Belief and Imagination: Explorations in Psychoanalysis
Abstract
Winner of the 2013 Sigourney Award! Belief and Imagination brings together Ronald Britton's writing on these subjects over the last 15 years, exploring the concepts from a Kleinian perspective. The book covers: The status of phantasies in an individuals mind - are they facts or possibilities? How the notions of objectivity and subjectivity are interrelated and have their origins in the Oedipal triangle How phantasies which are held to be products of the imagination, can be accounted for in psychoanalytic terms. Britton also examines the relationship between psychic reality and fictional writing, and the ways in which belief, imagination and reality are explored in the works of Wordsworth, Rilke, Milton and Blake.
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Belief is to psychic reality what perception is to material reality.
“Britton himself considers 'beliefs to be to psychic reality what perception is to material reality' (p.11).”
From The Role of Early Trauma in the Formation of Belief in Reptilian Conspiracy Theories: A Psychoanalytic Perspective (2023) · cites this paper as Britton (2003, pp. 8-18)
Beliefs have consequences: they arouse feelings, influence perceptions, and promote actions.
“Britton states that beliefs have consequences; they arouse feelings, influence perceptions, and promote actions.”
From The Role of Early Trauma in the Formation of Belief in Reptilian Conspiracy Theories: A Psychoanalytic Perspective (2023) · cites this paper as Britton (2003, pp. 8-18)
Strong, long-standing beliefs are acquired through societal acculturation.
“Britton (2003) suggests that strong, long-standing beliefs are acquired through societal acculturation.”
From The Role of Early Trauma in the Formation of Belief in Reptilian Conspiracy Theories: A Psychoanalytic Perspective (2023) · cites this paper as Britton (2003)
Belief, disbelief, or suspended belief have a protective function, safeguarding the psyche from dangerous phantasies or perceptions.
“The belief, disbelief, or suspended belief similarly have a protective function, safeguarding the psyche from dangerous phantasies or perceptions.”
From The Role of Early Trauma in the Formation of Belief in Reptilian Conspiracy Theories: A Psychoanalytic Perspective (2023) · cites this paper as Britton (2003, pp. 8-18)
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Dixon, A. M. (2023) · British Journal of Psychotherapy · doi:10.1111/bjp.12856 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- Britton, R.
- Corresponding author
- Britton, Ronald
- Venue
- Routledge eBooks
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Published
- 2003-09-02
- OpenAlex
- W3022470938
- Cited by
- 283
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 64.20
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Routledge eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Psychoanalysis and Social Critique
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Literary Theory and Cultural Hermeneutics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics
- Keywords
- belief, imagination, phantasy, Kleinian psychoanalysis, subjectivity and objectivity, Oedipal triangle, psychic reality, fictional writing, William Wordsworth, Rainer Maria Rilke, John Milton, William Blake
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