Psychology of personality: harm and benefit of a rich imagination. Simple tricks to train your imagination

Imagination- a cognitive mental process of creating a new image (representation) of an object or situation by restructuring (transforming) the ideas that a person has. Imagination, as a peculiar form of reflection of reality, carries out a mental retreat beyond the limits of the directly perceived, contributes to the anticipation of the future, "revives" what was before.

Some mental disorders sometimes owe their occurrence to excessive suspiciousness, impressionability and vivid imagination of the patient. Often the immediate cause for such a disease is a misunderstood word of the doctor. The patient here imagines that he has fallen ill with a dangerous disease and even "appears" the corresponding symptoms. Such diseases that arise under the influence of a careless word of a doctor are commonly called iatrogenic diseases. The strength of the doctor's iatrogenic influences increases with the authoritarian, directive style of his relationship with the patient.

iatrogenics(from Lat. iatros - "doctor") (Vstke O., 1925) - a common name denoting psychogenic disorders in a patient due to careless, hurting the patient's words of a doctor (actually iatrogeny) or his actions (yatropatiya), a nurse (sororogeny, from Latin soror - sister), other medical workers. Harmful self-influence associated with prejudices towards the doctor, fears of a medical examination, can also lead to similar disorders - egogeny (Lakosina N.D., Ushakov G.K., 1976). Deterioration in the patient's condition under the influence of undesirable influences of other patients (doubts about the correctness of the diagnosis, treatment, etc.) is designated by the term egrotogeny (from aegrotus-patient, Liebig S.S., 1975). Back in 1937, the domestic psychologist and psychotherapist K.K. Platonov described didactogeny - psychogenic disorders in students associated with careless statements of the teacher.

Pathological forms of imagination and their assessment

In clinical practice, the doctor often has to meet with patients in whom psychopathological symptoms can relate to both passive and active imagination disorders. However, it has been noted that all these disorders are more common in individuals with a special mental make-up, characterized by features of infantilism and signs of excessive excitability of the imagination with a tendency to fiction and fantasizing. As early as 1905, these personality traits were described by the French psychiatrist Ernest Dupré (1862-1921) as "mythomaniac constitution".

Pathological forms of passive imagination. In a psychiatric and general somatic clinic, an assessment of the characteristics of passive imagination is most often required in patients with various types a decrease in the level of wakefulness and states of clouding of consciousness, as well as sleep disturbances in connection with dreams.

Oneiroid - dreamy, dream-like stupefaction observed as a result of trauma to the skull, acute infectious diseases with fever, intoxication, or some types of acute schizophrenia. At the same time, the patient's imagination processes are sharply activated, and the images he creates are "visualized" in the form of kaleidoscopic fantastic visions resembling pseudohallucinations.

Oneirism - the patient ceases to feel the differences between the images of the imagination in dreams and reality. At the same time, what you see in a dream may not be perceived with a proper critical assessment in the morning. Sometimes, at the same time, during the day, the patient has vivid dream images, as soon as he closes his eyes. Sometimes such visions occur with open eyes - daydreams like waking sleep or sleep with open eyes. In mentally healthy individuals, the latter can be observed when the activity of consciousness is weakened - in a semi-drowsy state or in a state of passion.

hallucinations of the imagination(Dupre E.,) - a kind of psychogenic hallucinations, the plot of which follows from affectively significant and long-lasting ideas in the imagination. It occurs especially easily in children with a painfully heightened imagination.

delusions of imagination(Dupre E., Logre J.B., 1914) - is a variant of delusional formation, which results from a tendency to fantasize in people with a mythomaniac constitution. Arises acutely - by "intuition, inspiration and insight." Perception is not disturbed, the patient is fully oriented in relation to the place and his own personality.

Dream epileptic seizures(Ducoste, 1889) - dreams with a predominance of red, accompanying or replacing (equivalents) nocturnal epileptic seizure. They are always stereotyped - with the vision of menacing images in the form of monsters, chimeras and parts of their own body. In the daytime, such dream-like states (Jackson J.H., 1870) can be precursors (aura) of a seizure in temporal lobe epilepsy, but derealization phenomena still prevail, the phenomena of "already seen" and "never seen", "violent" (not suppressed willpower) fantastic performances.

Pathological forms of active imagination. The main symptom of disorders of active imagination is a violation of criticality to its products and (or) their use. Most often in clinical practice, the doctor has to deal with the phenomenon of pathological deceit in a number of patients - fantastic pseudology. It is expressed in the fact that a person begins to sincerely believe in the fantasies created by him (fantastic ideas and images). This phenomenon was described as early as 1891 by A. Delbrück as "a lie without need with the conviction of the veracity of the lie expressed." In the modern sense, pseudology is considered in two main variants.

1. Phantasms psychotic, where the imaginary is subjectively more firmly accepted as true (for example, as in confabulations), and it can turn into whole plot pseudologies and even delusional fantasies. Such disorders are more characteristic of various organic brain diseases with severe memory impairment (progressive paralysis, brain syphilis, trauma), as well as epilepsy and schizophrenia.

