Types of imagination in psychology: features and brief description. Types of imagination

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Federal budgetary state educational institution of higher professional education

"Volga Region State Social and Humanitarian Academy"

Dreams, reveries, fantasies - special types of imagination

Abstract on psychology

1st year full-time students

Directions "Pedagogical education"

(profiles: “Informatics, Foreign language”)

Zagidullina (Zagidullina) L.I.

Samara 2011

1. Introduction

2. Concept and types of imagination

3. Dreams and reveries - special types of imagination of similarities and differences

4. Fantasies and fantasies in sleep

6. Conclusion

1. Introduction

I think that the topic of the essay is quite relevant in our society, since along with memory images, which are copies of perception, a person can create completely new images. In images, something can appear that we did not directly perceive, and something that was not at all in our experience, and even something that does not actually exist in this particular form. These are images of the imagination.

Imagination is one of the fundamental characteristics of a person. It most clearly shows the difference between man and his animal ancestors. Philosopher E.V. Ilyenkov wrote: “Fantasy itself, or the power of imagination, belongs to the number of not only precious, but also universal, universal abilities that distinguish a person from an animal. Without it, it is impossible to take a single step, not only in art... Without the power of imagination, it would be impossible to even cross the street through the flow of cars. Humanity, devoid of imagination, would never launch rockets into space.” D. Diderot exclaimed: “Imagination! Without this quality one cannot be a poet, a philosopher, an intelligent person, a thinking being, or just a person... Imagination is the ability to evoke images. A person completely lacking this ability would be a stupid person.”

With the help of imagination, a person reflects reality, but in other, unusual, often unexpected combinations and connections. Imagination transforms reality and creates new images on this basis. Imagination is closely related to thinking, therefore it is capable of actively transforming life impressions, acquired knowledge, perceptions and ideas. In general, imagination is associated with all aspects of human mental activity: with his perception, memory, thinking, feelings.

2. Concept and types of imagination

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 the real world in time and space. It is these images, transforming and modifying human experience, that are the main characteristic of the 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, as the basis of all creative activity, manifests itself equally in all aspects of 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 experiences. 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, images of objects appear in the human consciousness that do not currently exist, but can later be embodied in specific objects. The ability to reflect the future and act as expected, i.e. imaginary, situation typical only for humans.

Imagination is a 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 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 of a possible solution formed in the imagination strengthens the motivation of the search and determines its direction. The more uncertain the problem situation is, 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, rather than 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, imagining the final result of an 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

There are different types of imagination. According to the degree of activity, imagination can be passive and active.

Passive imagination does not stimulate a person to take active action. 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 lot of effort and a significant investment of time from a person. Active imagination increases the creative content and efficiency of work and 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 the 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 arise for various reasons: illness, hypnosis, exposure to psychotropic substances such as drugs, alcohol, etc.

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 young people who still have most of their lives ahead of them.

A dream is always aimed at the future, at the prospects for the life and activities of a specific person, a specific individual. A dream allows you to outline the future and organize your behavior to realize it. A person could not imagine the future (that is, something that does not yet exist) without imagination, without the ability to build a new image. Moreover, a dream is a process of imagination that is always directed not just to the future, but to the desired future. In this sense, Plyushkin is an image of N.V.’s creative imagination. Gogol, but not his dream. But the heroes of A. Green’s “Scarlet Sails” are the writer’s dream about people, how he would like to see them.

A dream does not provide an immediate objective product of activity, but is always an impetus for activity. K.G. Paustovsky said that the essence of a person is the dream that lives in everyone’s heart. “A person hides nothing so deeply as his dream. Perhaps because she cannot stand the slightest ridicule and, of course, cannot stand the touch of indifferent hands. Only a like-minded person can trust your dream.”

Images of this kind, such as dreams, include a person’s ideals - images that serve him as models of life, behavior, relationships, and activities. An ideal is an image that represents the most valuable and significant personality traits and properties for a given person. The ideal image expresses the tendency of personality development.

Dreams are unique dreams that, as a rule, are divorced from reality and, in principle, are 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 normal human consciousness.

People dream about something pleasant, joyful, tempting, and in dreams the connection between fantasy and needs and desires is clearly visible. Let us remember Manilov, the hero of the story by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls". Manilov uses dreams and fruitless daydreaming as a veil from the need to do something: so he entered the room, sat down on a chair and indulged in reflection. Imperceptibly his thoughts took him God knows where. “He thought about the well-being of a friendly life, about how nice it would be to live with a friend on the banks of some river, then a bridge began to be built across the river, then a huge house with such a high belvedere that you could even see Moscow from there, and there to drink tea in the evening in the open air and talk about some pleasant subjects...”

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 are distinguished. If images are created when the activity of consciousness is weakened, the imagination is called involuntary. It occurs in a half-asleep state or during sleep, as well as in certain disorders of consciousness. Voluntary 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. Active and free imagination can be combined in various 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 according to a verbal description, a schematic image - a drawing, a picture, a geographical map. In this case, the knowledge available regarding these objects is used, which determines the predominantly reproductive nature of the created images. At the same time, they differ from memory representations in the greater variety, flexibility and dynamism of image elements. Creative imagination is the independent creation of 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 occurs 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.

In fantasies, the desired future is not directly connected with the present. Fantasy images include fairy-tale-fantasy and science-fiction images. Fantasy presents objects and phenomena that do not exist in nature. Both fairy tales and science fiction are the result of creative imagination. But their authors do not see ways to achieve what their imagination depicts.

Every object, no matter how everyday and far from fantasy it may seem, is to one degree or another the result of the work of the imagination. In this sense, we can say that any object made by human hands is a dream come true. The new generation uses the thing that their fathers dreamed of and created. A fulfilled dream gives rise to a new need, and a new need gives rise to a new dream. At first, every new achievement seems wonderful, but as it is mastered, people begin to dream of something better, more. So, on October 4, 1957, an artificial satellite appeared near the Earth. K.E.'s dream came true. Tsiolkovsky, the great dreamer of our time, who wrote that thought, fantasy, and fairy tale inevitably come first, followed by scientific calculation and, finally, execution. Before the satellite appeared, jet aviation arose, rockets took off into the stratosphere, studying its structure and composition, new heat-resistant alloys, new types of rocket fuel, etc. were created. Then a man flew into space - it was amazing and wonderful, but now everyone is used to it, and people dream of flying to other planets.

With all the variety of types of imagination, they are characterized by a common function, which determines their main significance in human life - anticipation of the future, an ideal representation of the result of 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 specific 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 imaginative images is carried out through complex processes of processing actually 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, Pinocchio’s long nose, Malvina’s blue hair); agglutination - the combination of various, real-life parts and properties of objects in unusual combinations (for example, the creation of 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 internal connection between imagination and creativity, which is always aimed at creating something new - material values, scientific ideas or artistic images.

3. Dreams and reveries are special types of imagination. Similarities and differences

imagination fantasy dream

A feature of imagination in the form of a dream is the construction of images of a desired future that has not yet been realized, and sometimes in the near future, unrealizable.

