Is It Possible To Treat 'fantasy' As An Element Of Social Reality?

This essay will first examine what is meant by fantasy in terms of social reality within the context of Psychoanalysis. Fantasy will be considered from a Freudian perspective as a way of fulfilling our desires before examining the work of Zizek. This will include Zizek's view that fantasy operates at an unconscious level through ideology and finds expression through accepted behaviour patterns. It will examine the way fantasy can be used within the context of what is normally perceived to be reality in order to actually protect us from the perceived 'horror' of aspects of reality as well as the reality of our desires. Reflection will then be given to its role in cyberspace and how it allows individuals to reveal their true identity. The concept of fantasy has also been linked to politics and a consideration of the extent to which political narrative and ideologies are a significant element of social reality will be discussed. Staravakakis's views on political utopia will be incorporated as well as Zizek's views on how democracy and 9/11 or rather the reaction to it can be related to fantasy. Social reality can be defined as distinct from biological reality as it emerges through social interactions of individuals in a social community. It can also be related to the intentions of individuals and how they relate to each other. It may seem odd to even consider fantasy as an element of social reality. After all surely fantasy is the opposite of reality? Indeed Pluth(2007) notes that 'the term fantasy can be a bit misleading .It tends to connote some kind of active imagining on the part of the individual, usually opposed to reality'. However in Psychoanalytical theory there is another conceptualisation of fantasy as a place where we store or project our hidden desires. Freud often considered the 'founding father' of Psychoanalysis argued that fantasy does have a role in social reality. According to Freud we have two principle realms of thinking 'the pleasure principle' and the 'reality principle' . For Freud while we associate the reality principle with normal consciousness, the 'pleasure principle' is associated with the unconscious mode of functions. For example when a baby experiences hunger, perhaps a desire that cannot be fulfilled immediately, the baby will hallucinate a satisfaction of that hunger. Freud believed that fantasy was 'illusory' and could not be sustained when challenged by the reality. He believed that fantasy acted as a way of satisfying our desires within an illusory framework and that fantasy has a role in mediating unconscious desires . However can fantasy really be considered an element of social reality? In popular culture fantasy seems to be equated with the imagination and escape from reality rather than comprising an element of reality itself. Indeed it could be argued that the nature of capitalism and its co modification supports such a process. Zizek has a response to those who question the role of fantasy as an element of social reality. For Zizek fantasy has two main components channelled through ideology and desire. Zizek argues that ideology is much more than an individual's political perspective but rather it is through unconscious acts that define an individual's place in the symbolic order. In 'The Plague of Fantasies' Zizek provides examples which illustrate how fantasy can structure external social reality. He asks the reader to consider two architectural projects from Fascist Italy, the neo-Imperial Casa del Fascio(1928) and a highly modernist transparent glasshouse (1934-1936). Zizek views these edifices as more than simply buildings but rather as outward external expressions of unconscious desires. These radically different buildings illustrate the two juxtaposed contradictory and almost incommensurable ideals of fascism to return to a pre-modern national community and a project of rapid modernization. Zizek makes a similar point in relation to the architecture of the Soviet Union during the 1930's which followed the official state ideology of promoting the idea of the new Soviet man and woman. He notes that this architectural style gradually began to reflect not so much a positive image of the future but rather an 'Ideological monster' crushing the people below its feet. Also had any Soviet citizen pointed out this discrepancy they would have been arrested. Therefore for Zizek not only is ideology being expressed in subconscious non-ideological spaces but that such expressions indicate contradictions which cannot be conveyed openly. Zizek also argues that ideology can permeate numerous areas of social life and reality which plays up to the notion of the 'other'. (The 'other' being a group/individual that does not belong) . In other words certain actions or modes of behaviour can only be defined in relation to the differential actions of others. For example he notes that lavatories in France, England and Germany have key differences in design. Similarly washing the dishes in Sweden and Denmark are quite distinctive from each other. To illustrate the point Zizek quotes from Marx 'they do not know it, but they are doing it'. Therefore for Zizek such behavioural traits are all part of the 'Ideological fantasy' which refers not to a political view or belief system but an ideology expressed through accepted commonplace behaviour. In addition he believes that fantasy can also play a role in protecting us from the true horror of a situation as well as the true potential horror of reality. Zizek provides an example of the statutory safety demonstration prior to a flight take -off. . The scenario suggested by the demonstration of the aircraft gently landing on water is fantasy. Not only is it unlikely the plane lands safely on water with the passengers unharmed but moreover the safety demonstration hides from passengers the true horror of what would happen in such an event. He argues further that fantasy allows us to escape both the real world and the reality of our desires and provides an example from Freud of the 'burning child' dream. In this example a father who has seen his child gradually die from an illness finally goes to sleep. However as he sleeps he smells smoke and dreams that his child