This paper focuses on the strategic deployment of fantasy and science fiction in The Memoirs of a Survivor, "an attempt at autobiography," as described by Doris Lessing herself. The fantasy world embodied as "the realm above the wall" serves as the unconscious of Emily, the narrator, and of the author herself, permitting Lessing to accomplish her search for her true self, her femininity, and her place in the mother-daughter relationship. The "real" world of the narrator is an imaginary one situated in the future where a kind of holocaust is in progress. This paper interprets this world as a world of science fiction, deployed by Lessing to critique and alter her own contemporary reality. The fantasy world of the last scene where the main characters meet a goddess, who functions as an image of salvation, has been interpreted as an escapist or utopian vision. This paper, however, interprets it as a space of liberation, because the narrator remains in her real world and writes this work as a survivor. The change and healing undergone by the narrator indicates a "real" world that is also changed.