In their dreams, people paint vivid pictures of this future in the most diverse areas of their activity: they dream of future interplanetary and stellar flights, build in their imagination the spaceships necessary for this, equip them with as yet uncreated complex instruments and engines, imagine the real situation and conditions these flights; they dream of discoveries and methods of using new types of energy, of the invention of unprecedented powerful machines that will forever free man from hard physical labor; about scientific discoveries designed to give man inexhaustible power over the forces of nature; about creating wonderful works of art that can ennoble a person; about the reorganization of human society on a fair social basis, about the eternal abolition on earth of poverty, property inequality, all forms of exploitation of man by man, etc.

The images to which a person is given in his dreams have the following features:

bright, lively, concrete character of the image, with many details and particulars;

weak expression of specific paths to realizing dreams, imagination of these paths and means in the most general terms (in the form of some tendency);

the emotional intensity of the image, its attractiveness for a dreaming person;

combining a dream with a feeling of confidence in its feasibility, with a passionate desire to turn it into reality;

the creative nature of the image, pronounced features of the new, awaiting its implementation.

These features make dreams an important means of awakening initiative, maintaining a person’s energy in the most difficult conditions of life’s struggle, and a powerful incentive to work for the good. By constructing pictures of the future in his dreams, a person imagines his life prospects better and more definitely; dreams help him determine and specify the goals of his life. And this is not hindered by the fact that these dreams have not yet been realized immediately and immediately, and that in order to realize them, humanity still has to go a long and difficult way. If these dreams arise from the interests of society and are based on scientific foresight, they will sooner or later find application in practical life and one way or another will be realized.

One should distinguish from positive types of dreams dreams that are divorced from life, as well as empty, groundless dreams that are not even remotely connected with reality, the urgent tasks that life imperiously puts forward to workers in science, art, technology, and political figures. Such groundless dreams and fruitless daydreams only weaken a person’s energy, make him a passive member of society, and lead him away from reality.

The stronger our desires and the less the possibility of their satisfaction in the conditions of existing reality, the easier it is for us, using any excuse, to begin to dream of the fulfillment of our desires. What we lack and what is impossible to fill in the conditions of existing reality - we master all this in the world of dreams. A prisoner dreams of life in freedom, an emigrant dreams of returning to his homeland, a hungry man dreams of food. We can say that nothing is so closely linked with dreams as our unfulfilled desires. Therefore, it is not surprising that Freud considered dreams, like dreams, to be the fulfillment of desires.

One of the main signs of dreams is the self-centeredness of their content. In this respect they are similar to historical memory. However, if this latter concerns the past of the Self, then dreams imply the future, that is, what will happen or may happen in the future, and the pictures of dreams concern the fate of the Self. Therefore, it is clear that the content of dreams is predetermined, on the one hand, by the desires of the subject and his fears and modesty on the other.

However, to take into account the peculiarities of the content of our dreams, the concept of desire alone is not enough. How our desires are satisfied in our dreams, what pictures appear, how we act, how and what obstacles we overcome - all this depends both on the basic attitudes of the individual and on the attitude that she first developed in connection with this desire . For example, not all prisoners of any prison who dream of life in freedom paint the same picture of their liberation. One may dream of an amnesty in connection with some major holiday, which will grant him freedom; another paints a picture of how he manages to escape from the hands of the prison guards and escape; the third imagines that a revolution will occur, the collapse of the old order, which entails his liberation, after which he energetically joins the struggle to strengthen the new order.

In the content of the imagination we are given not only images of satisfying desires, but sometimes, on the contrary, pictures depicting a completely opposite state of affairs. It is well known that what you fear and what does not happen in reality and may never happen at all, comes true in the imagination. Let's say a student, preparing for an exam, begins to imagine: his turn has come, he begins to answer, but the examiner asks him exactly what he knows poorly, and therefore he fails the exam.

Of course, it is difficult to understand why our dreams turn to something that is completely not in our interests, because it is impossible for such pictures to cause pleasure in a person. What meaning can dreams have if the reality they create is less favorable than the reality in which our daily lives take place?!

Some try to solve this issue in the following way: our fears actually express our hidden desires, therefore, fulfilling in dreams what you fear means fulfilling a desire (Freud).

Other authors, such as Stern, point out that there are many cases in life when a person is unable to tolerate the uncertainty of a situation. Therefore, to the constant fear that something will happen, he ultimately prefers that what he is so afraid of actually happens, thereby ending his torment. Sometimes fear is more difficult to bear than what you are afraid of (Stern). This observation is absolutely correct. However, it still does not explain how doing what you fear in your dreams can be in any way useful, freeing you, even if only slightly, from fear.

It seems more correct to see the meaning of dreams, as well as fantasies in general, not in the fact that they are necessarily intended to fulfill certain goals of the subject, but in another way: under the influence of certain conditions, the subject develops a negative attitude towards a certain phenomenon, which emotionally manifests itself in the form of an experience of fear. Naturally, if this installation were realized, there could be no fear that such and such might happen. Consequently, this attitude needs to be realized, and since this fails in reality, it moves to the world of dreams.

The fact that this is so is clearly seen from the fact that not all people in their dreams equally often turn to pictures of the fulfillment of their fears. A firm and strong, self-confident person, generally optimistic, does not dream of terrible things. But in the dreams of indecisive, fearful and pessimistic subjects, it is precisely fears that predominate.

Dream pictures are usually realistic. They concern our destiny, tell about our adventures, and it is clear that in them the impossible and fantastic for humans do not appear at all. True, the above-mentioned prisoners dream of being released in ways that, in their conditions, cannot be seriously discussed. However, in principle, gaining freedom in this way is still not completely impossible, although in the conditions in which these prisoners find themselves they seem fantastic, completely impossible, but in the right conditions it is quite feasible.

In a word, dreams concern what is at least speculatively feasible, because in dreams we do not encounter centaurs, chimeras, or other unreal creatures. Be that as it may, the dream still deals with reality. Smith's research, based on a large amount of material, showed that the dreams of a normal adult most often concern his future plans. Therefore, it is clear that it is impossible to completely ignore reality in dreams.

4. Fantasies and fantasies in sleep

Fantasy refers to two different phenomena, namely: firstly, phantasm and, secondly, imaginative activity.

According to the traditional understanding that developed in psychology at the beginning of our century, fantasy is the ability to create new images (as well as reproduce images stored in memory). The creation of new images characterizes creative or productive fantasy, the reproduction of old ones - reproductive. As has been pointed out many times in the literature, there is no fundamental difference between these two forms of fantasy, but only a quantitative difference, a difference in the degree and strength of the different processes. With each reproduction of previous images, elements of creativity are introduced, and in the same way, creative fantasy never lacks elements of reproduction as the material that creative fantasy has at its disposal. Thus, the difference between both forms comes down to the fact that, despite their psychological homogeneity, the processes of reproduction dominate in the first form, and creativity in the second. With this understanding of fantasy, it is not only a purely intellectual function, but, in essence, is closely connected with memory, i.e. is not an independent mental function.

