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Wunschfigur

English translation: fantasy figure

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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

German term or phrase:	Wunschfigur
English translation:	fantasy figure
Entered by:	Hilary Davies Shelby

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16:22 Mar 27, 2008

German to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature

German term or phrase: Wunschfigur

Hello again,

I'm translating a fiction synopsis in which someone's father is present only as a "Wunschfigur" in this person's imagination.

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to give you the whole sentence, but it's basically just that. He's present only as a "Wunschfigur".

Would be grateful for any help - Google comes up with a lot of diet sites! ;-))

Hilary Davies Shelby KudoZ activity Questions: 558 (8 open) (5 without valid answers) (31 closed without grading) Answers: 527
Local time: 01:38

fantasy figure

Explanation:
How about just 'fantasy figure'.

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Note added at 58 mins (2008-03-27 17:21:25 GMT)
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Other examples:
"In a previous article (Mann 1993b), I discussed the absent father in psychosis and the ensuing defensive need to create a fantasy figure of the father to ..."
Psychotherapy, an Erotic Relationship: Transference and Countertransference ... - Page 95
by David Mann - Psychology - 1997 - 212 pages

"Miss Kerr contends that the normal pattern in the West Indies is for the father to be a fantasy figure, and if the father is not there then the child feels" from http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1SmqY1PjP2AC&pg=PA137&lpg...
22fantasy+figure%22+father&source=web&ots=WJa-Yd_IFZ&sig=eyNAkMYGurAGYdDS4bYC16gf8oM&hl=en#PPA131,M1

"Her father, nothing but a fantasy figure to her, was immortalized only by a picture" from: louisville.edu/~lagord01/moviepaper.html -

Selected response from:

Psytrans
Local time: 07:38

Grading comment

Thanks for all the great suggestions! In the end I went with Fiona's.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +5

imaginary character

Nicole Schnell

4 +4

fantasy figure

Psytrans

3 +1

fantasy ideal

ntext

wished-for person (figure) / imaginary ideal

113160

idealized figure / idealised figure

Colin Rowe

imaginary father figure

SusieZ

dream daddy/father

Stephen Sadie

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

2 mins confidence:

dream daddy/father

Explanation:
to get things moving

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 mins (2008-03-27 16:24:43 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

or even fictive father

Stephen Sadie
Germany
Local time: 08:38
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 16

4 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

imaginary character

Explanation:
Like an imaginary friend.

Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 23:38
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in category: 24

3 mins confidence:

idealized figure / idealised figure

Explanation:
Might this fit here?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 mins (2008-03-27 16:31:14 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"idealized FATHER figure"

These are people, who, in their search for the idealized father figure whom they have internalized all these years, have no qualms about putting worship of ...

http://pandelasemana.blogspot.com/2008/01/who-do-you-belong-...

When we create paternal transference, we turn the other person into either our father or an idealized father-figure.

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/psychoanalysis/concepts...

Colin Rowe
Germany
Local time: 08:38
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

fantasy ideal

Explanation:
another option

ntext
United States
Local time: 01:38
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English,

German
PRO pts in category: 44

35 mins confidence:

imaginary father figure

Explanation:
another option used in psychoanalysis discussions, whereby, depending on how it is used, you can use a variation of imaginary father / father figure / imaginary figure....

Symbolic, Imaginary and Real

However, the father is not a simple concept but a complex one, one which begs the question of what exactly is meant by the term "father." It is in order to answer this question that, from 1953 on, Lacan stresses the importance of distinguishing between the symbolic father, the imaginary father and the real father.
The Symbolic Father

The symbolic father is not a real being but a position, a function, and hence is synonymous with the term "paternal function." This function is none other than that of imposing the law and regulating desire in the Oedipus complex, of intervening in the imaginary dual relationship between mother and child to introduce a necessary "symbolic distance" between them.[1]

"The true function of the Father... is fundamentally to unite (and not to set in opposition) a desire and the Law."[1]

The symbolic father is the fundamental element in the structure of the symbolic order; what distinguishes the symbolic order of culture from the imaginary order of nature is the inscription of a line of male descendence. The symbolic father is also referred to as the Name-of-the-Father. By structuring descendence into a series of generations, patrilineality introduces an order "whose structure is different from the natural order."[1] The symbolic father is also the dead father, the father of the primal horde who has been murdered by his own sons. It is the absence of the symbolic father which characterizes the essence of the psychotic structure.
The Imaginary Father

The imaginary father is an imago, the composite of all the imaginary constructs that the subject builds up in fantasy around the figure of the father. This imaginary construction often bears little relationship to the father as he is in reality.[1] The imaginary father can be construed as an ideal father,[1][1] or the opposite, as "the father who has fucked the kid up."[1] Psychosis and perversion both involve, in different ways, a reduction of the symbolic father to the imaginary father.
The Real Father
Agent of Castration

While Lacan is quite clear in defining what he means by the imaginary father and the symbolic father, his remarks on the real father are quite obscure.[1] Lacan's only unequivocal formulation is that the real father is the agent of castration, the one who performs the operation of symbolic castration.[1][1]

http://nosubject.com/Father

SusieZ
United States
Local time: 02:38
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

40 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

fantasy figure

"Abandoned children usually create fantasy worlds, in which the absent parent is a fantasy figure. These fantasies can linger into adulthood."

Reference: http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=7...

Psytrans
Local time: 07:38
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

Thanks for all the great suggestions! In the end I went with Fiona's.

Notes to answerer

Asker: I like it! Hello Fiona! ;-)

1 hr confidence:

wished-for person (figure) / imaginary ideal

Explanation:
in the sense of I would want not only want that person (the father) to exist/live but also to be here, but he/she is not.

http://mitchalbom.typepad.com/mitchalbom/2006/10/the_first_w...

My wished-for person is the same as one of my Five People to meet again ... my piano teacher, Mrs. Anderson.

or: in the sense of a wish that cannot be fulfilled, a really "ideal/desired" person in one's imagination: close to the a;lready posted "fantasy-ideal":

imaginary ideal/desire

desired figure of one's imagination
ideal imaginary person/figure

113160
United States
Local time: 02:38
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in category: 55

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Wunschfigur

English translation: fantasy figure

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English translation: fantasy figure

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