Gabby Brezovsky: Freud on Day Dreaming and Poetry

In Chapter 9 of The Nature of Art, Sigmund Freud explores the relationship between fantasy (day dreaming) and poetry. He makes the assertion that only those people, who are unhappy fantasize. While I may not agree I understand his conception. Freud views fantasy as a connection of the past, present and future. He writes, “The activity of phantasy in the mind is linked up with some current impression, occasioned by some event in the present, which had the power to rouse an intense desire. From there it wanders back to the memory or an early experience, generally belonging to infancy, in which this wish was fulfilled. Then it creates for itself a situation which is to emerge in the future, representing the fulfillment of the wish” (The Nature of Art, 113). Freud describes day dreaming as a “continuation of and substitute for the play of childhood” (The Nature of Art, 115). He points out that the composition of poetry is similar to a day dream, in that the poet is trying to fulfill a wish through the expression of their words. In Freud’s view poets compose their work in an effort to reconnect with the joyful and secure times of childhood. Poets engage in self-disclosure through their writing. Not everyone is bold enough to do so.