The main function of fantasy and its basis, the imagination, is to serve the emotional sphere: this second position of the theory of fantasy develops the first; in order to understand the very function of fantasy, in the development of emotional life, it is necessary to keep in mind the basic law of the emotional sphere, which can be formulated as the law double expression of feelings. According to this law, every feeling seeks its expression both in the physical and in the mental sphere: both of these expressions of feeling are mutually independent and irremovable, the suppression of one of them entails a weakening of feeling in general. As for the bodily expression of feeling, one should understand that mental work that is directly adjacent to the experience of feeling and the meaning of which is to make the content of feeling clearer and thereby consolidate it in the system of mental life. This is carried out thanks to the images that emerge in the mind and which serve as a means of mental expression of feelings. Feelings that cannot find a “successful” mental expression in an image remain, as it were, unconscious - as if passing through the soul and leaving no trace in it. This can be shown especially well in the fate of higher feelings, where such cases are especially frequent: the unconscious, “unexpressed” feeling, in which we seemed to be standing on the threshold of some kind of revelation, goes away. But if a feeling finds its expression in an image, then this image becomes as much a means of “clarification”, intellectualization of the feeling as a means of mental influence on the personality. Thus, the work of fantasy can be called “emotional thinking,” which can be contrasted with cognitive thinking. If cognitive thinking processes the material of perception into thoughts that form “truth” or correct knowledge, then fantasy, by processing the material of emotional experience, promotes or is aimed at the assimilation and expression of ideals. This understanding of fantasy allows us to penetrate deeper into the nature and essence of fantasy forms, as an integral element of play activity, both in children and adults.

The psychological basis of fantasy is a change of ideas, which is least regulated by the usual laws of associations and rational activity. The main stimuli for the emergence and development of fantasy are usually individual ideas or ideas that for some reason have received special interest, feelings, affects and various kinds of organic sensations. These latter determine the predominantly fantastic construction of dreams. By the participation of our will in the development and change of fantastic ideas, we can distinguish between passive and active fantasy. Fantasy is passive when ideas replace each other completely against our will, and our contemplating “I” plays exclusively the role of a spectator. In active fantasy, we recognize ourselves as determining the course of ideas, choosing one or another from the fantastic associations that arise in us. However, these two types of fantasy cannot be opposed to each other; on the contrary, the first type can be considered as material for the second. The most typical form of passive fantasy is dreams. Changes in images occur in dreams without any dependence on our will, and even our own actions very often seem to us completely unexpected and as if taking place against our will. In dreams, the fantastic nature of images and unfolding pictures reaches its highest degree. The waking fantasy never achieves such bizarreness and such inconsistencies in the details of its constructions as the dream fantasy. The reason for this should be seen, on the one hand, in the absence of sobering perceptions of the outside world during sleep, and on the other hand, in the complete weakening of the activity of the mind. Not governed by either external or internal lawful principles, the sensory elements of dormant consciousness naturally intertwine into the most incredible combinations and violate the basic laws of existence. However, the flow of ideas during sleep is not always completely disordered; usually it is determined by some of the most active and persistent elements of consciousness. Any individual image can become an organizing center, depending on which others are grouped and replaced. Every feeling, e.g. fear, expectation, tenderness, love, in turn, can determine a series of images corresponding to its nature. Finally, very often the proximate causes of dreams are internal organic sensations and irritations. According to these influences that determine the construction of dreams, a whole classification of dreams can be established. This classification was given by K. Scherner in his classic work on this issue: “Das Leben des Traums”. Schopenhauer gives an ingenious theory of sleep in Parerga. In his opinion, a dream is an expression of the internal life of the body, namely, excitations coming from the sympathetic nervous system. These weak excitations do not reach the consciousness of the waking intellect, which is occupied with the sharp impressions of the external world. At night, when the tired brain indulges in peace and external stimulation does not disturb the dormant consciousness, internal stimulation becomes noticeable to the perception of the intellect, just as the babbling of streams is clearly heard at night, drowned out by the noise of the day. But since, by its very nature, the intellect can function only in the orders of space, time and causality, then the internal excitations that reach its consciousness take the form of external perceptions. The role of fantasy in the waking state is determined mainly by its participation in artistic and scientific creativity. Fantasy, as an activity that creates images, is a necessary condition for any artistic creativity. Since images are composed by inventing and artificially combining elements, they are devoid of liveliness and artistic truth. Fantasy gives the artist the necessary supply of images and outlines possible ways of combining them, while the construction of the whole is determined by an aesthetic sense and the basic idea of the artistic concept. Poetic creativity can take on the character of a completely unconscious process in which images are combined into an artistic unity without any control of rational and generally critical activity. This manifestation of pre-ethical fantasy characterizes the greatest rise of poetic inspiration and has as its external expression the so-called improvisation. Romanticism is richest in fantastic constructions. An outstanding representative of this field of creativity is the German romantic E. T. A. Hoffmann, who knew how to invest deep ideological meaning into his incredibly fantastic images. And in scientific creativity, fantasy is important as an auxiliary means of discovering scientific truth. Of course, here F. is most regulated by criticism of reason, which immediately excludes assumptions that are impossible from a scientific point of view. Fantasy finds its greatest use in creating hypotheses in the empirical sciences and in general in the study of causes in a particular area of phenomena. In all such cases, fantasy provides a rich material of possible guesses and assumptions, from which reason, through logical analysis and empirical verification. extracts everything that may have scientific significance. Such is the participation of fantasy in the creation of philosophical concepts, since in this area hypothetical assumptions can be expressed in sensory representations, and not in abstract concepts. In some philosophical systems, the concept of fantasy acquires very great importance. In Froshammer's philosophy, fantasy plays the role of a world-creating principle. For Kant, imagination and fantasy (productive Einbildungskraft) are an intermediary link between sensuality and the categories of reason. Wed. K. Scherner, "Das Leben des Traums"; J. Volkelt, "Die Traum-Phantasie"; Strumpel, "Die Natur und Entstehung der Traume"; N. Michaut, "De l"imagination"; E. v. Hartmann, "Aesthetik"; Ribot, "Creativity and Imagination" (1900); Lichtenberger, "Die Phantasie"; Schmidkunz, "Synthetische und analytische Phantasie". P. Alekseev.

5. Age-related characteristics of the imagination of children and adolescents

In any age period there are peculiarities of mental development that are unique to it, depending on physiological and anatomical changes in the body, on the social roles occupied by the individual, on the physical and intellectual capabilities of a certain age.

Let's briefly look at the five stages of imagination development inherent in childhood.

Features of the infant period (from birth to 1 year).

Newbornhood is the first crisis period in human mental development. At this age, the activity of all sense organs is rapidly developing, so it is important to purposefully create special conditions for their full development. The first social need appears - the need for communication. Direct emotional communication is the leading type of activity in infancy. The development of visual and auditory perception occurs in the process of communication between a child and adults. Postural and locomotor movements and manipulations with objects develop. The prerequisites for active speech (humming, babbling) and initial memory are formed.

This is how the first experience of reflecting reality is accumulated.

At an early age (from 1 to 3 years), activities and forms of communication become more complex. Object-tool activity in play becomes the leading one for a young child. Social attachment is strengthened, which is very significant for the child’s mental development. The processes of perception and emotions are improved, early forms of visual-effective thinking, understanding of speech are developed, preparing the ground for the subsequent development of imagination. Speech understanding develops. The most significant achievement of the age period under consideration is the formation of the image of “I”, the transition from “field” to volitional behavior.