2. Fantasies are non-psychotic, where pseudology is a combination of two types of fantasizing: "for oneself" ("escape" to the world of dreams from reality) and "for others" (increasing one's own attractiveness), i.e. possesses both the properties of psychological defense mechanisms and the properties of "manipulative mechanisms" by other people (Yakubik A., 1982).

Non-psychotic fantasies as a kind of pseudology are especially common in persons with hysterical psychopathic tendencies and a "mythomaniac constitution". At the same time, such a person, like any liar, knows that he is lying. However, this lie is pathological - it differs from regular topics, which is most often clearly inappropriate, and the patient understands all its futility, but cannot resist his need to lie. Pseudologists, in contrast to ordinary hysterical psychopathic personalities, are more active in their efforts to bring their fantastic constructions to life, so they often come into conflict with the law. At the same time, deceit obscures all other personality traits in them.

Psychiatrists usually consider a pathological tendency to fiction and lies from childhood as a manifestation of partial infantilism. Such individuals lack stability, maturity of will and judgment. Their affections are shallow, because they love only themselves. They have a sense of responsibility and duty. In parallel with the maturation of the personality, these psychopathic manifestations gradually subside. By the age of 40, such phenomena are rarely observed.

When evaluating the "pathological" pseudology in children and adolescents (childish deceit) should be considered age features development of the imagination. The child gets the opportunity to completely separate his dreams, childhood fantasies from reality only by adolescence. If the period of active children's imagination (4-7 years) is delayed for some reason, then children's deceit can gradually acquire a socially significant and even pathological character, especially in those cases when it becomes a constant tool for life's success. This gradually becomes a factor in personality deformation, pathological personal development.

In healthy children, fantasies differ in mobility and are connected in one way or another with reality. Pathological fantasies are most often quite persistent, divorced from reality, bizarre in content and accompanied by behavioral disorders.

At preschool age (more often at the age of 3-5 years), parents of children sometimes experience anxiety about a prolonged playful reincarnation of a child in the image of any character in a fairy tale or even in inanimate object. Such cases require consultation with a specialist, since they can be a manifestation of elementary forms of depersonalization and often they are replaced by other mental disorders (such as a symptom of mental automatism in schizophrenia).

In other cases, the child's play begins to be dominated by manipulations, with non-game items - cups, strings, bottles. Attempts by parents to distract the child from playing with such a "favorite" object are unsuccessful; here, in the child's fantasies, either elements of supervalue and (or) changes in the sphere of inclinations are seen.

Alarming in terms of the possibility of a mental disorder in a child are cases persistent fantasizing of sadistic content and pathological fantasies such as self-incrimination. The latter type of fantasizing is more common in adolescence- for boys, these are usually "confessions" in any robberies or participation in espionage activities, and for girls, self-incriminations of sexual content are typical.

Test questions:

What disorders are observed due to excessive suspiciousness of the patient?

Name the forms of violations of active and passive imagination.

What age-related features of the formation of imagination should be taken into account when assessing pseudology in children and adolescents?

Many people today are concerned about the benefits and harms of fantasizing. Indeed, one can “leave” in fantasy, they are able to absorb, lead to the fact that a person can imagine himself. However, fantasy can develop into a project, a work of art, and can even be used in science.

For example, in his diaries, an engineer-physicist Nikola Tesla wrote: " I'm in no hurry to start practical work. When I have an idea, I immediately begin to develop it in my imagination: I change the design, make improvements and mentally set the mechanism in motion ... This way I can quickly develop and improve the concept without touching anything».

So what is the usefulness and harmfulness of fantasy?

If we turn to the works of the Fathers of the Church, we will encounter the statement Saint Theophan the Recluse: “Fantasy creates completely new images, although from the same material and for the most part according to ready-made or already known samples. It should distinguish between good activity - efficient - and disorderly movements - unauthorized ... ".

In the practice of confessorship, work with the image, fantasy was widely used. Recall the common advice of a mentor for a novice. It sounded something like this: “If you liked any girl, imagine her lying in a coffin. Her body is covered with scabs…”. Yes, for a contemporary it sounds a little frightening, but the essence of the example is that the imagination as such was not considered something mentally harmful. Its misuse was considered mentally harmful.

Images are often found in the Gospel - the image of a fig tree, the image of a pearl as a symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is what we can call useful images according to St. Theophan the Recluse.

He writes interestingly about the work of fantasy in his work “On the Preservation of Feelings”: “... So, for example, if someone eats a lemon, and another stands next to him and looks at him, then this other begins to salivate. But the same is experienced by the one who only imagines a lemon in his imagination? ..».

Saint Theophan the Recluse pointed out that "the lower abilities of cognition are: internal and external observation, imagination and memory ...". John of Damascus in his work "An Exact Exposition Orthodox faith"Writes:" As we know, as a result of sensory perception in the soul, an impression is formed, called representation ... ". Therefore, it is dangerous to consider imagination itself as a soul-damaging force, as well as any faculty of the soul. It is important to learn how to use it "for peaceful purposes."

Why should a child dream?

