Imagination- the cognitive mental process of creating a new image (representation) of an object or situation by restructuring (transforming) a person’s existing ideas. Imagination, as a unique form of reflection of reality, provides a mental departure beyond the limits of what is directly perceived, helps to anticipate the future, and “revitalizes” what was before.
Some mental disorders sometimes owe their occurrence to excessive suspiciousness, impressionability and the patient’s vivid imagination. Often the immediate cause of such a disease is a misunderstood doctor’s word. The patient here imagines that he has fallen ill with a dangerous disease and even “appears” the corresponding symptoms. Such diseases that arise under the influence of a careless word from a doctor are usually called iatrogenic diseases. The strength of the doctor’s iatrogenic influences increases with the authoritarian, directive style of his relationship with the patient.
Iatrogenesis(from the Latin iatros - “doctor”) (Vttke O., 1925) is a general name denoting psychogenic disorders in a patient as a result of careless, wounding words of a doctor (iatrogeny proper) or his actions (iatropathy), a nurse (sororogeny, from lat. soror - sister), other medical workers. Detrimental self-influences associated with prejudices towards the doctor, fears of medical examination, can also lead to similar disorders - egogenia (N.D. Lakosina, G.K. Ushakov, 1976). Deterioration in the patient's condition under the influence of undesirable influences of other patients (doubts about the correct diagnosis, treatment, etc.) is designated by the term egrotogeny (from aegrotus - patient, Liebig S.S., 1975). Back in 1937, the domestic psychologist and psychotherapist K.K. Platonov described didactogenies - psychogenic disorders in students associated with careless statements by the teacher.
Pathological forms of imagination and their assessment
In clinical practice, doctors often encounter patients whose psychopathological symptoms may relate to both passive and active imagination disorders. However, it has been noted that all these disorders are more common in individuals with a special mental make-up, distinguished by features of infantilism and signs of excessive excitability of the imagination with a tendency to fiction and fantasizing. As early as 1905, these personality traits were described by the French psychiatrist Ernest Dupre (1862-1921) as "mythomaniacal constitution".
Pathological forms passive imagination. In psychiatric and general somatic clinics, assessment of the characteristics of passive imagination is most often required in patients with various types of decreased levels of wakefulness and states of stupefaction, as well as sleep disorders due to dreams.
Oneiroid - a dreamlike, dream-like stupefaction observed as a result of skull injuries, acute infectious diseases with fever, intoxication, or in some types of acute schizophrenia. At the same time, the patient’s imagination processes are sharply activated, and the images he creates are “visualized” in the form of kaleidoscopic fantastic visions, reminiscent of pseudohallucinations.
Oneirism - the patient ceases to feel the differences between the images of the imagination in dreams and reality. At the same time, what you see in a dream may not be perceived with due critical assessment in the morning. Sometimes, even during the day, the patient has vivid dream images, as soon as he closes his eyes. Sometimes such visions occur with open eyes - dreams like a daydream or a dream with open eyes. In mentally healthy individuals, the latter can be observed when the activity of consciousness weakens - in a half-asleep state or in a state of passion.
Hallucinations of the imagination(Dupre E.,) - a type of psychogenic hallucinations, the plot of which arises from affectively significant and long-term ideas in the imagination. It occurs especially easily in children with a painfully heightened imagination.
Delirium of the imagination(Dupre E., Logre J.B., 1914) - is a variant of delusion formation, which arises from a tendency to fantasize in persons with a mythomaniac constitution. It arises acutely - by “intuition, inspiration and insight.” Perception is not impaired, the patient is completely oriented regarding the place and his own personality.
Dreamlike epileptic seizures(Ducoste, 1889) - dreams with a predominance of red color, accompanying or replacing (equivalents) of a nocturnal epileptic seizure. They are always stereotypical - with visions of threatening images in the form of monsters, chimeras and parts of their own body. IN daytime such dream-like states (Jackson J.H., 1870) can be a precursor (aura) of a seizure in temporal lobe epilepsy, however, the phenomena of derealization, the phenomena of “already seen” and “never seen”, “violent” (not suppressed by an effort of will) still predominate. fantastic performances.
