A recent study provides evidence that intense and disruptive forms of fantasy have been documented in classic fiction for centuries. The research suggests that compulsive fantasy is an enduring part of the human experience rather than a passing modern trend. These findings were published in the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice.
To understand the research, it helps to know how psychologists currently view different forms of imagination. Ordinary daydreaming is a universal human trait that helps people solve problems and plan for the future. Some individuals experience a more intense version known as immersive daydreaming. Immersive daydreaming involves vivid, detailed mental scenarios that can absorb a person’s attention completely.
People experiencing this immersive state might pace, make facial expressions, or use music to enhance their mental stories. This behavior is generally harmless and can even be a creative outlet. Sometimes, this rich inner world becomes a serious problem. Maladaptive daydreaming is a condition where fantasy becomes a compulsion that takes over a person’s life.
People with this condition often neglect their social lives, schoolwork, or jobs because they spend so much time in their imagined worlds. This behavior tends to cause significant emotional distress. Psychologists only recently began studying maladaptive daydreaming as a specific clinical condition. Because it is a relatively new concept in mental health, some experts have questioned whether it is a genuine psychological disorder.
“This study began from a simple observation: although immersive daydreaming and maladaptive daydreaming have only recently entered psychological research, the experiences themselves seemed unlikely to be new,” said Eli Somer, a clinical psychology researcher at the University of Haifa and co-author of the study.
Somer noted that in his clinical and research work, he has repeatedly encountered people who felt deeply relieved when they finally found language for a form of inner life that had been private, confusing, and often shame-laden. Somer added, “At the same time, there has been an understandable debate about whether maladaptive daydreaming is a genuine clinical condition or whether naming it risks pathologizing ordinary imagination.”
Somer and his co-author, Ashwini S. Iyer, wanted to see if they could find historical evidence of these behaviors before modern psychology existed. They looked to classic literature to see if authors from the past had already observed and described these intense forms of imagination in their characters. “We wanted to address that debate from an unusual angle,” Somer said. “Instead of looking only at contemporary clinical reports, we asked whether literature had already noticed these patterns before psychology gave them a name.”
Literature has always explored the human mind. “Fiction has long been attentive to inner life,” Somer explained. “Writers described characters whose imagination nourished creativity, helped them survive loneliness or oppression, or, in some cases, pulled them away from reality in ways that became costly.” The goal was to demonstrate that these immersive states are not a modern phenomenon.
“Our aim was to show that these experiences have a historical and phenomenological continuity,” Somer said. “They are not merely an internet-era trend or a newly invented complaint.” To answer their questions, the researchers selected 20 works of classic and modern fiction spanning from the 17th to the 21st centuries. They used specific search terms like “escapism,” “fantasy,” and “daydream” in digital libraries such as Project Gutenberg.
The selected texts had to feature characters who experienced deep sensory and emotional absorption in their daydreams. The books also needed to describe the characters’ internal thoughts with enough detail to allow for a psychological analysis. “This was a qualitative literary study, so we were not estimating effect sizes in the statistical sense,” Somer said. “Its practical significance lies elsewhere.”
“We analyzed 20 works across several centuries and found recurring patterns that closely resemble contemporary descriptions of immersive and maladaptive daydreaming,” Somer added. The sample included well-known novels such as ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Jane Eyre,’ ‘Madame Bovary,’ and ‘The Great Gatsby.’ Eight of the texts were published in the 19th century, an era known for realism in literature. Ten of the works were published between 1900 and 1950, a period when authors often experimented with deep introspection and stream-of-consciousness writing.
The scientists analyzed the texts to identify recurring themes related to the characters’ environments, their fantasy topics, and the outcomes of their daydreaming. They evaluated the fictional characters using a modern psychological tool called the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale. This scale measures four main components of the condition. These components include the disruption of daily life, an intense craving to daydream, physical movements during fantasies, and the use of music to trigger the imagination.
The analysis revealed that ten of the books featured male protagonists, and ten featured female protagonists. Eighteen of the 20 stories focused on young or middle-aged characters. The authors found that intense daydreaming tended to arise when characters faced difficult life circumstances. Somer explained that these works repeatedly link immersive fantasy with loneliness, poverty, social constraint, trauma, identity conflict, romantic longing, ambition, and escape.
“They also show different outcomes, from creativity and coping to impairment, deception, social harm, and despair,” Somer said. “For clinicians and researchers, that provides a rich historical and cultural map of the phenomenon.” The researchers noted overlapping traits between classic texts and modern psychology. “I was struck by how precise some of the literary depictions were,” Somer noted.
“Writers captured not only excessive fantasy, but also features that modern research has identified as clinically relevant: absorption, emotional compensation, repetitive movement, music or rhythm as a trigger, impairment, and the pull of an idealized self or imagined relationship,” Somer said. In some stories, daydreaming served a positive and adaptive function. Characters in these books used their imagination to cope with negative emotions, boost their creativity, and achieve real-world goals. The authors noted that in every positive depiction, the characters also practiced self-control.
