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In his early [[seminars]], especially <i>[[Object ]] Relations</i> (1956-57), Jacques [[Lacan ]] primarily conceived of [[fantasy ]] as deriving from [[psychic ]] [[projection ]] that screened a more painful [[image]]. He compared it to a freeze-[[frame]], where an immobile image is often used to conceal the [[traumatic ]] image that will come next. Thus he first conceived of fantasy as a defensive [[structure ]] designed to protect against the [[perception ]] of "[[lack]]" in the [[maternal ]] [[other]], thus of [[castration]]. A study of the different forms of the [[fantasmatic ]] [[defense ]] allow for a better [[understanding ]] of [[psychical ]] [[structures]].

Following leads found in [[Freud]]'s writings—especially "The [[Wolf Man]]" (1918b [1914]) and "A [[Child ]] is [[Being ]] Beaten" (1919e)—Lacan questioned the relation between the fantasy and [[fixation ]] on perceptual traces. He also addressed the larger question of [[memory]]. He determined that fantasy [[need ]] not be radically opposed to memory. Instead, he suggested that fantasy might rework memory depending on the pressure of [[unconscious ]] [[desire ]] and the defensive strategies of the [[subject]]. Thus Lacan stressed that fantasy fundamentally worked to transform [[memories ]] of [[real ]] events.

In [[particular]], he emphasized that the subject is always represented in fantasy, as in the [[dream]], in a more or less obvious way. In fact, the fantasy [[stages ]] a certain relation and mode of interaction between the subject and the [[object of desire]]. Thus conceived, fantasy is a [[complex ]] structure, a kind of scenario, as opposed to the simple [[hallucination ]] of an object. Lacan proposed a general [[formula ]] for it: S̷◇ <i>a</i>. Here the diamond, ◇, formalizes the specific relation that the [[subject of the unconscious]], S̷, which is "[[divided]]" by its relation to the realm of [[signifiers]], maintains with the object "little <i>a</i>," the "lost" object, the "detached" [[remainder ]] of the first operation of [[symbolization ]] by the parental other. The famous [[list ]] of [[Freudian ]] "detachable" [[objects ]] ([[breast]], [[feces]], [[penis]], [[baby]]), to which Lacan added the [[voice]], the [[gaze]], and the [[phoneme]], all constitute object-causes of desire (objects <i>a</i>) that are not representable as such. The subject will spend all his or her [[life ]] searching for various [[imaginary ]] and [[concrete ]] intermediary objects to take their [[place ]] in the realization of desire.

In April 1961, in his [[seminar ]] on the <i>[[Transference]]</i>, Lacan tried to define the various types of [[fantasies]]: The [[hysteric ]] aspires to a [[master]]. The [[obsessional]]'s fantasy involves an indefinite [[metonymic ]] [[substitution]]. And the [[pervert]]'s fantasy seeks to radicalize the subject/other [[split]], so that it can be enjoyed; this fantasy tends to take the [[form ]] a◇S̷.</p><p>In his fundamental [[text]], "The [[Subversion ]] of [[the Subject ]] and the [[Dialectic ]] of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious" (1960), Lacan tried to place fantasy in the genesis of the psychic [[apparatus ]] by locating it within his "[[graph ]] of desire." The major difficulty here is that the object of the [[drive]], the object of [[physiological ]] need, and the object of [[narcissistic ]] [[love]]/hate maintain with each other a relation of fundamental and irreducible [[heterogeneity]].</p><p>For Lacan, the [[psychoanalytic ]] [[treatment ]] must locate the subject's more or less unconscious "[[fundamental fantasy]]." At the same [[time ]] the subject's particular mode of [[enjoyment ]] is exposed, and freed as much as possible from the desire of the Other, in relation to which the fantasy is always a compromise [[formation]]. The [[objective ]] of any treatment is always to produce a [[change ]] in the subject's defensive [[processes]], to remove obstacles in [[order ]] to allow the subject access to his or her own enjoyment.

Lacan fully recognized the [[power ]] of the image in fantasy, but he insisted on the fact that its functional [[value ]] derives from the place that it comes to occupy in the larger [[symbolic ]] structure. In other [[words]], its value derives from the fact that the image in question (a [[representation ]] of something unconscious) must be able to play its [[role ]] as a [[signifier]]. On this point, Lacan launched an unceasing attack on (primarily [[Kleinian]]) currents in [[psychoanalysis ]] that tended to consider the fantasy as a production of [[images ]] that were assumed to be [[symbols ]] in their own [[right]]. He devoted an entire year of his seminar (<i>The [[Logic ]] of Fantasy</i>, 1966-67) to unraveling the [[theoretical ]] implications of the inscription of fantasy in the unconscious signifying structure. Most notably, he insisted that fantasy would perform the essential function of "knotting" the psychical [[registers ]] of [[the symbolic]], [[the imaginary]], and the real—and thus of constituting what Freud called "psychic [[reality]]."

<ul><li>[[Lacan, Jacques]]. (1991). <i>Le Séminaire-Livre VIII, Le [[Transfert]]</i>. (1960-61). [[Paris]]: Seuil.</li><li>——. 1994. <i>Le Séminaire-Livre IV, La Relation d'[[objet]]</i>. (1956-57). Paris: Seuil.</li><li>——. (2002).<i>[[Écrits]]: A selection</i>. ([[Bruce Fink]], Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton.</li><li>——. Unpublished. <i>Le Séminaire-Livre XIV, La Logic du [[fantasme]]</i>. (1966-1967).</li>