Pathological forms of active imagination. The main symptom of active imagination disorders is a violation of criticality towards its products and (or) their use. Most often in clinical practice, a doctor has to deal with the phenomenon of pathological deceit in a number of patients - fantastic pseudology. It is expressed in the fact that a person begins to sincerely believe in the phantasms he himself creates (fantastic ideas and images). This phenomenon was described back in 1891 by A. Delbrück as “a lie without need with conviction of the truthfulness of the lie expressed.” In the modern understanding, pseudology is considered in two main versions.
1. Psychotic phantasms, where the imaginary is subjectively more firmly accepted as the truth (for example, as in confabulations), and it can turn into entire plot pseudologies and even delusional fantasies. Such disorders are more typical for various organic diseases of the brain with severe memory impairment (progressive paralysis, cerebral syphilis, trauma), as well as epilepsy and schizophrenia.
2. Non-psychotic phantasms, where pseudology is a combination of two types of fantasy: “for oneself” (an “escape” into a dream world from reality) and “for others” (increasing one’s own attractiveness), i.e. has both the properties of psychological defense mechanisms and the properties of “manipulation mechanisms” by other people (Yakubik A., 1982).
Non-psychotic phantasms as a type of pseudology are especially common in individuals with hysterical psychopathic tendencies and a “mythomaniac constitution.” At the same time, such a person, like any liar, knows that he is lying. However, this lie is pathological - it is different from regular topic, which most often is clearly inappropriate, and the patient understands all its futility, but cannot resist his need to lie. Pseudologists, unlike ordinary hysterical psychopathic individuals, are more active in their desire to realize their fantastic constructions, so they more often come into conflict with the law. At the same time, their deceit obscures all other personality traits.
Psychiatrists usually consider a pathological tendency to fiction and lies from childhood as a manifestation of partial infantilism. Such individuals lack stability, maturity of will and judgment. Their affections are shallow, since they love only themselves. A sense of responsibility and duty is alien to them. In parallel with the maturation of the personality, these psychopathic manifestations gradually subside. By the age of 40, such phenomena are rarely observed.
When assessing the “pathology” of pseudology in children and adolescents (childish deceit) should be considered age characteristics formation of imagination. A child gets the opportunity to completely separate his dreams, childhood fantasies from reality only during adolescence. If the period of active childhood imagination (4-7 years) is prolonged for some reason, then children's deceit can gradually acquire a socially significant and even pathological character, especially in cases where it becomes a permanent instrument of success in life. This gradually becomes a factor in personality deformation and pathological personal development.
In healthy children, fantasies are flexible and connected in one way or another with reality. Pathological fantasies are most often quite persistent, divorced from reality, bizarre in content and accompanied by behavioral disorders.
In preschool age (usually at the age of 3-5 years), parents of children sometimes have concerns about prolonged child's playful transformation in the image of some fairy tale character or even in inanimate object. Such cases require consultation with a specialist, since they can be a manifestation of elementary forms of depersonalization and are often replaced by other mental disorders (such as the symptom of mental automatism in schizophrenia).
In other cases, the child’s games begin to be dominated manipulations with non-game objects - cups, strings, bottles. Attempts by parents to distract the child from playing with such a “favorite” object are unsuccessful; here, in the child’s fantasies, either elements of super-value and (or) changes in the sphere of drives are seen.
Alarming in terms of the possibility of a mental disorder in a child are cases persistent fantasizing of sadistic content And pathological fantasies such as self-incrimination. The latter type of fantasy is more common in adolescence- for boys, these are usually “confessions” of some kind of robbery or participation in espionage activities, and for girls, self-incrimination of sexual content is typical.
