~ Reading ~

. . . .dynamics involved in fantasizing are at work when we read fiction or attend the theater, with the difference that here we follow the compositions of the artists. Again we momentarily sacrifice our adequation to reality for the sake of appearing to ourselves as being more than we really are. As Norman Holland says:

In effect, the literary work dreams a dream for us. It embodies and evokes in us a central fantasy; then it manages and controls that fantasy by devices that, were they in a mind, we would call defenses, but, being only a page, we call “from.” And the having of the fantasy and feeling it managed give us pleasure. We bring, then, to works of art two expectations that permit a “willing suspension of disbelief”; we do not expect to act on the external world; we expect pleasure. Even if the work makes us feel guilt or anxiety, we expect it to manage those feelings so as to transform them into satisfying experiences.”

Whether we manage our fantasies by our own compositions or by submitting to those of the artist, the effect is the same: reality is momentarily negotiated away and the self-esteem deficit is repaired. Without periodic and momentary engagements in such perversions of our own designs there is little prospect of maintaining personal wholeness. Arnold Ludwig concurs:

Fantasy, then, often represents a convenient way for man to temporarily lie to himself in order to make life more palatable. Although he may not fully believe in the actual reality of the products of his fantasy, he can invest enough belief in them to offer himself some degree of satisfaction. If man were to remain chronically frustrated in the satisfaction of his hopes, ambitions and desires, without having access to the solace of fantasy and the temporary solutions and attenuated pleasure it provides, it would become difficult to sustain hope and optimism toward the future. ~ Page 160

Excerpt: Chapter - Deception and Personal Wholeness -- Title : “By the Grace of Guile” - Author: Loyal Rue