phantasy

(ˈfæntəsɪ)

n, pl -sies

an archaic spelling of fantasy

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fan•ta•sy

or phan•ta•sy

(ˈfæn tə si, -zi)

n., pl. -sies, n.

1. imagination, esp. when extravagant and unrestrained.

2. the forming of mental images, esp. wondrous or strange fancies; imaginative conceptualizing.

3. the succession of mental images thus formed.

4. an imagined or conjured up sequence of events, esp. one provoked by an unfulfilled psychological need.

5. an abnormal or bizarre sequence of mental images, as a hallucination.

6. a supposition based on no solid foundation; illusion.

7. caprice; whim.

8. an imaginative or fanciful creation; intricate, elaborate, or whimiscal design.

9. a form of fiction based on imaginative or fanciful characters and premises.

10. fantasia (def. 1).

v.i.

11. to form mental images; imagine; fantasize.

12. to write or play fantasias.

v.t.

13. to form mental images of; create in the mind.

[1275–1325; Middle English: imaginative faculty < Latin phantasia < Greek phantasía idea, notion]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	phantasy - something many people believe that is false; "they have the illusion that I am very wealthy" fancy, illusion, fantasy misconception - an incorrect conception bubble - an impracticable and illusory idea; "he didn't want to burst the newcomer's bubble" ignis fatuus, will-o'-the-wisp - an illusion that misleads wishful thinking - the illusion that what you wish for is actually true
	2.	phantasy - fiction with a large amount of imagination in it; "she made a lot of money writing romantic fantasies" fantasy fiction - a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact science fiction - literary fantasy involving the imagined impact of science on society
	3.	phantasy - imagination unrestricted by reality; "a schoolgirl fantasy" fantasy imagination, imaginativeness, vision - the formation of a mental image of something that is not perceived as real and is not present to the senses; "popular imagination created a world of demons"; "imagination reveals what the world could be" pipe dream, dream - a fantastic but vain hope (from fantasies induced by the opium pipe); "I have this pipe dream about being emperor of the universe" fantasy life, phantasy life - an imaginary life lived in a fantasy world fairyland, fantasy world, phantasy world - something existing solely in the imagination (but often mistaken for reality)

phantasy

see fantasy

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

phantasy

[ˈfæntəzɪ] N → fantasía f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

In the finale she fell into some of those grotesque attitudes which were at the time popular among the dancers in the theatres up-town, giving to the Bowery public the phantasies of the aristocratic theatre-going public, at reduced rates.

View in context

To the there-named south-fruits now, Similar, all-too-similar, Do I lie here; by little Flying insects Round-sniffled and round-played, And also by yet littler, Foolisher, and peccabler Wishes and phantasies,-- Environed by you, Ye silent, presentientest Maiden-kittens, Dudu and Suleika, --ROUNDSPHINXED, that into one word I may crowd much feeling:

View in context

Deep within her there was something that would not be cheated by phantasies and that demanded some definite answer from life.

View in context

He who least regards Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.

View in context

Then why indulge in prophetic phantasies? At best they can only interpret the mind of the prophet, and can have no objective value.

View in context

These samples produce the energy that is necessary to maintain and change mirages, which are in essence, the objectifications of phantasies. The client's phantasies are objectified after the proprietor throws the handful of magic samples in the air and lets them fall randomly.

Angela Carter's The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman: A Subversive Cartesian Thought Experiment

Among his topics are the territory of the transference and the value of phantasy interpretations: a Kleinian expansion, a case study of one patient's fear of self-definition and his depressive phantasies of disappointment and rejection, depressive anxiety and the motives for manic control, and projective identification in restricted and uncontained states of mind.

Between Unknown Change and Familiar Retreat: Psychotherapy Technique for Our Most Challenging Patients

Unconscious phantasies usually depict a disappearing, defective, unlovable self in response to denied connection with others (Lansky, 2007; Rizzuto, 1991; Wurmser, 2003).

A Bionian formulation of shame: The terror of becoming one's self

As psychoanalysts, trained in other schools of psychoanalytic thought, struggled to understand the remote phantasies that Klein presented from her patients, understandably they made sense of the idea in their own terms.

Projective identification, between phenomenology and metapsychology

Although Laing felt families had a vested interest in keeping these social phantasies alive and hence was rather pessimistic about family therapy involving a schizophrenic member, elsewhere in trying to understand the phenomenology of schizophrenia Laing (1967b) asks, 'to what extent does behaviour diagnosed as schizophrenic become more intelligible when placed in the context of the original social situation where it belongs?' (p.140).

Open dialogue: an applied Laingian practice