Control questions:
What disorders are observed due to excessive suspiciousness of the patient?
Name the forms of violations of active and passive imagination.
What age-related features of the development of imagination should be taken into account when assessing pseudology in children and adolescents?
In relation to an adult, the phrase “He lives in his own fantasy world” is not a compliment. Involvement in imaginative games is perceived as weakness, as an escape from “real” life. Why? Is imagination really dangerous? Is the world of fantasy really for an adult in his real life is absolutely useless and should we leave all these fictions and fairy tales to the children?
If you remember yourself as a child or watch children, you will notice that the child spends most of his time in his fictional, imaginary world. And what’s surprising is that by creating this world, experiencing it together with their fictional characters, the child gets very real experience, real emotions and sensations.
What is imagination? The dictionary defines imagination as the mental process of creating and manipulating images. Creativity, play, and the work of human memory are built on this process.
Thus, imagination plays the most important role in the process of creating something new, be it creative work or useful invention. Without imagination there would be no art or science. Although no one argues with this. And if we talk about life ordinary person? Dangerous or useful?
Imagination allows a person to gain experience, which for some reason is still difficult to obtain in reality. And thus, including seeing a way to bring the desired experience into your life. How does this happen?
There are studies that suggest that the same neurons in the brain are responsible for memories and imagination. And, in fact, it turns out that for the brain there is no difference whether we see a real picture or just imagined it. This explains the fact that errors and distortions gradually accumulate in our memory over time.
And if in recent events we can more or less clearly separate for ourselves what happened in reality from what was completed by the imagination, but the more time passes, the more precarious this boundary becomes. This also explains the phenomenon of “false” memories. Most of what we perceive does not come from the senses, it is created in our inner world.
Thus, the conclusion suggests itself that the experience experienced by a person through the play of imagination is as real and complete as the experience gained in reality. And this can be used successfully. To overcome fear, to learn, to improve results, to formulate your dreams, to fulfill desires, to test desires for truth, etc.
You can rehearse in your head important, desirable events, events that may be a little scary because they will happen for the first time. And when they happen in reality, they will no longer frighten with their novelty, because in the bins of consciousness there is already some experience about this.
It is said that some athletes, such as alpine skiers, can improve their performance by replaying their route in their minds several times, imagining every turn, every obstacle, and even how they stand on the podium receiving their award.
There is a theory that a person (his soul) comes to this world for experience. And we gain experience through emotions, feelings and sensations. Consequently, all the actions that a person performs in life are done, by and large, in order to experience some feeling, emotion or sensation, thus taking experience.
It is worth adding to this picture that the language of images is the only language that understands our unconscious. And imagination is very good way build communication with him, “download” the desired program and thus bring yourself closer to the fulfillment of a desire or dream.
Imagination will also help in such cases when there is not enough courage to decide on some meaningful goal because there is in the past negative experience on this occasion. I exist special techniques, which, with the help of imagination, help modify negative experience, extract value from it and use this transformed experience as a support in order to finally decide on something.
It turns out that imagination is an amazing and accessible tool that can help in life, but like any other tool, you need to learn to use it.
Altai Mountain Pharmacy wishes you health and active longevity!
The images with which a person operates include not only previously perceived objects and phenomena. The content of the images can also be something that he has never perceived directly: pictures of the distant past or future; places where he has never been and never will be; creatures that do not exist, not only on Earth, but in the Universe in general. Images allow a person to go beyond real world in time and space. It is these images that transform, modify human experience, are the main characteristic of imagination.
Usually what is meant by imagination or fantasy is not exactly what is meant by these words in science. In everyday life, imagination or fantasy is called everything that is unreal, does not correspond to reality and, thus, has no practical significance. In fact, imagination is the basis of all creative activity manifests itself equally in all directions cultural life, making artistic, scientific and technical creativity possible.