Somer said, “I was also interested in the fact that literary texts often showed regulation as well as dysregulation. Characters such as Jane Eyre and Clarissa Dalloway are not simply swallowed by imagination.” These protagonists deliberately anchored themselves to the real world. “They notice their minds drifting and bring themselves back to reality through reflection, ordinary sensory cues, or a sense of obligation,” Somer explained.
“That is remarkably close to contemporary ideas about metacognition, grounding, and mindfulness,” Somer noted. In 10 of the books, the daydreaming took a harmful turn. Prolonged engagement in fantasy drove characters toward misguided ambitions and destructive behaviors. Characters lost touch with reality, damaged their relationships, and sometimes suffered financial ruin or physical harm.
For instance, the character Jay Gatsby created a completely false identity based on his childhood fantasies, which led to tragic consequences. Similarly, Emma Bovary’s obsessive daydreams about passionate romance and high society pushed her into overwhelming debt and eventual suicide. “The main takeaway is that daydreaming exists on a continuum,” Somer stated. “For most people, imagination is healthy, creative, and emotionally useful.”
“It helps us rehearse possibilities, regulate feelings, and imagine a different future,” Somer added. The problem begins when immersive fantasy becomes compulsive, difficult to control, and starts replacing real relationships, responsibilities, or life goals. “The literary record makes this distinction vivid,” Somer said. “Some characters use fantasy as a source of resilience and growth.”
“Others become trapped in idealized scenarios that distort their judgment or deepen their suffering,” Somer stated. This duality mirrors what mental health professionals encounter with patients today. “That is very close to what we see clinically today,” Somer added. “The question is not whether a person daydreams vividly.”
“The question is whether the fantasy life remains in the service of living, or whether life becomes organized around the fantasy,” Somer explained. The research indicates that these behaviors have deep historical roots. “Another conclusion is that immersive and maladaptive forms of daydreaming did not suddenly emerge in the modern era,” Somer said. “The literary record suggests that these experiences long predated their identification and study in psychology.”
“Writers across centuries described characters who retreated into elaborate inner worlds, sometimes finding inspiration, comfort, and creativity there, and at other times becoming lost in fantasies that undermined their engagement with reality,” Somer said. Writers themselves might have drawn from their own imaginative habits. “Indeed, some authors may have been especially familiar with immersive daydreaming themselves, drawing on vivid inner experiences as a source of imagination and artistic inspiration,” Somer explained. “Literature thus offers a valuable historical window into psychological phenomena that science has only recently begun to define and investigate systematically.”
While literature offers a unique window into the past, this study does have a few limitations. Reading these texts through a modern psychological lens is an interpretive process, and the findings cannot replace actual clinical evidence. Somer warned against making definitive medical assumptions based on the books. “I would not want readers to conclude that vivid daydreaming is pathological,” Somer said.
“Many people have rich inner worlds, and that can be a source of creativity, comfort, and meaning,” Somer added. “Immersive daydreaming becomes clinically important when it is experienced as compulsive, causes distress, or interferes with functioning.” Another caveat is that fiction is not clinical evidence in the usual sense. “Novels and plays are shaped by artistic intention, cultural conventions, and narrative drama,” Somer explained.
“Our study does not claim that the characters we discuss can be diagnosed with maladaptive daydreaming,” Somer clarified. “Rather, we argue that literary portrayals preserve recognizable phenomenological patterns that psychology is only now beginning to study systematically.” Somer noted that diagnosing fictional characters is impossible. “That does not prove that fictional characters had a diagnosable disorder,” Somer said.
“We cannot diagnose literary figures,” Somer noted. “But the convergence is meaningful.” Moving forward, the researchers hope to solidify the clinical understanding of the condition. “My broader goal is to help establish maladaptive daydreaming as a serious and carefully defined mental health condition, while preserving the distinction between pathological fantasy and healthy imagination,” Somer stated.
“That requires clinical studies, brain-imaging research, epidemiological research, cross-cultural validation, treatment trials, and better diagnostic tools,” Somer added. The current project also highlights the benefits of mixing different fields of study. “This particular study also opened an interdisciplinary path,” Somer said. “Literature, diaries, letters, memoirs, and other first-person materials may help us understand the cultural history of immersive fantasy.”
“They can also help clinicians develop a more empathic language for speaking with patients,” Somer explained. This empathy is important because people who suffer from maladaptive daydreaming often feel that their experience is strange or unspeakable. “Literature shows that this form of inner life has been observed, imagined, and described for centuries,” Somer added. Looking at literature alongside science brings a more well-rounded perspective to mental health.
“I see this paper as a bridge between clinical science and the humanities,” Somer concluded. “Psychology gives us concepts, measurement, and empirical discipline. Literature gives us depth, context, and a human voice. When we bring them together, we can see maladaptive daydreaming less as an oddity and more as one expression of a broader human capacity: the ability to create inner worlds.”
Somer emphasized that this human capacity can sustain us, especially under conditions of loneliness, deprivation, or constraint. “But it can also become a retreat that is difficult to leave,” Somer said. “Our study suggests that writers understood this tension long before clinicians and researchers had a name for it.”
The study, “Literature as Early Witness: Immersive and Maladaptive Daydreaming Before Their Recognition in Psychology,” was authored by Eli Somer and Ashwini S. Iyer.
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