Charlie in impasse organised retreat into fantasy (8)
I believe the answer is:
escapism
'retreat into fantasy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'charlie in impasse organised' is the wordplay.
'charlie' becomes 'c' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'organised' indicates anagramming the letters.
'impasse' anagrammed gives 'esapism'.
'c' inserted inside 'esapism' is 'ESCAPISM'.
(Other definitions for escapism that I've seen before include "Inclination to retreat from reality" , "seeking to avoid reality" , "The avoidance of reality by absorbing the mind in fantasy" , "Avoiding reality by fantasising" , "Sim space (anag)" .)