Freud on Authorship & Daydreaming
(Entrancement II)

Freud relates authorship to the child at play and to the ambitious or erotic self-fulfillment of daydreaming. The writer's skill lies in overcoming the feeling of repulsion daydreams have for others by using disguises and aesthetic bribes "in order to release yet greater pleasure arising from deeper sources in the mind..., putting us in a position where we can enjoy our own daydreams without reproach or shame". Here is the key to Freud's explanation of the power of fiction to carry us away.

Nell, p. 204