Through sensations, perception and thinking, a person reflects the real properties of objects in the surrounding reality and acts in accordance with them in a specific situation. Through memory he uses his past experience. But human behavior can be determined not only by current or past properties of the situation, but also by those that may be inherent in it in the future. Thanks to this ability in human consciousness images of objects appear that this moment do not exist, but can subsequently be embodied in specific objects. The ability to reflect the future and act as expected, i.e. imaginary, situation characteristic only of man.
Imagination- the cognitive process of reflecting the future by creating new images based on processing images of perception, thinking and ideas obtained in previous experience.
Through the imagination, images are created that have never generally been accepted by a person in reality. The essence of imagination is to transform the world. This determines the most important role of imagination in the development of man as an active subject.
Imagination and thinking are processes that are similar in their structure and functions. L. S. Vygotsky called them “extremely related,” noting the commonality of their origin and structure as psychological systems. He considered imagination as a necessary, integral moment of thinking, especially creative thinking, since thinking always includes the processes of forecasting and anticipation. In problematic situations, a person uses thinking and imagination. The idea formed in the imagination possible solution strengthen the motivation of the search and determine its direction. The more uncertain problematic situation, the more unknown there is in it, the more significant the role of imagination becomes. It can be carried out with incomplete initial data, since it supplements them with products of one’s own creativity.
A deep relationship also exists between imagination and emotional-volitional processes. One of its manifestations is that when an imaginary image appears in a person’s mind, he experiences true, real, and not imaginary emotions, which allows him to avoid unwanted influences and bring the desired images to life. L. S. Vygotsky called this the law of “emotional reality of imagination”
For example, a person needs to cross a stormy river by boat. Imagining that the boat might capsize, he experiences not imaginary, but real fear. This encourages him to choose a safer crossing method.
Imagination can influence the strength of emotions and feelings experienced by a person. For example, people often experience feelings of anxiety, worry about only imaginary, and not real events. Changing the way you imagine can reduce anxiety and relieve tension. Imagining the experiences of another person helps to form and demonstrate feelings of empathy and compassion towards him. IN volitional actions imagination final result activity encourages its implementation. The brighter the image of the imagination, the greater the motivating force, but the realism of the image also matters.
Imagination is a significant factor influencing personality development. Ideals, as an imaginary image that a person wants to imitate or strives for, serve as models for organizing his life, personal and moral development.
Types of imagination
Exist different kinds imagination. By degree of activity imagination can be passive or active. Passive imagination does not stimulate a person to active actions. He is satisfied with the created images and does not strive to realize them in reality or draws images that, in principle, cannot be realized. In life, such people are called utopians, fruitless dreamers. N.V. Gogol, having created the image of Manilov, made his name a household name for this type of people. Active Imagination is the creation of images, which are subsequently realized in practical actions and products of activity. Sometimes this requires a person great effort and significant time investment. Active imagination increases the creative content and efficiency of other activities.
Productive
Productive is called imagination, in the images of which there are many new things (elements of fantasy). The products of such imagination are usually similar to nothing or very little similar to what is already known.
Reproductive
Reproductive is an imagination, the products of which contain a lot of what is already known, although there are also individual elements of the new. This, for example, is the imagination of a novice poet, writer, engineer, artist, who initially create their creations according to known models, thereby learning professional skills.
Hallucinations
Hallucinations are products of imagination generated by an altered (not normal) state of human consciousness. These conditions can occur due to various reasons: disease, hypnosis, influence psychotropic substances such as drugs, alcohol, etc.
Dreams
Dreams are products of imagination aimed at a desired future. Dreams contain more or less real and, in principle, feasible plans for a person. Dreams as a form of imagination are especially characteristic of people young, which most of life is still ahead.
Dreams
Dreams are called peculiar dreams, which, as a rule, are divorced from reality and in principle not feasible. Dreams occupy an intermediate position between dreams and hallucinations, but their difference from hallucinations is that dreams are products of the activity of a normal person.
