Leonardo

Books 369 endowed with good intuition may not achieve important results without absorbing all the information offered by the Kreitlers, however, I am convinced that the book would be valuable for those concerned with these problems. Structure and Functions of Fantasy. Eric Klinger. WileyInterscience , Chichester, England. 424 pp. E6.30. Reviewed by Ellen Dissanayake* Today’s aesthete who doubts that fantasy can be scrutinized scientifically without losing its unique, volatile and ‘fantastic’ properties had his reverse counterpart in the proponents of behaviouristic psychology earlier in the century who condemned as unscientific the investigation of any kind of inner experience. Paying his respects to both sets of sceptics, Klinger has dared to enter the breach between them. He profitably examines the available psychological literature on fantasy-like processes (e.g. play, dreams, daydreams and responses to some projective tests) for insights and testable propositions that apply to fantasy itself. By drawing together existing experimental data that bear on the subject and offering hypotheses of his own that appear to be derivable from, to fit in with or to extend current theory, Klinger has erected an admirable empirical scaffolding on which to build a comprehensive psychological theory of fantasy, while simultaneously avoiding the attendant reductionist pitfalls. He posits that the human mind is never ‘empty’: when not performing operant problem-solving, orienting or scanning functions, it can be said to be engaged in respondent activity, of which fantasy is an important kind. Regarding the structure of a verbalized fantasy sequence, an objective observer can reliably identify separate segments of content, segments that themselves are hierarchically organized. Although Klinger considers fantasy segments and sequences to be respondent, he rejects simple associationist or classical S-R expanations and advances the modern concept of ‘response integration’ (to be likened to the psycholinguistic notion of a ‘meaning complex’ that controls the general unfolding though not the precise elements of a speaker’s utterance) that will account for the erratic properties of fantasy and its frequent novelty. So prominent a human activity as fantasy undoubtedly has an adaptive function. Because its content is influenced by ‘current concerns’ (states of involvement with important and desirable unattained goals) and temporarily ruling sub-selves (an individual’s ‘well-organized selfstates ...which consist of associated affects, expectancies, values, self-percepts, and cognitions’), fantasy deals with information and potential behaviour relevant to the individual’s ongoing life and provides a reservoir from which to draw appropriate responses to human experience. Klinger’s analysis takes cognizance of (and occasionally issue with) such important theorists as Freud, Skinner, Berlyne, Piaget, Jung and the psycholinguists, among others. Impressively grounded throughout in experimental verification from many sources, the theory is clearly presented, with frequent recapitulations. Particularly useful is the historical overview and critical examination of each pertinent theoretical concept. Unfortunately for the artist interested in exploring his own fantasy, the book‘s strict empirical grounding, which relies heavily on verbalised accounts (‘thinking out loud‘) neglects more complex kinds of ‘artistic’ fantasy for ordinary reportable fantasy about such ‘current concerns ’ as achievement, affiliation, power, fear and avoidance , and hostility. Leaving aside the observation that these are largely Western concerns (and therefore the fantasy of other peoples might be provocatively different in kind and degree), it can be argued that the artist qua artist also engages in a kind of fantasy that is not represented in Klinger’s analysis and may not be adequately treatable under his hypotheses of ‘current focal concerns’ *51/5 Bahirawakanda, Kandy, Sri Lanka. and regnant sub-selves. One would like to see artistic fantasy addressed specifically. The words ‘art’ and ‘imagination’ do not occur in the index and, although the author mentions ‘creative writing’ and ‘literary composition ’ and discusses creativity in general, the reader whose interest is primarily in visual art is disappointed that important aspects of what he has considered to be ‘fantasy’ are generally ignored. As Klinger’s writing indicates, he is not unaware of the many subtleties his hypothesis at present leaves untouched, the reviewer hopes his future work will take these more into account. Communication. A Scientific American Book. W. H. Freeman, Reading, England and San Francisco, 1972. 136 pp., illus. Paper E1.50; cloth E3.10. Reviewed by...