"Compensation" is a technical term for the substitution of one thing, experience or behavior for another that is desired but repressed or otherwise not available. A dieter, repressing the behavior of eating may overindulge in exercise. A smoker, in quitting smoking, may overeat.

Assertion: Fantastic stories especially offer psychic economy by compensation and neither the reader nor the author need be consciously aware of the roots of this compensatory function. The overall form of the SF genre is compensatory.

That an author or reader feels drawn to, entertained by, a narrative already indicates that the narrative is in some way dealing with a significant issue. This "dealing with" is vicarious only and occurs in the psychic economy of the world of art. The story is compensatory for a dis-ease the reader or writer either feels or can imagine himself or herself feeling in the real world.

What are the specific compensatory functions of SF? I refer you here to the following files: Audience cult.txt, Psi, the Spirit and SF.txt, Religion and SF Film.txt, and especially SF and Religious Formation.txt. In short, SF compensates for a felt need for reasoned and reasonable access to the sacred in a culture in which such access has been very difficult for many. This is not all SF compensates for, of course, but it does largely explain the growth in popularity of the genre over the last forty years.