Dreams
Dreams have always been and still are of particular interest. Currently, they are inclined to believe that dreams can reflect the processes of information processing by the human brain, and the content of dreams is not only functionally related to these processes, but may include new valuable ideas and even discoveries.
Voluntary and involuntary imagination
Imagination is connected in various ways with the will of a person, on the basis of which voluntary and involuntary imagination. If images are created when the activity of consciousness is weakened, imagination is called involuntary. It occurs in a half-asleep state or during sleep, as well as in certain disorders of consciousness. free imagination is a conscious, directed activity, performing which a person is aware of its goals and motives. It is characterized by the deliberate creation of images. Activity and free imagination can be combined different ways. An example of voluntary passive imagination is daydreaming, when a person deliberately indulges in thoughts that are unlikely to ever come true. Voluntary active imagination manifests itself in a long, purposeful search for the desired image, which is typical, in particular, for the activities of writers, inventors, and artists.
Recreative and creative imagination
In connection with past experience, two types of imagination are distinguished: recreative and creative. Recreating Imagination is the creation of images of objects that were not previously perceived in a complete form by a person, although he is familiar with similar objects or their individual elements. Images are formed by verbal description, schematic image - drawing, drawing, geographical map. In this case, the knowledge available regarding these objects is used, which determines the predominantly reproductive nature created images. At the same time, they differ from memory representations in the greater variety, flexibility and dynamism of image elements. Creative imagination - self-creation new images that are embodied in original products of various types of activities with minimal indirect reliance on past experience.
Realistic imagination
Drawing various images in their imagination, people always evaluate the possibility of their implementation in reality. Realistic imagination takes place if a person believes in the reality and possibility of realizing the created images. If he does not see such a possibility, a fantastic imagination takes place. There is no hard line between realistic and fantastic imagination. There are many cases where an image born of a person’s fantasy as completely unrealistic (for example, the hyperboloid invented by A. N. Tolstoy) later became a reality. Fantastic imagination is present in children's role-playing games. It formed the basis of literary works of a certain genre - fairy tales, science fiction, “fantasy”.
With all the variety of types of imagination, they are characterized by general function, which determines their main importance in human life - anticipation of the future, the ideal representation of the outcome of an activity before it is achieved. Other functions of the imagination are also associated with it - stimulating and planning. The images created in the imagination encourage and stimulate a person to realize them in concrete actions. The transformative influence of imagination extends not only to a person’s future activity, but also to his past experience. Imagination promotes selectivity in its structuring and reproduction in accordance with the goals of the present and future. The creation of imaginary images is carried out through complex processes processing of currently perceived information and memory representations. Just as is the case in thinking, the main processes or operations of the imagination are analysis and synthesis. Through analysis, objects or ideas about them are divided into their component parts, and through synthesis, a holistic image of the object is rebuilt. But unlike thinking in the imagination, a person more freely handles the elements of objects, recreating new holistic images.
This is achieved through a set of processes specific to the imagination. The main ones are exaggeration(hyperbolization) and understatement of real-life objects or their parts (for example, creating images of a giant, genie or Thumbelina); accentuation- emphasizing or exaggerating real-life objects or their parts (for example, a long nose Pinocchio, Malvina's blue hair); agglutination- connection of different, really existing parts and properties of objects in unusual combinations (for example, creating fictional images of a centaur, mermaid). The specificity of the imagination process is that they do not reproduce certain impressions in the same combinations and forms in which they were perceived and stored as past experience, but build new combinations and forms from them. This reveals a deep intercom imagination and creativity, which is always aimed at creating something new - material assets, scientific ideas or .
The relationship between imagination and creativity
There are different types of creativity: scientific, technical, literary, artistic etc. None of these types is possible without the participation of imagination. In its main function - anticipation of what does not yet exist, it determines the emergence of intuition, conjecture, insight as the central link creative process. Imagination helps a scientist to see the phenomenon being studied in a new light. In the history of science there are many examples of the emergence of images of the imagination, which were subsequently realized into new ideas, great discoveries and inventions.