At this stage we can talk about the formation of imagination as an independent mental process.

Preschool age.

The leading activity of this age is role-playing play, during which social rules and norms are learned, images are formed and replaced. New forms of communication with adults and with peers appear, and the formation of the child’s personality begins to be influenced by the children’s team and family relationships. A special role in the formation of imagination and in the mental development of the child during this period is played by visual, constructive activities (elements of labor), and the perception of literary and artistic works (fairy tales). Development and formation of voluntary and indirect memory, attention and its features. The development of tactile imagination largely depends on the success of solving the problem of sensory education. Indirect and visual modeling is developing, forming the basis of a qualitatively new type of thinking - visual-figurative. Gradually, the child moves to the concrete operational stage of development of logical intelligence.

Personal development is characterized by the further formation of the self-concept, and the foundations of self-esteem appear. New social motives of behavior and needs arise, and their hierarchy is established. Moral and aesthetic feelings (pride, shame, guilt), and cognitive interests are formed. The awareness of feelings and emotions begins, the development of will and arbitrariness in controlling behavior.

Imagination is formed in parallel with all mental processes and properties. An important role at this age is played by the child’s assimilation of moral norms and ethical standards.

Junior school age.

Educational activity is the leading one and is important for mental development, as the process of adaptation to school and the child’s mastery of a new social situation takes place. It is necessary to create motivation for learning. Social life is characterized by friendship with peers and has some new forms: cooperation, competition and conflicts. Education, being the main source of mental development of a primary school student, creates new age-related opportunities for acquiring knowledge. The problem of forming the foundations of scientific thinking arises. It is known that imagination is strongly connected with thinking, since both processes are part of mental activity, therefore the systematic formation of mental actions, concepts and optimization of educational activities is important both for thinking and for the development of imagination. The problem arises with the awareness of speech, its elements, its functions and forms. Psychological new formations: reflection, analysis, planning. Perception and attention are developed, observation skills are formed, and memory efficiency increases.

In the personality (in the development of the self-concept), the concept of justice appears, self-esteem is formed, and the motivational, need and volitional spheres develop. Moral norms and rules of conduct are learned.

The imagination grows and the speed of the process increases.

Adolescence.

Dramatic anatomical, physiological and psychological changes occur. The role of heterochronicity of organic, sexual and social development, as well as the role of cultural institutions in the process of socialization of adolescents, is growing. There is a transition from socialization to individualization, which is the main characteristic of adolescence. Individual and gender differences in the pace and nature of physical, mental and social development of adolescents are increasing. Dominants and cognitive motives develop. In mental development, the role of the peer group and interactions within it as a modeling of relationships among adult members of society is growing. Due to gender differences, special friendships appear among adolescents (for example, the “Code of Partnership”). The main psychological new formation is a sense of adulthood, a specific form of self-awareness. It is most important at this age to give the correct example.

Mediocrity, awareness and arbitrariness are the main indicators of the development of cognitive processes. Formally, operational intelligence develops.

Important changes in personality: gender-role identification occurs. The teenager’s self-awareness, self-esteem, and level of aspirations grow. Ideals arise that embody the level of aspirations. Problems in the development of the affective-consumer sphere - the affect of inadequacy. The need for person-oriented communication, self-affirmation and social recognition is intensifying. Moral judgment, will, and moral convictions develop. The orientation of the personality and character are formed, the accentuations of the personality are highlighted.

The imagination becomes vivid, explainable and partly subservient.

6. Conclusion

In my opinion, all types of imagination are important. People need to imagine, invent and dream something, without this they are just walking “plants”, and not people living a full, colorful life. Dream. imagine, generally live!

Bibliography

1. Nemov R.S. Psychology: Textbook. for students higher ped. textbook institutions: M.: 2003.

2. Subbotina L.Yu. Developing imagination in children: A popular guide for parents and teachers. --Yaroslavl: Academy of Development, 1996.

3. Jung K.G. “Diagnostic studies of associations” in the book: Selected works on analytical psychology: Zurich volume 3. 1939.

4. www.Grandars.ru » Psychology » Mental processes and states » Types and processes of imagination

Posted on Allbest.ru

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Creative imagination is the independent creation of new images included in the process of creative activity, that is, activity that results in original and valuable products. Such is the imagination of a writer, artist, composer, scientist, inventor, etc.

Creative imagination is a much more complex and difficult process than recreative imagination. Creating images of Onegin, Pechorin or Plyushkin is incomparably more difficult than imagining them and understanding them by reading an already written work. Creating a new model of a machine is incomparably more difficult than imagining it from a finished drawing.

There is no area of creativity where imagination does not play a significant role.

Any work that is creative work includes the activity of creative imagination. A Stakhanovite worker, breaking old norms and achieving a huge increase in labor productivity, must imagine, “create in his imagination,” a new, most rational arrangement of tools, new ways of performing activities, a new arrangement of labor power.

It is easy to understand how important creative imagination is for an inventor who is looking not for an abstract idea, but for a concrete thing - a machine, apparatus, device, etc.; Before realizing his invention in the form of a model, he must build it “in his head”, must imagine it. The inventor's imagination is a technical imagination, but not a recreating technical imagination, which we talked about in the previous paragraph, but a creative one.

Imagination is no less important for a scientist. When conceiving an experiment, a scientist must create in his imagination such a combination of conditions that would make it possible to test the hypothesis he is planning or the law he has established.

By creating new hypotheses and establishing new laws, the scientist must also “give full play to his imagination.” Without possessing the genius power of imagination, Newton would not have come up with the idea of deriving the motion of the planets from the motion of a thrown stone or projectile and explaining by one cause the fall of bodies on the Earth and the movement of the planets around the Sun. There is no science that does not require imagination. Lenin emphasized the need for imagination even in mathematics, the most abstract science, pointing out that without imagination major mathematical discoveries would be impossible.

Nowhere, however, does imagination have such exceptional importance as in art, in the process of artistic creation. In science, the images of the imagination are only the material used by the creative thought of the scientist. In art, creating images is the goal of creativity; in images the artist - writer, painter, composer, actor - embodies his ideological concept. Therefore, the work of imagination occupies a central place in the process of artistic creation. Let us take as an example the work of a writer’s imagination.

First of all, it is necessary to note the extreme brightness and vividness of the imagination of great artists of words. In most cases, these images are created before the writing process begins. The author mentally “sees” his heroes and their actions, “hears” their conversations, and he can only think about the meaning of the events unfolding before his inner gaze, select what should be included in the work, and describe what is selected as accurately as possible.

“I do not write the contents of a book,” said Dickens, “but I see it and write it down.” Goncharov also characterized the process of writing the novel: “Faces haunt me, pester me, pose in scenes; I hear fragments of their conversations - and it often seemed to me that I was not making it up, but that it was all floating in the air around me, and I just had to look and think about it.”

