BACKGROUND Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a disputed psychiatric disorder. Research findings and clinical observations suggest that DID involves an authentic mental disorder related to factors such as traumatization and disrupted attachment. A competing view indicates that DID is due to fantasy proneness, suggestibility, suggestion, and role-playing. Here we examine whether dissociativ...

1 Jacques Lacan had theorized that as human beings, "we have no power of our own, we construct a self in fantasy to make life bearable." 1 Fantasy becomes the primary domain for us to console ourselves, since, according to Slavoj Zizek, "fantasy space functions as an empty surface, as a kind of screen for the projection of desires: the fascinating presence of its positive contents does nothing ...

By doing history of psychology, we occasionally find areas of inquiry that have been forgotten in contemporary psychological language. One of these themes is fantasy. In this lecture I present some major contributions to fantasy before the establishment of scientific psychology. The exploration will begin with J.W. Goethe’s (1810) fourfold conception of the human soul: fantasy [Einbildungskraft...

The concept of intrinsic fantasy has been considered central to the aim of usefully applying the positive affect of computer games to learning. Games with intrinsic fantasy are defined as having “an integral and continuing relationship with the instructional content being presented”, and are claimed as “more interesting and more educational” than extrinsic fantasy games [1]. Studies of children...

The concept of intrinsic fantasy has been considered central to the aim of usefully applying the positive affect of computer games to learning. Games with intrinsic fantasy are defined as having “an integral and continuing relationship with the instructional content being presented”, and are claimed as “more interesting and more educational” than extrinsic fantasy games [1]. Studies of children...

A utopian political theory (UPT) can emerge from the analysis of borders. The significant increase in human mobility between State-borders constitutes the empirical referent distinguishing our “Utopian Age” from others in the past, as historical examples of UPT have not dealt with either the issue of human mobility or the topic of “Migration without Borders”. We start with a brief introduction ...

The relationship between a reported history of trauma and dissociative symptoms has been explained in 2 conflicting ways. Pathological dissociation has been conceptualized as a response to antecedent traumatic stress and/or severe psychological adversity. Others have proposed that dissociation makes individuals prone to fantasy, thereby engendering confabulated memories of trauma. We examine da...