ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights some of the important research findings in the area of sexual fantasy. It attempts to highlight a few of the research findings which inform our increasing understanding of sexual fantasies and of the role they play in human behavior and experience. Perhaps the most popular presentation of the fantasies of both men and women has occurred in the books of Nancy Friday, who describes sexual imagination among “normal” people in the realms of anonymous sex, exhibitionism, forced sex, masochism, domination, incest, fetishes, lesbianism, and prostitution. Sexual intimacies between therapist and client are unethical, illegal, and constitute extremely damaging clinical practice. Sexual fantasies are emerging as an important aspect of human life, and in a clinical setting they deserve a careful, informed approach. Like the general public, behavioral scientists and mental health professionals are increasingly able to recognize and acknowledge the importance of sexual fantasy in human experience.