is standing beside him alive but on fire asking him 'Father, don't you see I'm burning?' Suddenly the father wakes up to discover that his dead child's arm had been burned by a fallen candle. For Zizek from a Lacanian perspective the message of the dream is confronting the ultimate fundamental guilt of the father. From this perspective the father wakes up to escape the 'real' of the dream, exactly the opposite of how we normally perceive dreams as a way of escaping from reality. Therefore Zizek argues because we are afraid of reality (remember the aircraft safety demonstration) we are willing to accept the 'waking dream' promoted by fantasy and ideology. He expands this argument through his work on Cyberspace and Fantasy. In an article published in the Guardian in December 2006 he states that cyberspace is often treated as 'just a game by participants' and is considered a fantasy like world. Zizek argues that the opposite is true and that for some people participating in an interactive game can mean freedom from the usual social restrictions of the non-cyber world; they can reveal their 'true self'. Zizek points out that because cyberspace is considered a fictitious and anonymous world the true reality of suppressed individual desires and thoughts can be articulated. So just as with dreams Zizek has turned the 'normal' perception on its head. Cyberspace does have a relationship with fantasy, but rather than being a fantastical escape from reality in a way it is the reverse and it is in cyberspace where true identities can be revealed. Zizek has expanded his discussion of cyberspace to include how fantasy, through the form of Japanese electronic pets tamogichis, can satisfy certain desires and needs. The tamagochi allows its user to satisfy their need to love their neighbour, child or pet without actually having to bother with actual living beings. Part of the fantasy of the tamagochi is that we know that it is nothing more than a digital circuit but owners feel compelled to act on its desires and demands. Zizek concludes that cyberspace is highly relevant to the concept of social reality as it allows us to act out are innermost fantasies whilst maintaining the appropriate distance from these fantasy actions or personas. However how strong are Zizek's arguments? Can we really consider fantasy as part of social reality in the way that he suggests, or is fantasy nothing more than desires and daydreaming? Dean (2010) is critical of Zizek's view that cyberspace constitutes a separate reality based around fantasy where desires and identities which are suppressed in the non-cyber world can be realised. She argues that much of Zizek's writings on cyberspace from the 1990s with its emphasis on 'Identity play and sexual experimentation' now look slightly anachronistic and that while Zizek felt that cyberspace was almost a separate domain from everyday reality, that is now no longer necessarily the case and has been superseded. This is due to a process she calls 'Web 2:0' and is related to the growth of blogs, social networking sites and video-sharing. Dean terms this 'the return of humans to the Internet'. Perhaps we should conclude that even the concept of cyber culture is under threat with the way that the internet has changed into an interconnected web of images and information which is increasingly linked to other forms of media. Indeed it could be argued that we use the internet not to necessarily act out our fantasies or to reveal our true self ,but to stay connected with others (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace,) and the external non-cyber world (Skype). After all is a shy person really likely to reveal themselves as an 'irresistible seducer' or 'sadistic murderer' on Facebook? Pluth is also critical of Zizek's more general account of fantasy and argues that Zizek's analysis has a double meaning. The first, that fantasy reflects the true nature of the individual, for example in cyberspace where for Zizek individuals can reveal their true identity, and the second, which reflects the consciousness and how the individual perceives himself. Pluth questions whether this is any different from any other conscious experience. Zizek influenced by Lacanian ideas has also related the idea of fantasy to politics. He refers here to the deception of ideologies or ideological fantasies rather than a Freudian conceptualisation related to the pleasure and reality principles. Zizek argues that political ideologies are part of the symbolic order of what he terms a fantasy of symbolic fiction based around political ideologies such as Marxism, Fascism and Liberalism. He also identifies political concepts and structures such as capitalism and global warming (and perhaps environmentalism generally) as part of this fantasy. He states that external reality is the true locus of fantasy and arguing, from what sounds suspiciously like a Post-Modern and Post -Structuralist perspective, that all these ideologies are simply fantasy narratives that have no actual foundation in reality but that rather that the face of reality is structured. Stravrakakis (1999) argued that politics is inextricably linked with the notion of an utopian fantasy that needs to identify an 'other' to scapegoat e.g.the Jews in Nazi Germany. With reference to the work of Cohn Stravrakakis provides numerous historical examples where societies have constructed a political 'other' who is the source of all their societal problems. For example in Ancient Rome where the Romans accused Christians of cannibalism and blamed them for all natural catastrophes and in Ancient Greece where Jews were accused of ritual murder as well as cannibalism. Stravrakakis also examines the position of Jews in Nazi Germany arguing that in order to create an utopian society of a racially pure German Volkesmeingshaft(National Community) that Hitler wanted to construct a negative 'other' in this case the Jews. For Stravrakakis democracy is the only viable political system as it does not construct a fantasy 'other.' In contrast Parker (2004) argues that Zizek is profoundly ambivalent towards democracy and dismisses it as an ideological fantasy based upon a close relationship between bourgeois ideology and individualism. Zizek is suspicious of the 'rules of