Of course, it only seems to the writer that he is not “composing” or “inventing” his work. It seems that this is, firstly, because images are usually created even before the process of writing, and secondly, because these images, in their brightness and liveliness, approach images of perception. Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy, noting this last feature, says about himself that he often, when remembering, “confused the former and the imaginary.”

Another important feature of the writer’s imagination is that he not only “sees” and “hears” his heroes, but, in the words of A. N. Tolstoy, “lives with them.” A writer must be able to imagine himself as his own hero, put himself in his place, and experience his feelings in his imagination.

Gorky saw this as the most important difference between the imagination of a writer and the imagination of a scientist. “A scientist,” he wrote, “studying a ram, does not need to imagine himself as a ram, but a writer, being generous, is obliged to imagine himself as stingy; being disinterested, he is obliged to feel like a self-interested acquisitive; being weak-willed, he is obliged to convincingly portray a man of strong will.”

We can say that a writer, along with visual and auditory imagination, must also have emotional imagination, that is, the ability to experience other people's feelings in imagination. Such a powerful and rich work of imagination is possible only if there is sufficient material. The accumulation of this material presupposes the following conditions:
1. High development of observation, which we already talked about in the chapter on perception (p. 67).
2. A thorough and in-depth study of the area of reality that the writer depicts in his work.

A. Fadeev’s work on the novel “The Young Guard” is indicative in this regard. Regarding the new, expanded and revised edition of this novel, the Pravda newspaper noted that the writer “first of all turned to an in-depth study of life and enriched his work with materials from reality itself. The author of the novel re-examined the work of the Bolshevik underground that actually existed in Krasnodon, which led the Young Guard, and brought in new vital material.” As a result, the writer was able to give a truthful and artistic summary of the typical phenomena of our life.

3. The richness of one’s own emotional life and, in particular, the high development of emotional memory, that is, memory for feelings, which provides material for emotional imagination.

The most important, decisive condition determining the activity of the creative imagination is the ideological orientation of a person. Imagination deserves the name creative only when it serves the realization of an idea, when the ideological plan of the creative worker is embodied in the images created.

Ideological orientation, determined by a person’s worldview, is the main engine of creative imagination.

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………...3

1.Types of active imagination………………………………….………………4

1.1. Recreating imagination……………………………………………………………5

1.2. Anticipatory imagination……………………………………………..7

1.3. Creative imagination…………………………………………………….9

2. Passive imagination………………………………………………………11

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….14

List of references………………………………………………………...15

Introduction

Imagination is a special process of the human psyche, standing apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupying an intermediate position between perception, memory and thinking. The specificity of this process is that imagination, as an ideal process, gives birth to the ideal - an image that represents something that does not exist in reality. Imagination, apparently, is characteristic only of humans; in any case, there is no convincing evidence of its presence in animals. Imagination is associated with the activity of the body, with the physiological processes occurring in it, and from this point of view, it differs little from other mental processes. At the same time, imagination is the most “mental” of all human mental processes. This means that the purely ideal, mysterious character of the human psyche is not so clearly manifested in anything other than the imagination. It can be assumed that it was imagination, the desire to understand and explain it (at least in the form of dreams or hallucinations) that attracted the attention of scientists to mental phenomena in ancient times, maintained and continues to maintain interest in human psychology in our days. As for the secrets of this phenomenon, they, in particular, consist in the fact that a person’s imagination can arise unexpectedly, spontaneously, giving birth in the form of images to something that has no analogues in the world. Now we can give a formal definition of imagination. By it we will understand a mental process that generates images in conditions when nothing corresponding to them affects the senses.

Several types of imagination can be distinguished, among which the main ones are: passive And active. The passive, in turn, is divided into arbitrary(daydreaming, daydreaming) and involuntary(hypnotic state, dream fantasy). Separately, such types of imagination as dreams, hallucinations, daydreams and daydreams are identified and considered.

1. Types of active imagination

Active imagination includes artistic, creative, critical, recreating and anticipating... Close to these types of imagination is empathy- the ability to understand another person, to be imbued with his thoughts and feelings, to have compassion, rejoice, and empathy.

Using this type of imagination, a person consciously sets himself the task of inventing something and then fulfills it. True, a person, engaging in the process of active imagination, does not have an exact idea in advance of what he will ultimately imagine or invent: the image of his fantasy is born in the course and as a result of the corresponding process, and is not known in detail to its creator until until this image is created by himself. Moreover, the person creating it does not know in advance where and where his creative process will stop. This is how, for example, writers, artists, engineers, scientists, and representatives of other creative professions work. This type of imagination is called active because at any moment in time, creating an appropriate image, a person can introduce something new, stop, that is, he is able to control this process or stop it at his own will

1.1. Recreating Imagination

Recreating Imagination- one of the types of active imagination, in which new images and ideas are constructed in people in accordance with stimulation perceived from outside in the form of verbal messages, diagrams, conventional images, signs, etc. This type of imagination is widely used in various types of human practice. The usual structure for using the reconstructive imagination is as follows: someone tells how to find the right house in an unfamiliar area of the city and describes in detail the complex route to follow. When perceiving words, images, their systems corresponding to the description of the street, signs, and landmarks appear. The appearance of the described places is represented with greater or less accuracy.

The degree to which the resulting images correspond to reality will depend on the accuracy and imagery of the description, as well as on the brightness and richness of the listener’s recreating imagination.

More complex types of reconstructive imagination, such as the imagination of drawings, geographical maps, musical notations, and the perception of literary works, require special training, knowledge and skills.

Soviet psychologist O.I. Nikiforova noted that the reconstructive imagination of different people is not developed to the same extent (differences in training, life experience, individual characteristics). She identified four types literary re-creative imagination .

1. The weakest imagination. When reading a description of a landscape, such subjects did not awaken their imagination at all, they did not have visual ideas about the landscape, they could retell the content of what they read only in a general form.

2. Subjects may have ideas, but they do not correspond to the text to one degree or another. The complex process of recreating an artistic image is replaced by the process of concretizing their personal, individual memories, more or less similar to the image of the description.

3. In these cases, what was noted, first of all, was the desire to more accurately imagine the image of the landscape from its description. Persons of this type had to analyze the text in detail. When reading, they had memories that did not correspond to the text, but unlike the subjects of the second group, they always checked these memories based on the analysis of the text and tried, through conscious alteration, to recreate the images as the writer depicted them. The main quality of subjects of this type is that they clearly identified the differences between the image of a literary description of a landscape and their memories. The subjects were able to recreate in their imagination an image of a landscape based on its description, even if they had never seen this or a similar landscape before in their lives.

4. Complete adaptation of the imagination to the originality of artistic descriptions and complete subordination of figurative processes to a deep and accurate analysis of the text. For such readers, as O.I. writes. Nikiforova: “immediately, as the reading progresses, ideas arise that correspond to the image of the landscape created by the writer. They did not observe any noticeable operations of the imagination, no alterations in representation.” The images appeared by themselves as I read the text. These subjects simply “saw” the images. The peculiarities of this type are that images appeared immediately without indirect recollection of past impressions.

But figurative reconstruction depends not only on the ability to recreate the imagination, on the level of knowledge, but also on the stylistic features of the description.

As studies have shown, it is easier for a person to recreate an image with a synthetic description, and the image itself will be more correct.

