febrile phantasy and tenuous legend?
  2. (psychology) The innate, mental image of an object; the link between instinct and reality.
    • 1987, Juliet Mitchell, “Introduction”, in Selected Melanie Klein, →ISBN, page 22:
      By later Kleinians and critics alike, phantasy is often seen as identical to Freud's concept of psychic reality.
    • 2013, Lene Austed, quoting Jonathan Davidoff, “Introducing Psychoanalysis and Politics”, in Nationalism and the Body Politic, →ISBN, page 262:
      However, Klein's phantasy is not exactly Lacan's imaginary fantasy; it is, I think, more than that.

Usage notes[edit]

In psychological writing, the spelling phantasy is often used to differentiate the Kleinian concept, which represents an innate unconscious process, from the related Freudian concept fantasy, which is conscious and deliberate.[1]

Verb[edit]

phantasy (third-person singular simple present phantasies, present participle phantasying, simple past and past participle phantasied)

  1. Archaic spelling of fantasy.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Joseph Sandler, Anne-Marie Sandler (1998) Internal Objects Revisited, page xii