The stuff of dreams : fantasy, anxiety, and psychoanalysis

190 Pages·2007·0.51 MB·English

by  Hall

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THE STUFF OF DREAMS
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THE STUFF
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OF DREAMS
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2 Fantasy, Anxiety and Psychoanalysis
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8 Kirsty Hall
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KARNAC
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First published in 2007 by
Karnac Books Ltd.
118 Finchley Road
London NW3 5HT
Copyright © Kirsty Hall 2007
The rights of Kirsty Hall to be identified as the sole author of this work have
been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978-1-85575-496-6
Edited, designed, and produced by Florence Production Ltd,
www.florenceproduction.co.uk
Printed in Great Britain
www.karnacbooks.com
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7222 For Chris, Duncan and Martin
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7222 CONTENTS
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5222 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii
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8 Introduction 1
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20 1 Variations on a theme of negation 11
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2 2 Other minds, other worlds 29
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4 3 Working without a safety net 44
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6 4 What happens when the plot gets lost 65
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8 5 Gothic tales and other stories 83
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30 6 I believe ... 109
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2 7 The meaning of fantasy and anxiety 136
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4 8 Fantasy terminable and interminable 155
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7 REFERENCES 171
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INDEX 176
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The ideas that form the core of this book started out in a rather
different guise. I thought I might write something about the
problematic distinction between training and education.
Fantasies and anxieties intervened, and --at an early stage of writing
it gradually became clear that this is a project of a very different
kind—an exploration of the curious relationship between fantasy on
the one hand and anxiety on the other. In fact of course, they cannot
really be so simply separated, since one often engenders and/or
temporarily dispels or displaces the other. The process of writing has
largely been a part of my education rather than a training exercise
since, in my view, fantasies play a large part in education and have
only a minor place in training. Writing itself is often an act of
fantasising in the face of anxiety.
I owe a debt to many people. I wish to thank Pat Elliot for her
careful reading and comments on many of the chapters in the book,
often at an early stage of drafting and for keeping me up to date
with the change of the seasons in Canada. Susan Budd encouraged
me to read more widely for the chapter on religion in the course of
our stimulating walks on Hampstead Heath. Philip Derbyshire
pointed out that my analysis of anxiety needed reworking. My
colleagues during my time at Middlesex University, Bernard
Burgoyne, Alan Rowan, Julia Borossa and Lucia Corti patiently
listened to my account of the book’s progress at many stages and
offered at various times, advice, information, critical dissection of
some of its key themes and support throughout. Carla Lathe and her
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
122 husband Anthony sharpened up the introduction. Students and
2 members of the Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and the Guild
3 of Psychotherapists have heard about parts of this book as work in
4 progress and provided welcome comments and criticism.
5 Finally, my family have patiently read and commented on chap-
6 ters of the book over the years and put up with the well-worn phrase,
7222 “it’s nearly finished”. Now it is. The errors, omissions and opinions
8 expressed in this book are all my responsibility.
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10 Extracts from the following work is reprinted with permission:
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2 Quotations from Kinks, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, The Sanctuary
3 Group plc. DEDICATEDFOLLOWEROFFASHION – Words and
4 Music by Ray Davies – © 1966 Davray Music Ltd and Carlin Music Corp
5222 London NW1 8BD – All Rights Reserved – Used by Permission.
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7 Kirsty Hall
8 October 2006
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