When Reality Hits Too Hard: The Use of Fantasy in Narcissistic and Schizoid Dynamics

Withdrawal into fantasy is traditionally described in psychoanalysis as a defense mechanism, aimed at avoiding conflicts and difficulties in real life by replacing them with alternative realities. While fantasy is often defined as a schizoid phenomenon, grandiose fantasies also typically appear in narcissistic personalities, representing ways to cope with and compensate for feelings of inadequacy and vulnerability. To date, similarities and differences between schizoid and grandiose fantasies fall short of empirical investigations. This work addresses the use of fantasy in daily life, and its relationship with momentary mood and personality pathology. After pretesting a set of items to assess and differentiate grandiose (GF) and schizoid fantasy (SF), we use ecological momentary assessment in a community sample (N = 150) to detect the use of fantasy in daily life, four times a day for seven days (3,396 observations), and investigate is correlates. Results indicate that individuals use different types of fantasies based on their personality traits: narcissism – especially traits of antagonism and agentic extraversion – is mostly associated with GF, while schizoid traits are mostly associated with SF. The use of both GF and SF is concurrently associated with experiencing higher negative mood, suggesting a defensive/regulatory function. However, there is no evidence that negative mood precedes the use of fantasy in subsequent observations, warranting further investigation. We conclude that fantasy may not be a unitary construct and that it has both dynamic and stable properties.