Imagination alone does not constitute fantasy. Fantasy occurs when imagination is paired with desire. Without desire, imagination is simply a collection of images, concepts and assorted narratives. Only when desire is present do these free-floating, fictive constructs take on the weight and power of fantasy.

Desire can itself stimulate the imagination to create narratives that accord with the categories implicit in the desire. The ability to supply these narratives and the imagery to illustrate the actions within them is, in the early stages of an individual, I suspect, dependent upon the exposure that individual gets to scenarios that contain the application of concepts which desire seeks. These scenarios are then expanded along the lines implicit within them and augmented with sections of previously entertained fantasies.

The strength of the desire determines the power of the fantasy and of our compulsion to engage in activities similar to or exactly like the fantasy. What determines the strength of the desire? What has given us our particular collection of fantasies? Why is it we desire what we do?