IMAGINARY FRIENDSImaginary friends or imaginary companions are a psychological and social phenomenon where a friendship or other interpersonal relationship takes place in the imagination rather than external physical reality. Although they may seem very real to their creators, children usually understand that their imaginary friends are not real. The first studies focusing on imaginary friends are believed to have been conducted during the 1890s. There is little information about the development and the appearance of imaginary friends in children. However, Klausen & Passman (2007) report that imaginary companions were originally described as being supernatural creatures and spirits that were thought to connect people with their past lives. Adults in early historic times had entities such as household gods, guardian angels, and muses that functioned as imaginary companions to provide comfort, guidance and inspiration for creative work. Eventually the phenomenon of imaginary companions passed on to children. The era when children began having imaginary friends is unknown, but it is possible the phenomenon appeared in the mid–20th century when childhood was emphasized as an important time to play and imagine
In some studies, imaginary companions are defined as children impersonating a specific character (imagined by them), or objects or toys that are personified. However, some psychologists will define an imaginary friend only as a separate created character. Imaginary friends or imaginary companions can be people, but they can also take the shape of other characters such as animals or other abstract ideas such as ghosts, monsters or angels.[4][6] These characters can be created at any point during a lifetime, though Western culture suggests they are most acceptable in preschool- and school-age children. They often function as tutelaries when played with by a child. They reveal, according to several theories of psychology, a child's anxieties, fears, goals and perceptions of the world through that child's conversations.[citation needed] They are, according to some children, physically indistinguishable from real people, while others say they see their imaginary friends only in their heads, and still others cannot see the friend at all but can sense his/her presence.[citation needed] Most research agrees that girls are more likely than boys to develop imaginary friends. Past research agrees that boys are more likely to participate in fantasy play, and they incorporate the themes of superheroes and adventure in their fantasy play, while girls mostly play dress-up and play house.[7] Once children reach school age, boys and girls are equally likely to have an imaginary companion.[Research has often reiterated that there is not a specific "type" of child that creates an imaginary friend.
Research has shown that imaginary companions are a normative part of childhood and even adulthood. And some psychologists suggest that imaginary companions are much like a fictional character created by an author. As Eileen Kennedy-Moore points out, "Adult fiction writers often talk about their characters taking on a life of their own, which may be an analogous process to children’s invisible friends." In addition, Marjorie Taylor and colleagues have found that fiction writers are more likely than average to have had imaginary companions as children.
There is a difference between the common imaginary companion that many children create, and the imaginary companions of psychopathology. Often when there is a psychological disorder, and an imaginary companion is present, the creator believes that this companion is real, and does not differentiate between the real and imagined.
Imaginary friends or companions can serve various functions. Playing with ICs enables children to enact behaviors and events they have not yet experienced. Imaginary play allows children to use their imagination to construct knowledge of the world. In addition, ICs might also fulfill children’s innate desire to connect with others before actual play among peers is common. According to psychologist Lev Vygotsky, cultural tools and interaction with people mediate psychological functioning and cognitive development. Imaginary companions, perceived as real beings, could teach children how to interact with others along with many other social skills. Vygotsky’s sociocultural view of child development includes the notion of children’s “zone of proximal development,” which is the difference between what children can do with and without help. Imaginary companions can aid children in learning things about the world that they could not learn without help, such as appropriate social behavior, and thus can act as a scaffold for children to achieve slightly above their social capability.
In addition, imaginary companions also serve as a means for children to experiment with and explore the world. In this sense, ICs also relate to Piaget’s theory of child development because they are completely constructed by the child. According to Piaget, children are scientific problem solvers who self-construct experiences and build internal mental structures based on experimentation. The creation of and interaction with ICs helps children to build such mental structures. The relationship between a child and his or her IC can serve as a catalyst for the formation of real relationships in later development and thus provides a head start to practicing real-life interaction.
It has been theorized that children with imaginary companions may develop language skills and retain knowledge faster than children without them, which may be because these children get more linguistic practice than their peers as a result of carrying out "conversations" with their imaginary friends.