1.2. Anticipatory imagination

Anticipatory imagination underlies a very important and necessary human ability - to anticipate future events, foresee the results of one’s actions, etc. Etymologically, the word “anticipate” is closely related and comes from the same root with the word “see,” which shows the importance of understanding the situation and transferring certain elements of it into the future based on knowledge or predicting the logic of the development of events.

Anticipatory imagination is internally connected with the structure of any human activity. Animals have more primitive and simpler forms of this type of imagination. The roots of anticipatory imagination go to the sphere of vital adaptive mechanisms of the brain, which are based on the principle of anticipatory reflection of reality, that is, adaptation to future events that have not yet occurred. Without these mechanisms, not a single living creature could exist for even a minute. This is a universal phenomenon of life, which largely determined all forms of adaptive behavior of living matter. The highest manifestation of this principle is the activity of anticipatory imagination in its specific human forms: dreams, anticipation of events, anticipation of the consequences of one’s actions, etc.

Like other types of imagination, anticipatory draws “building” materials from memory reserves, from knowledge of the past and present, from an understanding of the logic of the development of certain events. Thanks to anticipatory imagination, a person organizes his activities based not only on his personal experience, but using the experience of other people and all of humanity.

In a new and unknown situation, a person cannot help but resort to trial and error. Anticipatory imagination helps to mentally perform a series of actions, explore proposed behavior options, possible consequences, on the basis of which a person can slow down and postpone some and activate other actions. A person does not need to jump from the twentieth floor to know how dangerous such a fall is. On the contrary, the idea of one’s own fall from a height and the fear associated with it (which, by the way, is a very common motive in dreams), as well as an imaginary picture of possible consequences - damage, injury, fractures, death, etc. - keep many people from the temptation to climb trees and roofs, and cause a seemingly unfounded fear of heights.

Thus, thanks to this ability, a person can “with his mind's eye” see what will happen to him, to other people or to surrounding things in the future. F. Lersch called this the Promethean (looking forward) function of the imagination, which depends on the magnitude of the life perspective: the younger the person, the more and more clearly the forward orientation of his imagination is represented. In older and older people, the imagination is more focused on events of the past. This situation, arising in the imagination, can be designated as an “as if” situation. By accepting a certain social or personal role in such a situation, a person checks the reliability of his knowledge about himself, as well as about his “ecology,” that is, about the immediate environment and the people around him. The hypotheses put forward are tested in practice. Some of them are rejected as inadequate and inconsistent with reality, others, confirmed by experience, are recognized as correct, and new ones are built on their example.

The success of forecasting and the correspondence of the expected results to the actual ones will depend on how objective the material of the anticipatory imagination is and corresponds to reality. The degree of plausibility of the assumption will depend on the extent to which the hypothesis takes into account known factors and laws of nature and human society, and also whether this hypothesis contradicts established laws. Strengthening the function of active imagination can be especially useful for a person searching for a solution to a scientific problem.

1.3. Creative imagination

Creative imagination- this is a type of imagination during which a person independently creates new images and ideas that are valuable for other people or for society as a whole and which are embodied (“crystallized”) into specific original products of activity. Creative imagination is a necessary component and basis of all types of human creative activity. Depending on the subject to which the imagination is directed, scientific, artistic, and technological imagination are distinguished. An example of creative imagination in science, for example, are peculiar image-concepts in which a certain concept appears in a visual form. In chemistry, this is the formula of a substance, that is, a specific image in the form of a picture gives a complete description of a given substance, indicates the order of connections of atoms in a molecule and the structure of their arrangement in space. In physics it is a visual model of the structure of an atom, in biology it is a model, an image of a protein molecule, etc.

Images of creative imagination are created through various techniques and intellectual operations. In the structure of creative imagination, two types of such intellectual operations are distinguished. The first is the operations through which ideal images are formed, and the second is the operations on the basis of which the finished product is processed. One of the first psychologists to study these processes was T. Ribot. In his book The Creative Imagination, he identified two main operations: dissociation and association. Dissociation is a negative and preparatory operation during which sensory experience is fragmented. As a result of such preliminary processing of experience, its elements are able to enter into a new combination.

Dissociation- a spontaneous operation, it manifests itself already in perception. Association- creation of a holistic image from elements of isolated image units.

Traditionally identified operations of creative imagination, or so-called imagination algorithms, were observed: agglutination, hyperbolization, sharpening, schematization, typification. Important conditions for creative imagination are its purposefulness, that is, the conscious accumulation of scientific information or artistic experience, the construction of a specific strategy, the anticipation of expected results; prolonged “immersion” in the problem.

Of greatest interest is the work of E. Bleuler “Autistic Thinking” (1927), which provides a detailed and in-depth analysis of passive imagination. In subsequent years (30-60s) only a few studies appeared, which obviously reflects a certain decline in interest in the study of this mental function. Recently, in connection with the development of psychology, the situation has begun to change, but unresolved problems of the significance of the pathology of the imagination in the pathogenesis of neuroses, neurotic states and psychoses remain relevant.

2. Passive imagination

Passive imagination subject to internal, subjective factors, it is tendentious. “It reflects the fulfillment of desires and aspirations, removes obstacles and turns the impossible into the possible and real. The goal is achieved due to the fact that a path is paved for associations that correspond to the aspiration, while associations that contradict the aspiration are inhibited, i.e. thanks to a mechanism that depends, as we know, on the influence of affects” (Bleuler). Bleuler attaches the most important role in passive imagination to efficiency, which acts as a tendency.

Passive imagination is subordinated to desires, which are thought to be realized in the process of fantasizing. In the images of passive imagination, the unsatisfied, mostly unconscious needs of the individual are “satisfied”. Images and ideas of passive imagination, as E. Bleuler emphasizes, are aimed at strengthening and preserving positively colored emotions and at repressing and reducing negative emotions and affects. At the same time, a person can take into account the requirements of reality.

Logic, which reflects the real relationships of reality, cannot serve as a guiding principle for passive imagination. In the dynamics of fantasy images, various desires and tendencies of the individual can coexist, regardless of whether they contradict each other or not.

If in the process of realistic thinking, Bleuler believes, in actions and statements a large number of drives, desires and needs are ignored, suppressed as undesirable in favor of what is subjectively more important, then in the images of passive imagination all this can receive its vivid expression. It is unlikely that a well-mannered, reasonable and cautious person will show his disagreement with the unfair and offensive actions of his boss too aggressively. But in the mental assessment that the imagination, “warmed up” by the desire for revenge, draws, this same boss can be subjected to the most sarcastic, destructive criticism from a subordinate. He can even be physically destroyed, trampled, crushed in the fantasies of a daydreaming person, and this brings him great satisfaction and compensates for the offense. The suppressed desire to respond to the offender comes to the fore in the passive imagination with particular force.

It is unreacted desires, interruption of actions that have begun or are still planned, the inability to act due to an insurmountable obstacle, the collapse of plans - all this subjectively experienced as a state of frustration is the main activator of passive imagination. And so fantasy creates images that are substitutes for satisfaction not received in real activity. During the processes of passive imagination, unreal, imaginary satisfaction of any need or desire occurs. In this, passive imagination differs from realistic thinking, which is aimed at real, and not imaginary, satisfaction of needs. Images of the imagination can be completely independent of reality, which in extreme cases leads to the creation of absolute nonsense, completely incomprehensible to others.

