The Moon Dweller: When Imagination Becomes a Disorder

The Woman Who Lived on the Moon

One particularly unusual case stands out in the history of psychiatry. At the beginning of the 20th century, an 18-year-old girl suffering from catatonia and mutism was admitted to a psychiatric clinic in Zurich. Her condition had been deteriorating since the age of 16, and no one knew why. She refused to speak, isolated herself completely and showed no response to her surroundings. She immediately attracted the attention of the young Carl Jung, who was only just beginning his career.

When Jung first encountered her, she remained in a classic catatonic stupor. Only after weeks of patient effort did he persuade her to speak. What he heard left him deeply unsettled. The patient told Jung that she lived on the Moon. She claimed that she inhabited an underground lunar dwelling alongside other women and children hidden there by men. Outside, a mysterious vampire roamed, disturbing the peace of the lunar community. One day she decided to kill him, but her plan failed. Enchanted by the demon’s beauty, she allowed him to abduct her, and together they flew away.

The Heavy Return from the Realm of Fancy

During psychotherapy, it became clear that the girl had survived sexual assault. Paralysed by shame and inner resistance, she could not psychologically process the trauma. Humiliated in her own eyes and in the eyes of the world, she sought relief in the kingdom of imagination. As she surrendered more and more deeply to her dreams, she failed to notice when they fully replaced reality. Only the vampire remained as a tether to her past—a reflection of what she feared most: a return to her actual life.

One should not imagine that the girl felt immediate gratitude toward her therapist. Quite the opposite: she sincerely hated Jung for closing the path back to the Moon. For a time, she relapsed into catatonia, but slowly she began to accept that life on Earth could not be avoided. In the end, she overcame her addiction. She started a family, lived through 2 world wars and never again fled to her lunar refuge.

Escape Into Fantasy in Everyday Life

Who has not drifted off during a dull lesson at school or while carrying out monotonous tasks at work? In our daydreams, we meet the loves of our lives, win the lottery or finally tell unwanted people exactly what we think of them. We become famous actors, singers or influential politicians. The crowd adores us, and at last we become “someone important”. Then the alarm clock of reality drags us back. The irritated voice of a teacher or employer ends our 15-minute excursion, and we automatically return to our duties.

Daydreaming is natural and deeply human. But there is a thin line between healthy inner life and destructive compulsion. At what point does imagination stop being a refuge and start becoming a problem?

Maladaptive Daydreaming: From Fancy to Disorder

The compulsive need to fantasise has long been known to psychiatry. Yet only in 2002 did researchers separate it from co-occurring disorders and describe it clinically as maladaptive daydreaming. In these cases, brief mental excursions become far longer, and what was once spontaneous turns into obsession.

Episodes may last from several hours to more than a dozen. The dreamer creates a private universe and imagines living inside it. Some actively perform their scenarios, while others prefer to watch them unfold like a film. Others focus almost entirely on inventing better versions of themselves. What they share is the construction of a world in which they remain fully in control. There, nothing can hurt them.

A Problem Hidden in Plain Sight

Real relationships are never satisfying, so I go back to the ones in my head that I can control.

I think about a message I could send to someone, but my brain creates the response. This leads to an entire conversation in my head, and then I no longer feel the need to actually talk to anyone.

I constantly fantasise that I can draw. The few attempts I made ended in failure. Now even starting to draw makes me sad, so I just imagine it instead.

These accounts from Reddit users capture the struggle of people suffering from this condition. Many cannot say exactly when their dreams turned into a compulsive urge. The problem develops gradually; sessions grow longer over time, and most people recognise it only when real-world consequences become impossible to ignore. They struggle to concentrate, neglect domestic and professional responsibilities and withdraw from social life. Many immerse themselves in fantasies from the moment they wake up, draining the energy they need for actual living.

Imagination Versus Reality

The greatest tragedy of maladaptive daydreamers is that imagination accomplishes nothing for them in reality. Their fantasies stop motivating them to make real changes and instead become a way of fleeing from what is painful, frightening or unknown. This breeds profound frustration. The gap between an ideal inner world and a flawed external one becomes unbearable.

People caught in this pattern usually know that something is wrong. Reality does not match their fantasies, and their inner scenarios become so detached from life that they cannot be realised. They feel they should return to the real world and often try to do so. But every obstacle they encounter in reality reminds them of the world in which they were all-powerful. In the end, they retreat once more into fantasy, and abandoning it becomes harder each time.

Seeking Help Beyond the Mind

In fighting addiction, cutting off the source is usually crucial. An alcoholic must stop drinking; a drug addict must stop using. But maladaptive daydreamers cannot simply put their minds on a shelf. Psychotherapy is necessary, yet few seek it. Those who overcome their shame often describe the problem only partially because they fear they will not be understood.

That fear is not baseless. The condition does not currently appear as an official diagnosis in major psychiatric manuals, and large multi-centre studies are still limited. At the same time, researchers have developed tools such as the MDS scale to measure the phenomenon, and the field has been expanding internationally. Consequently, many clinicians still fail to identify it correctly. Still, research in this area is relatively new, and the coming years will likely bring clearer answers and better diagnostic tools. For now, the first step is recognising the thin boundary between healthy imagination and escape into fantasy.

Read this article in Polish: Ucieczka w marzenia. Kiedy wyobraźnia staje się zaburzeniem