Kutner (n.d.) reported that 65% of seven-year-old children report they have had an imaginary companion at some point in their lives. He further reported: Imaginary companions are an integral part of many children's lives. They provide comfort in times of stress, companionship when they're lonely, someone to boss around when they feel powerless, and someone to blame for the broken lamp in the living room. Most important, an imaginary companion is a tool young children use to help them make sense of the adult world. Taylor, Carlson & Gerow (c2001: p. 190) hold that despite some results suggesting that children with imaginary companions might be superior in intelligence, it is not true that all intelligent children create them. If imaginary friends can provide assistance to children in developing their social skills, they must function as important roles in the lives of children. Hoff (2004 – 2005) was interested in finding out the roles and functions of imaginary friends and how they impacted the lives of children.The results of her study have provided some significant insight on the roles of imaginary friends. Many of the children reported their imaginary friends as being sources of comfort in times of boredom and loneliness. Another interesting result was that imaginary friends served to be mentors for children in their academics. They were encouraging, provided motivation, and increased the self – esteem of children when they did well in school. Finally, imaginary friends were reported as being moral guides for children. Many of the children reported that their imaginary friends served as a conscience and helped them to make the correct decision in times where morality was questioned.
Some psychologists have suggested that older children may retain but stop speaking about imaginary friends due to adult expectations and peer pressure. Pediatrician Benjamin Spock believed that imaginary friends past age four indicated that something was "lacking" in the child or his environment. Some have theorized that children who hold on to imaginary friends past school-age are stigmatized. Other professionals feel that imaginary friends are common among school-age children and are part of normal social-cognitive development. Part of the reason that people believed that children gave up imaginary companions earlier than they do, is related to Piaget's stages of cognitive development. Piaget suggested that imaginary companions disappeared once children entered the concrete operational stage of development. Marjorie Taylor identified middle school children with imaginary friends and followed up six years later as they were completing high school. At follow-up, those who had imaginary friends in middle school displayed better coping strategies but a "low social preference for peers." She suggested that imaginary friends may directly benefit children's resiliency and positive adjustment. Because imagination play with a character involves the child often imagining how another person (or character) would act, research has been done to determine if having an imaginary companion has a positive effect on theory of mind development. In a previous study, Taylor & Carlson (1997) found that 4 year – old children who had imaginary friends scored higher on emotional understanding measures and that having a theory of mind would predict higher emotional understanding later on in life. When children develop the realization that other people have different thoughts and beliefs other than their own, they are able to grow in their development of theory of mind as they begin to have better understandings of emotions.
DELUSIONA delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, or other effects of perception. Delusions typically occur in the context of neurological or mental illness, although they are not tied to any particular disease and have been found to occur in the context of many pathological states (both physical and mental). However, they are of particular diagnostic importance in psychotic disorders including schizophrenia, paraphrenia, manic episodes of bipolar disorder, and psychotic depression. Although non-specific concepts of madness have been around for several thousand years, the psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers was the first to define the three main criteria for a belief to be considered delusional in his 1913 book General Psychopathology. These criteria are:certainty (held with absolute conviction) incorrigibility (not changeable by compelling counterargument or proof to the contrary) impossibility or falsity of content (implausible, bizarre or patently untrue). Furthermore, when a false belief involves a value judgment, it is only considered a delusion if it is so extreme that it cannot be, or never can be proven true. For example: a man claiming that he flew into the sun and flew back home. This would be considered a delusion, unless he was speaking figuratively.
Grandiose delusions are distinct from grandiosity, in that the sufferer does not have insight into their loss of touch with reality. An individual is convinced they have special powers, talents, or abilities. Sometimes, the individual may actually believe they are a famous person or character.
Grandiose delusions or delusions of grandeur are principally a subtype of delusional disorder but could possibly feature as a symptom of schizophrenia and manic episodes of bipolar disorder.Grandiose delusions are characterized by fantastical beliefs that one is famous, omnipotent or otherwise very powerful. The delusions are generally fantastic, often with a supernatural, science-fictional, or religious bent. In colloquial usage, one who overestimates one's own abilities, talents, stature or situation is sometimes said to have "delusions of grandeur". This is generally due to excessive pride, rather than any actual delusions. Grandiose delusions or delusions of grandeur can also be associated with megalomania
The modern definition and Jaspers' original criteria have been criticised, as counter-examples can be shown for every defining feature. Studies on psychiatric patients show that delusions vary in intensity and conviction over time, which suggests that certainty and incorrigibility are not necessary components of a delusional belief.
Delusions do not necessarily have to be false or 'incorrect inferences about external reality'. Some religious or spiritual beliefs by their nature may not be falsifiable, and hence cannot be described as false or incorrect, no matter whether the person holding these beliefs was diagnosed as delusional or not.
In other situations the delusion may turn out to be true belief. For example, delusional jealousy, where a person believes that their partner is being unfaithful (and may even follow them into the bathroom believing them to be seeing their lover even during the briefest of partings) actually be true that the partner is having sexual relations with another person. In this case the delusion does not cease to be a delusion because the content later turns out to be verified as true or the partner actually chose to engage in the behavior of which they were being accused.
