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(1991). Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 46:217-236

On Fantasies of Self-Creation

Stephen Rittenberg, M.D. and L. Noah Shaw, M.D.

ABSTRACT

The authors present a psychoanalytic study of fantasies of self-creation. These fantasies constitute important mental structures shaping the lives of many individuals. Although hitherto unreported in the clinical literature, artists have made rich use of self-creation fantasies, and we therefore begin our investigation with representative portraits of self-creators by Milton, Goethe, and two modernists, Luigi Pirandello and F. Scott Fitzgerald. We then describe the psychoanalyses of two men whose lives were shaped and organized by self-creation fantasies, showing the clinical value of uncovering and analyzing these fantasies. We offer some preliminary observations on the cultural significance of self-creation fantasies and their impact on the analyst and the analytic enterprise.

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