Golden fantasy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Golden fantasy is a secret (or not-so-secret) expectation that all of one's problems can be solved by interaction with a perfect and all-caring relationship figure. The fantasy can be found both in psychotherapy and in ordinary life.

Structure[]

The golden fantasy was first named as such by Sidney Smith in 1977.[1] Arguably however, the concept had been anticipated by Karen Horney[2] and by Charles Brenner;[3] and it was rooted in earlier psychoanalytic understanding of passive-receptive mastery.[4]

Such a fantasy may resonate to unfortunate effect with the therapist's own "rescuer" fantasies; and has to be gradually given up and mourned if progress in therapy is to be made.[5] In the form of compulsive acting out of the fantasy in real life, it can constitute a formidable obstacle to analysis of the transference.[6]

Later writers have placed more emphasis on the adaptive nature of the fantasy in ego-maintenance – its role in fending off a primitive sense of angst[7] – and on the necessity of its sensitive handling, to strengthen the therapeutic alliance.[8]

Residential care workers see the fantasy emerging in split form, with carers first seen as fulfilling it in entirety, in opposition to the bad parents; and then the parents being seen as the answer to the golden fantasy, with the care home becoming all bad.[9]

Cultural examples[]

  • Sylvia Plath has been seen as seeking an idealised fantasy partner, able to give her a missing sense of fullness, completeness and perfection.[10]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Glen O. Gabbard, Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (2010) p. 143
  2. ^ I. Solomon, Karen Horney and Character Disorder (2005) p. 98
  3. ^ L. M. Vaillant, Changing Character (1997) p. 136
  4. ^ Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1946) p. 561
  5. ^ Glen O. Gabbard, Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (2010) p. 160 and p. 171-2
  6. ^ I. Solomon, Karen Horney and Character Disorder (2005) p. 98
  7. ^ S. Teitelbaum, Illusion and Disillusion (2007) p. 113
  8. ^ Adaptive nature
  9. ^ D. P. Zimmerman, Psychotherapy in Group Care (2013) p. 67
  10. ^ E. Bronfen, Sylvia Plath (1998) p. 38

Further reading[]

Sidney Smith (1977), "The golden fantasy: a regressive reaction to separation anxiety", International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 58, 311–324

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