In other cases, the delusion may be assumed to be false by a doctor or psychiatrist assessing the belief, because it seems to be unlikely, bizarre or held with excessive conviction. Psychiatrists rarely have the time or resources to check the validity of a person’s claims leading to some true beliefs to be erroneously classified as delusional. This is known as the Martha Mitchell effect, after the wife of the attorney general who alleged that illegal activity was taking place in the White House. At the time her claims were thought to be signs of mental illness, and only after the Watergate scandal broke was she proved right (and hence sane).
Similar factors have led to criticisms of Jaspers' definition of true delusions as being ultimately 'un-understandable'. Critics (such as R. D. Laing) have argued that this leads to the diagnosis of delusions being based on the subjective understanding of a particular psychiatrist, who may not have access to all the information that might make a belief otherwise interpretable. R.D. Laing's hypothesis has been applied to some forms of projective therapy to "fix" a delusional system so that it cannot be altered by the patient. Psychiatric researchers at Yale University, Ohio State University and the Community Mental Health Center of Middle Georgia have used novels and motion picture films as the focus. Texts, plots and cinematography are discussed and the delusions approached tangentially. This use of fiction to decrease the malleability of a delusion was employed in a joint project by science-fiction author Philip Jose Farmer and Yale psychiatrist A. James Giannini. They wrote the novel Red Orc's Rage, which, recursively, deals with delusional adolescents who are treated with a form of projective therapy. In this novel's fictional setting other novels written by Farmer are discussed and the characters are symbolically integrated into the delusions of fictional patients. This particular novel was then applied to real-life clinical settings.
Another difficulty with the diagnosis of delusions is that almost all of these features can be found in "normal" beliefs. Many religious beliefs hold exactly the same features, yet are not universally considered delusional. These factors have led the psychiatrist Anthony David to note that "there is no acceptable (rather than accepted) definition of a delusion." In practice, psychiatrists tend to diagnose a belief as delusional if it is either patently bizarre, causing significant distress, or excessively pre-occupying the patient, especially if the person is subsequently unswayed in belief by counter-evidence or reasonable arguments. It is important to distinguish true delusions from other symptoms such as anxiety, fear, or paranoia. To diagnose delusions a mental state examination may be used. This test includes appearance, mood, affect, behavior, rate and continuity of speech, evidence of hallucinations or abnormal beliefs, thought content, orientation to time, place and person, attention and concentration, insight and judgment, as well as short-term memory. Johnson-Laird suggests that delusions may be viewed as the natural consequence of failure to distinguish conceptual relevance. That is, the person takes irrelevant information and puts it in the form of disconnected experiences, then it is taken to be relevant in a manner that suggests false causal connections. Furthermore, the person takes the relevant information, in the form of counterexamples, and ignores it.
Explaining the causes of delusions continues to be challenging and several theories have been developed. One is the genetic or biological theory, which states that close relatives of people with delusional disorder are at increased risk of delusional traits. Another theory is the dysfunctional cognitive processing, which states that delusions may arise from distorted ways people have of explaining life to themselves. A third theory is called motivated or defensive delusions. This one states that some of those persons who are predisposed might suffer the onset of delusional disorder in those moments when coping with life and maintaining high self-esteem becomes a significant challenge. In this case, the person views others as the cause of their personal difficulties in order to preserve a positive self-view.
This condition is more common among people who have poor hearing or sight. Also, ongoing stressors have been associated with a higher possibility of developing delusions. Examples of such stressors are immigration or low socio-economic status.
Researcher, Orrin Devinsky, MD, from the NYU Langone Medical Center, performed a study that revealed a consistent pattern of injury to the frontal lobe and right hemisphere of the human brain in patients with certain delusions and brain disorders. Devinsky explains that the cognitive deficits caused by those injuries to the right hemisphere, results in the over compensation by the left hemisphere of the brain for the injury, which causes delusions. A study carried out at The Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick, indicated that children who suffered bullying are more likely to develop psychotic symptoms in early adolescence. The background facts demonstrated that hallucinations and delusions are common in childhood as well as in adulthood and that children who experience such symptoms are more prone to develop psychosis later in life. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that the risk of psychotic symptoms, including delusions, was multiplied by two for children who suffered bullying at age eight or ten. The authors remark that bullying can cause chronic stress that may have an effect on a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia and result in setting off the symptoms