phantasy

English

Noun

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

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.

Verb

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

1. Archaic spelling of fantasy.

References