Passive imagination is governed by two principles.

1) every affect strives to be retained. It paves the way for the ideas corresponding to it, gives them an exaggerated logical value, and also inhibits the emergence of contradictory ideas, depriving them of their inherent meaning. Thus, a cheerful person assimilates cheerful ideas much more easily than sad ones, and vice versa.

Images of active creative or practical imagination can be conveyed (crystallized) in a verbal message or in a creative work. In most cases, the products of passive imagination are images that are difficult to convey in verbal form, abstract, symbolic, random, incomprehensible to others and therefore uncommunicable, as L.S. believes. Vygotsky.

Passive imagination can use the first available, even erroneous, material, devoid of any logical connection, for example, associations by consonance, random coincidences of any images and ideas, the use of one concept instead of another, which has only minor common components with the first, etc.

In the process of passive imagination, time relations are ignored. In fantasy images, Bleuler notes, there live aspirations that were eliminated from consciousness decades ago: memories that have become inaccessible to realistic functions are used in the passive imagination as recent, and they are often given preference because they encounter less contradiction with actual reality . It is interesting that more accurate, complete and professional knowledge about the subject of dreams and daydreams significantly slows down the process of fantasizing and becomes an obstacle.

Ignoring “reality” in the process of passive imagination, as E. Bleuler writes, lies in the fact that logical laws turn out to be valid for the material of thoughts only insofar as they can serve the main goal, i.e. depicting unfulfilled desires as fulfilled. Contradictions concerning the content of thoughts are even more crude and numerous than affective contradictions.

E. Bleuler notes that the innate character of autistic thinking is especially clearly revealed in symbolism, which is everywhere characterized by comparative monotony from century to century in mythology, in dreams, even to mental illness. Indeed, a huge number of tales, myths, and parables are based on a relatively limited number of motifs.

Conclusion

According to psychologists, all great creations or inventions require a sudden switch, shift or movement of attention and turn to a subject or area that has not been previously studied or even of particular interest to them.

“The time has come” - this means that the processes that give rise to ideas, images, and actions in the imagination have come to an end. And now the seemingly well-known situation looks in a completely different light, and the solution to a problem that seemed logically inaccessible becomes really possible.

Such situations, which people were not aware of or regarded as inaccessible or similar, lead to an extreme heightening of imagination, perception, give rise to sudden insights, an unexpected ability to spontaneously make the right decision.

Thus, one of the compensatory mechanisms - activation of the imagination, used by a person in conditions of insufficient stimulation, at a certain stage can acquire a positive value. At the same time, we have to admit that in an environment of significant limitation of stimulation, it is mainly the activation of passive, rather than active, imagination that occurs.

Thus, imagination plays an important role in early stages of studying scientific Problems and often leads to remarkable guesses. However, after some patterns were noticed, guessed and studied under experimental conditions, after the law was established and tested in practice. Connected with previously discovered provisions, knowledge moves entirely to the level of theory, strictly scientific thinking. An attempt to fantasize at this stage of researching a question can lead to nothing but mistakes. The development and nurturing of fantasy is an important condition for the formation of a young person’s personality.

Bibliography

1. Galin A.L. Personality and creativity. – Novosibirsk, 1989, – 253.

2. Korolenko T.P., Frolova G.V. The universe is inside you. - Novosibirsk, 1979, - 241.

3. Krutetsky V.A. Psychology: Textbook for students of pedagogy. School – M.: Education, 1989, – 400.

4. Mikhailov N.N. About the individual’s need for self-realization. Scientific report of higher school. - M.: Philosophical Sciences, 1982, - 300.

5. Nemov R.S. Psychology - M.: Higher education. 2005, - 362.

6. Ponomarev Ya.A. Psychology of creativity. – M.: Nauka, 1990, - 260.

7. Stolyarenko L.D. Basics of psychology. Rostov n/d.: Phoenix Publishing House, 1997, - 365.

Types of imagination- the main types of imagination are passive and active.

Passive is divided into voluntary (daydreaming, daydreaming) and involuntary (hypnotic state, fantasy in sleep).

Active imagination includes artistic, creative, critical, recreative and anticipatory.

Separately, such types of imagination as dreams, hallucinations, daydreams and daydreams are identified and considered.

Among the various types and forms of voluntary imagination we can distinguish recreative imagination, creative imagination And dream.

dream. The essence of this type of imagination is the independent creation of new images. The main feature of a dream is that it is aimed at future activity, i.e. a dream is an imagination aimed at the desired future. Moreover, several subtypes of this type of imagination should be distinguished. Most often, a person makes plans for the future and in his dreams determines the ways to achieve his plans. In this case, the dream is an active, voluntary, conscious process. But there are people for whom the dream acts as a substitute for activity. Their dreams remain just dreams. One of the reasons for this phenomenon, as a rule, lies in the failures in life that they constantly suffer. As a result of a series of failures, a person abandons the implementation of his plans in practice and plunges into a dream. In this case, the dream appears as a conscious, voluntary process that has no practical completion.

Active imagination always aimed at solving a creative or personal problem. A person operates with fragments, units of specific information in a certain area, their movement in various combinations relative to each other. In an active imagination there is little daydreaming and “groundless” fantasy. Active imagination is directed to the future and operates with time as a well-defined category (that is, a person does not lose his sense of reality, does not place himself outside of temporary connections and circumstances). Active imagination is directed more outward, a person is mainly occupied with the environment, society, activities and less with internal subjective problems. Active imagination, finally, is awakened by a task and directed by it; it is determined by volitional efforts and is amenable to volitional control.
Using this type of imagination, a person consciously sets himself the task of inventing something and then fulfills it. True, a person, entering the process of active imagination, does not have an exact idea in advance of what he will ultimately imagine or come up with. This is how, for example, writers, artists, engineers, scientists, and representatives of other creative professions work. This type of imagination is called active because at any moment in time, creating an appropriate image, a person can introduce something new, stop, that is, he is able to control this process or stop it in his own way. Passive imagination subject to internal, subjective factors, it is tendentious. “It reflects the fulfillment of desires and aspirations, removes obstacles and turns the impossible into the possible and real. Passive imagination is subordinate to desires that are thought to be fulfilled in the process of fantasy. In the images of passive imagination, the unsatisfied, mostly unconscious needs of the individual are “satisfied.” Images and ideas of the passive Imagination, as E. Bleuler emphasizes, is aimed at strengthening and preserving positively colored emotions and at repressing, reducing negative emotions and affects. At the same time, a person can take into account the requirements of reality. Passive imagination is governed by two principles.

Imagination is the mental process of creating an image of an object or situation by restructuring existing ideas. Images of the imagination do not always correspond to reality; they contain elements of fantasy and fiction. If the imagination draws pictures to the consciousness that nothing or little corresponds in reality, then it is called fantasy. If the imagination is directed to the future, it is called a dream. The process of imagination always occurs in inextricable connection with two other mental processes - memory and thinking.