The English physicist M. Faraday, studying the interaction of conductors with current at a distance, imagined that they were surrounded by invisible lines like tentacles. This led him to discover power lines and phenomena electromagnetic induction. German engineer O. Lilienthal spent a long time observing and analyzing the soaring flight of birds. The image of an artificial bird that arose in his imagination served as the basis for the invention of the glider and the first flight on it.
Creating literary works, the writer realizes in words the images of his aesthetic imagination. Their brightness, breadth and depth of the phenomena of reality they cover are subsequently felt by readers, and evoke in them feelings of co-creation. L.N. Tolstoy wrote in his diaries that “when perceived truly works of art an illusion arises that a person does not perceive, but creates; it seems to him that he has produced such a beautiful thing.”
The role of imagination is great in pedagogical creativity. Its specificity is that the results pedagogical activity do not appear immediately, but after some time, sometimes long time. Their representation in the form of a model of the child’s emerging personality, the way of his behavior and thinking in the future determines the choice of teaching and upbringing methods, pedagogical requirements and impacts.
All people have different abilities for creativity. Their formation is determined a large number various kinds aspects. These include congenital inclinations, human activity, characteristics environment, conditions of education and upbringing that influence the development of human characteristics mental processes and personality traits that contribute to creative achievements.
Imagination is amazing and unique ability human, which consists in the creation of images, ideas, ideas and concepts. This is part cognitive process, allowing you to create new images based on the experience gained and change them.
Imagination - special shape mental activity, which allows not only to interpret existing reality, but also modify it in the process of thinking. Thanks to imagination, we can not only remember pictures of the past, but also play out future scenarios, operate with ephemeral and abstract matters, and predict the results of actions.
Types of imagination
Depending on the degree of awareness and the results obtained, several types of imagination are distinguished.
- Involuntary imagination, which is not controlled by consciousness, allows you to see dreams in which reality intertwines with fiction, presenting the most fantastic pictures.
- Free imagination allows you to consciously create images and manipulate them at will.
- Reproductive imagination is similar to memories; it tries to repeat pictures of real-life reality, however, there is also a place for fiction and figurative additions.
- Productive imagination allows you to construct non-existent pictures, both complementing reality and previous experience with new images, and creating completely new ones. This type of imagination is also called creative, because it is imagination that allows artists to create amazing pictures, writers to compose stories that have never happened, and inventors to make unprecedented discoveries.
Functions of the imagination
Imagination is a fundamental component of creativity and play, essential for memory processes and has many other functions. Thanks to imagination, you can not only indulge in impossible dreams, but also carry out very practical actions in everyday life.
- Planning. Thanks to imagination, a person can plan, program and forecast upcoming activities, assume the result in advance and evaluate it, take into account possible scenarios developments of events. Goal setting depends entirely on imagination.
- Cognition. Imagination plays important role V cognitive activity, the processes of speech, attention, memorization, learning and perception in general largely depend on the imagination.
- Problem solving. The ability to create and manipulate mental images allows you to decide various tasks and serves as an integral and important part thinking process. Imagination allows you to solve any problem in your mind: from the simplest mathematical operations to complex professional problems.
- Managing emotions. With the help of imagination, a person can control his emotions. This may be an almost unconscious process of representation certain events and options for their development, thanks to which a person can both remove emotional stress, and survive negative or positive emotions. In addition, imagination underlies many techniques for managing emotions and mental state, for example in visualization techniques.
Imagination is necessary not only in childhood when we listen to fairy tales and play, but throughout our lives, every day. Without imagination, not only creativity is impossible, but also the thinking that a person possesses. It is even believed that what distinguishes humans from animals is the ability to imagine.