Questionnaire: What do your fantasies mean?

Analysis of fantasies, and the closely related world of dreams, has long been the backbone of the talking therapies. Freud famously remarked that when two people make love there are four people present the two doing it and the two they are thinking about. Others have criticised Freud for having a limited grasp of maths. Jung, that other giant of psychoanalysis, built an elaborate philosophy of dreaming around a construct he called the archetype. Although modern psychologists often dismiss night dreams as (a) only 4 per cent about sex and (b) mainly full of the day's mental junk, pioneering researchers into daytime dreaming people like Nancy Friday and Shere Hite - have revealed the amazing richness and filthiness of our sexual fantasies. This quiz asks which of four broad categories of fantasy you fall into.



1. Imagine that you are one of four people in a room. One is tied to a bed, one is holding a whip, one is sitting in the corner and one is applying nipple clamps to the recumbent. Which one are you:

a. The one tied to the bed?

b. The one with the whip?

c. The one in the corner?

d. The one applying the clamps?



2. Which of these is closest to your ideal setting for a fantasy?

a. A Venetian brothel

b. A dungeon

c. A bedroom

d. A prison cell



3. Which of the following animals would you choose to feature in your fantasy?

a. A unicorn

b. A snake

c. An octopus

d. A tiger



4. Which of the following eras would you choose as the setting for a fantasy?

a. The present day

b. Victorian

c. Caveman

d. Far future



5. Which of the following movie stars would you select for your fantasy (women choose from the first, male names, men from the second, female ones)?

a. Russell Crowe /..................... Cynthia Nixon

b. James Dean /..................... Kim Cattrall

c. Will Smith /..................... Sarah Jessica Parker

d. Jude Law /..................... Kristin Davis (Hint: All stars of Sex and the City)

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