Types of imagination

Active imagination - using it, a person, by force of will, at his own request evokes appropriate images in himself.
Passive imagination - its images arise spontaneously, regardless of the will and desire of a person.
Productive imagination - in it, reality is consciously constructed by a person, and not simply mechanically copied or recreated. But at the same time, she is still creatively transformed in the image.
Reproductive imagination - the task is to reproduce reality as it is, and although there is also an element of fantasy here, such imagination is more reminiscent of perception or memory than creativity.

Functions of imagination:

Figurative representation of reality;
Regulation of emotional states;
Voluntary regulation of cognitive processes and human states;
Formation of an internal action plan.

5. Functions of imagination: 1. regulation of behavior and activities people based on the presentation of their possible results; 2. Forecasting, which ensures the development of human practice (in general, all technical progress); 3. Ensuring probabilistic thinking, That is, B acts as the main mechanism for creative solving non-standard problems.

Ways to create imagination images:

Agglutination is the creation of images by combining any qualities, properties, parts.
Emphasis - highlighting any part, detail of the whole.
Typing is the most difficult technique. The artist depicts a specific episode that absorbs a lot of similar ones and thus is, as it were, their representative. A literary image is also formed, in which the typical features of many people of a given circle, a certain era are concentrated.

Creative imagination characterized by the fact that a person transforms ideas and creates new ones not according to an existing model, but by independently outlining the contours of the created image and choosing the necessary materials for it.

A special form of imagination is a dream - the independent creation of new images. The main feature of a dream is that it is aimed at future activities, i.e. A dream is an imagination aimed at a desired future.

Types of imagination: 1. Based on the presence of a goal:involuntary– unintentional (because there is no goal) and without volitional efforts creation of new images. This kind of B arises with a certain kind of perception; arbitrary– a person’s purposeful, deliberate use of his experience and reconstruction of them into new images (literary images, paintings) is always a goal and a volitional effort; 2. According to the criterion of originality of the created images:regenerative or reproductive – the formation of new images based on a description or conventional image (a lady in a crinoline, you read and imagine). This B gives a person the opportunity to know what he does not directly perceive at the moment. It can significantly influence the organization of communication between people, the effectiveness of which largely depends on a person’s ability to imagine the internal state of another person, as well as to imagine the possible development of events. Often a setup is created here; creative or productive– creation of completely new, original, unparalleled images. This type B underlies literary, artistic, musical, scientific, and design activities (the hyperboloid of engineer Garin, Belyaev anticipated the appearance of the laser 53 years later). Creative B called fantasy, when in a new image individual elements are in an unusual, often unrealistic combination (monster). Sometimes they distinguish: passive and active B based on the regulatory function of these V. When passive, V does not lead to activity and acts as a substitute for active activity (as a surrogate for reality). Dream may act as a form of passive B (as in Manilov), but a dream can also be an active form if it comes true. Mechanisms (operations) of process B: 1. Agglutination(gluing) - a mechanical non-real combination of parts, properties of various incompatible objects (mermaids, centaur); 2. Hyperbolization(exaggeration) – objects, their qualities, number of elements, etc. (Pinocchio, cartoons); 3. Analogy– many tools were made by analogy with a man’s hand (rakes); 4. Typification - the new image captures the most significant, significant features or properties of certain groups of objects (models - beautiful women).

Types and techniques of imagination

Distinguish two kinds imagination – recreating and creative.

Recreating imagination unfolds on the basis of the perceived sign system: verbal, numerical, graphic, musical notation, etc. By recreating, a person fills the sign system with the knowledge at his disposal.

The quality of reconstruction of what is inherent in the sign system depends on:

1) the initial information on the basis of which the reconstruction is developed;

2) the amount and quality of a person’s knowledge. The breadth of knowledge, combined with its accuracy, the wealth of life experience allows a person to extract the necessary information from memory and see behind the signs what the author put into them;

3) availability of installation. Strong emotional states of a negative and positive orientation interfere with their reconstruction, and then a person is not able to collect his thoughts, concentrate, and clearly and distinctly recreate the content contained in the text and graphic signs.

Creative imagination - the creation of a new, original image, idea. In this case, the word “new” has a double meaning: a distinction is made between objectively and subjectively new. Objectively new– images, ideas that do not exist at the moment either in a materialized or in an ideal form. This new thing does not repeat what already exists, it is original. Subjectively new- new for this person. It can repeat what exists, but a person does not know about it. He discovers it for himself as original, unique and considers it unknown to others.

Creative imagination proceeds as an analysis and synthesis of knowledge accumulated by a person. In this case, the elements from which the image is built occupy a different position, a different place compared to what they occupied previously. A new image emerges from a new combination of elements. The result of creative imagination can be materialized, that is, on its basis, a thing or object is created through human labor, but the image can remain at the level of ideal content, since it is impossible to realize it in practice.

Development of imagination follows the path from the involuntary to the voluntary, from the recreating to the creative. It relies on the development of the ability to imagine. Ideas, as noted, differ from perceptions in less clarity and distinctness. However, these features of representations can be developed. The main condition for developing the ability to have clear and distinct ideas is the systematic exercise of this ability. In the process of practical activity, thanks to the appropriate focus of attention, not only the brightness, but also the stability of ideas can be developed.

K. S. Stanislavsky drew attention to the fact that the success or failure of an actor’s work on an image depends on his ability to master the ideas associated with the role played in the play. To successfully portray a role, the actor must enter into a system of ideas that are associated with the character of the person being portrayed; he must, during the entire time he is on stage, keep himself in the circle of these, and not any other ideas. All his behavior on stage - facial expressions, gait, and other movements - should not proceed from the ideas that are familiar to him (as a specific person), but from ideas about how the character in the play he portrays would do all this. An experienced actor maintains the required performances throughout the entire act with the help of the volitional concentration of attention to which he has accustomed himself.

The following techniques play an important role in the development of imagination:

a) a comprehensive increase in the stock of ideas, since the activity of the imagination can only proceed successfully on the basis of numerous and varied ideas. In any field of practical activity, a small stock of ideas leads to poverty of imagination. On the contrary, the wealth of ideas opens up wide opportunities for the fruitful activity of the imagination;

b) development of the ability to mentally concentrate on an imaginary object, to see and hear it with inner vision and hearing, to imagine it not just somehow, not generally, not approximately, but in all the details and details that characterize it: “imaginary objects and images are drawn Although they are outside us, they still first appear inside us, in our imagination and memory,” says Stanislavsky;

c) development of the ability of proactive imagination. It is necessary to guide the development of imagination so that in the process of imagination there is always a definite and clear goal, so that the results of the imagination process are always verified by practice and controlled by asking questions - where, how, when, why, for what, etc.;

d) active help from the outside when the imagination runs out and no longer produces results.

e) systematic exercise of the ability of imagination in the process of active creative work. We should not miss a single opportunity in which our creative imagination could be put to good use. As a result of such active work, the imagination will become more and more improved. The example of people engaged in creative professions (artists, writers, designers, etc.) shows how the ability of imagination strengthens and develops in the process of its active use in one or another practical activity.

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