the game' within democracy , believing that modern democratic societies elevate democracy itself to a 'supreme object of Ideology' . In other words for Zizek democracy and capitalism are so interwoven that any conceptualisation of an alternative system is impossible, as Fukuyama declared in 1992 we have reached 'the end of history'. Indeed even at the time of writing (in of course a proclaimed democratic capitalist nation) many conservative and indeed liberal critics of student protestors and those taking part in the Occupy London stock exchange movement, are asking the protestors 'if you don't agree with the capitalist status quo what is your alternative?' Therefore for Zizek change within a democratic system can only be partial and is a fantasy itself. In 'The Plague of Fantasies ' Zizek uses an example from the American television MASH set in the Korean War to illustrate this point. He argues that MASH works as a comedy on the basis that the protagonists are seen to regularly mock authority but at the same time fulfil all their duties and contribute towards the war effort. Therefore a message is conveyed that democratic dissent is allowed as long as it doesn't interfere with the continuation of the system. Zizek does believe however that although democratic societies are not as good at structuring strong narratives as totalitarian societies, they can and do construct fantasy 'others' in order to ensure their citizens that democracy is the only viable political system and way of life. Dean (2006) has argued using Ziezek's concept of democratic fundamentalism that democracy blinds our thinking. She asks why will anything change if democracy is simply reduced to elections between 'rich elites who agree on nearly anything?' Therefore for Dean, Zizek's discussion about democratic fundamentalism rests on the principle that democracies do construct a fantasmic other. Anything that is not democratic is castigated as 'horrible, totalitarian and unacceptable to every rational person' . Therefore through this tactic and discourse democracy is upheld as the object Petit A. Therefore for Zizek democratic fundamentalism creates a fantasmic prison of discourse and thought in which change is impossible. As yet we have not addressed how democratic societies construct an 'other' in the same way totalitarian utopian societies do. Zizek has an answer in the way the West and the United States in particular has responded to 9/11. He argues that since the 9/11 attack there has been a trend in American political culture to demonize certain states and individuals, particularly those associated with Islam and Islamic fundamentalism. Furthermore democratic governments following the narrative of the 'war on terror' depict themselves as being constantly under threat .It is reminiscent in some ways of George Orwell's 1984 when Oceania is constantly embroiled in a Fantasy war with East Asia in order to convince its citizens of the righteousness of their cause and the need for vigilance against what is in effect a fantasy enemy . After September 11 a new type of Fantasy developed of ever-present danger from an almost invisible enemy, where a country such as the USA can be at war and peace simultaneously. In 'Welcome to the desert of the real'(2001) Zizek questions the hegemonic discourse of the post 9/11 world. Using a phrase from Samuel Huntington this has been dominated by a 'Clash of Civilisations'. Zizek argues that many conflicts in the contemporary world are within the same civilisation, for example Islamic Fundamentalism does not just target Western capitalist states but also 'corrupted' Islamic states such Saudi Arabia and Kuwait . Building upon these points Spencer(2005) argues that Zizek is critical of both conservative and liberal interpretations of the attacks . For Zizek Western liberalism is always seeking the real in its quest for the fantasy other and as a result it neglects the symbolic leading to a 'spectral' reality. Taylor (2010) has pointed out that fantasy played an important part in the Western reaction to 9/11 as the events that unfolded seemed like something like a Hollywood film. Therefore in a sense the fantasy images that Western consumerist audiences had been fed in films such as Independence Day (1996) were now coming to life. Taylor also writes about how Zizek believes that the post 9/11 Western media has constructed Islamic fundamentalism as the 'other' while ignoring its own fundamentalism. Taylor provides an example of a Fundamentalist Capitalist who knows without question that capitalism is a superior system to socialism(irrespective of the merits of socialism or deficiencies of capitalism). This is due to beliefs such as 'people are basically selfish, there are no other alternatives to capitalism'. Zizek is clearly at pains to emphasise that he does not consider 9/11 a positive event but he does believe that fantasy has an important role in explaining the psychological impact of the event . Taylor uses one of Zizek's examples from the film The Piano Teacher (2002). The female teacher starts an affair with a young male pupil which ends in rape as the pupil acts out detailed descri ptions of the teacher's sexual fantasies she wrote in a letter to him. Zizek speculates, what if the fantasies portrayed in the letter is in fact the pupil's own fantasy? Taylor notes that we in the West are very familiar with the narrative that fundamentalists are duped by their own fantasy, but not what Lacan terms les-non-dupes-err (the -non-dupped-err). In other words the piano teacher's student was as shocked at seeing his own fantasy being played back to him as Americans were on 9/11 seeing their own Hollywood like fantasies of destruction come to life. Zizek illustrates this point further with another rape example .Imagine, he says, there are two women one who is assertive and the second who secretly daydreams about being brutally handled by her partner or even raped. Zizek points out that if they are both raped it will be much more traumatic for the second women for her own private fantasy will have been acted out in reality. Taylor argues that psychoanalytical writers such as Zizek feel the need to 'traverse the fantasy' which means to confront the fantasies that structure our lives. For Zizek West