The Fantasy Principle

Contemporary psychoanalysis needs less reality and more fantasy; what Michael Vannoy Adams calls the 'fantasy principle'. The Fantasy Principle radically affirms the centrality of imagination. It challenges us to exercise and explore the imagination, shows us how to value vitally important images that emerge from the unconscious, how to evoke such images, and how to engage them decisively. It shows us how to apply Jungian techniques to interpret images accurately and to experience images immediately and intimately through what Jung calls 'active imagination'. The Fantasy Principle makes a strong case for a new school of psychoanalysis - the school of 'imaginal psychology' - which emphasizes the transformative impact of images. All those who desire to give individuals an opportunity to become more imaginative will find this book fascinating reading.

Preface. The Fantasy Principle: Imaginal Psychology and the Dethroning of 'Mr. Reality'. Compensation in the Service of Individuation; Phenomenological Essentialism and Jungian Dream Interpretation. Jungian Post-Structural Theory: Structures versus Constructs. Concepts versus Images. Mythological Knowledge: Just How Important is It in Jungian (and Freudian) Analysis?. The 'Womanning' of Schreber: Catastrophe, Creation, and the Mythopoeic Forces of Mankind. Dreaming of the Ku Klux Klan: 'Race', History, and Culture in Psychoanalysis. Jung, Africa, and the 'Geopathology' of Europe: Psychic Place and Displacement, Refathering Psychoanalysis. Deliteralizing Hillman: Imaginal Therapy, Individual and Cultural. A Baby Is Being Eaten: A Case of Cannibalistic Malpractice and Suicide. The Importance of Being Blasphemous: Profanation versus Resacralization. References.