Fantasy

1. Etymology

Fantasy names a complex of ideas or imaginative activity expressing the flow of psychic energy. Related: active-imagination; dreams; directed vs fantasy thinking.

2. Plain summary

A fantasy needs both causal and purposive reading: as symptom of a physiological state, and as symbol seeking a goal or line of future development. Jung distinguishes active fantasies (creative mentality; intuitive attitude toward unconscious contents) from passive ones (spontaneous, autonomous manifestations of complexes—always needing conscious criticism lest they reinforce the unconscious opposite).

Active-imagination assimilates meaning by experience more than interpretation: continual conscious realization of unconscious fantasies extends the conscious horizon, diminishes unconscious dominance, and changes personality. Samuels: flow or aggregate of images constituting the unconscious psyche’s characteristic activity; passive fantasies “erupt”; archetypal structures drive unconscious fantasy.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common fantasy motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
imaginative activity / psychic energy flow; causal + purposive reading; active vs passive; passive needs criticism; active needs understanding; active-imagination assimilation; extend horizon / diminish unconscious dominance / change personality; vs directed thinking; archetypal structures; erupt into consciousness.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology fantasy is energic image-flow—Definitions and Two Essays differentiation technique. Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels in §4. §5 holds sample CW stamps at CW 6 ¶¶714, 720; CW 7 ¶358.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Fantasy. A complex of ideas or imaginative activity expressing the flow of psychic energy. (See also active imagination.) A fantasy needs to be understood both causally and purposively… Jung distinguished between active and passive fantasies… Continual conscious realization of unconscious fantasies… has the effect firstly of extending the conscious horizon… secondly of gradually diminishing the dominant influence of the unconscious; and thirdly of bringing about a change of personality.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 6 ¶¶714, 720; CW 7 ¶358 in Sharp’s lemma.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — fantasy p. 58

fantasy Flow or aggregate of images and ideas in the unconscious PSYCHE, constituting its most characteristic activity. … Unconscious fantasy is the direct result of the operation of archetypal structures…

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, p. 58)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

Whereas passive fantasy not infrequently bears a morbid stamp… active fantasy is one of the highest forms of psychic activity. For here the conscious and the unconscious personality of the subject flow together into a common product in which both are united.
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, p. 595, ¶714)

To sum up, we might say that a fantasy needs to be understood both causally and purposively. Causally interpreted, it seems like a symptom… Purposively interpreted, it seems like a symbol, seeking to characterize a definite goal… or trace out a line of future psychological development.
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, p. 600, ¶720)

Continual conscious realization of unconscious fantasies, together with active participation in the fantastic events… has… the effect firstly of extending the conscious horizon… secondly of gradually diminishing the dominant influence of the unconscious; and thirdly of bringing about a change of personality.
(Jung, 1928/1966, CW 7, pp. 300–301, ¶358)

See also: active-imagination; dreams; complex; constructive; causal; unconscious; archetype; consciousness.

References

Jung, C. G. (1966). The relations between the ego and the unconscious. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 7, pp. 300–301, ¶358). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1928)

Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types [Definitions]. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 6, pp. 595, 600, ¶¶714, 720). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.