The human brain is able to store our previous experience. If he knew only this, humanity could only adapt. But the Lord gave man the ability, one might say, prophetic, creative - to model and build the future. And all models first arise in thinking, as a representation, as an image, and therefore - as a fantasy.

Imagination is at the heart of every cultural activities human, at the heart of artistic, scientific, technical creativity. Any innovation, invention, book was born first in the imagination. A person begins to imagine from childhood, which means he begins to create.

Psychologist Lev Vygotsky writes:

« One of the most important issues child psychology and pedagogy is a question about creativity in children, about the development of this creativity and about the meaning creative work for general development and maturation of the child. Already in the early age we find in children creative processes which are best expressed in children's games. A child who, sitting on a stick, pretends to ride a horse, a girl who plays with a doll and imagines herself to be her mother ... - all these playing children are examples of the most genuine, most real creativity.».

This is how reality forms imagination, and imagination forms reality through the products of any kind of creativity.

... Mom brought Lida. The girl was five years old. Thin, timid, a little stiff and embarrassed. She entered the office, as if trying to take up as little space as possible. middle child in the family, Lida received a lot of attention, her mother did not work. Father loved children, spent his free time with them.

Mom complained that Lida was a low-energy, sickly girl who did not really like to play with children. Parents had higher education and tried to give children a lot scientific information about the world around them, read them fairy tales. When I offered the girl toys, she chose a cow and a dog. During the game, the dog all the time wanted to tell the cow stories that she composed herself. The cow forbade her, and the dog was very upset.

When I began to discuss this problem with my mother, it turned out that Lida was constantly trying to tell her her “notions”. These were still little connected fragments, sometimes with heroes frightening my mother, they did not trace a clear plot. This annoyed the mother, and she abruptly stopped the child, because she simply did not understand how to relate to this.

I invited Lida to tell about her “notions”. We drew and sculpted them. The girl, talking about them, came to life, her face was filled with a blush, she determined for me different roles in these "notions", and, it seems, her organizational talent was hatching.

Mom noticed that even at home Lida is trying to unite the family in some new game she invented. Of course, the games were not always structured, clear, the rules were confused and confused. Sometimes it took about two hours to clear them up and no one started to play like that. But the whole family, including the child, actively participated in the drawing of maps and the distribution of roles, the search for inventory and the development of game scenarios.

Something remained in the project, something grew into a game, but it is important, in addition to other positive effects, that Lida learned to be an organizer, began to actively use these skills in communicating with her friends who began to appear in her yard, I learned to find a place for my inner world in the outer.

The tightness almost disappeared, the girl stopped being shy, she had more energy. Mom began to notice that the vitality of the child was becoming more and more stable. If mom got tired of listening to "notions", then Lida drew them, cut them out and somehow tried to express them in improvised materials. So a whole volume has already grown ...

Fantasy and reality

The everyday notion that fantasy is completely divorced from reality is erroneous. Firstly, any fantasy can only be based on impressions of reality, i.e. on what the person perceives.

writes well about it Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer("On the storage of feelings"): " Imagination is a wide board depicting what we saw with our eyes, what we heard with our ears, what we felt and touched.».

Lev Vygotsky reveals this through the image of a hut on chicken legs: it does not exist, but the elements from which this fabulous image is built are taken from human experience. You can add that the fairy tale itself, read to a child for the night, becomes the experience of a person, and a family, and a clan, and a country. Vygotsky deduces the law that creative activity imagination is in direct proportion to the richness and diversity of a person's previous experience.

By the way, many scientists saw the results of their many years of research as a flash of imagination, as an insight. This is how fragmentary puzzles of representations are formed into a complete picture, look, gestalt. And this possibility of imagination is also important.

For example, a child learns lesson by lesson the features of some great event. He learns about what preceded him, what kind of people lived then, how they dressed, what customs and customs they had, how they built and developed. All this has to line up in a picture, and this is the task of the imagination. This form of work becomes possible thanks to the experience of others, the experience of society, and expands personal experience child and adult.

Problems of the imagination

Problems arise not when a person uses his imagination, but when he treats it in a special, one might say, painful way. For example, magical thinking.

AT " Big Encyclopedia in psychiatry" we can read that magical thinking is in the very general view the belief that you can influence reality with your thoughts, fantasies, desires. As a normal phenomenon, this phenomenon is to some extent characteristic of children who, up to 3-5 years of age, believe that their thoughts are the cause or equivalent of what is happening in external reality, as well as representatives of "primitive" cultures.

I remember the story of a girl, very beautiful and successful in her profession, who told me that her thoughts and fantasies influence reality.

“For example, I’m driving and I want to park. I think: if only the last place in the parking lot was free. I start sending a signal to the Universe, I drive up - and the place is free. And with a young man, I always influence him mentally, at a distance, so that he calls me. I also made a visualization board where I have everything. But he doesn't ask me to marry him. And on the board we have three children. How can I achieve all this?

In response to my attempts to question the strength of her influence, the girl thought about it and said that she herself often doubts, but at the training they explained to her that it all works and the Universe will always give an answer.

In principle, she achieved much of what was on the board. I bought a car and an apartment. But what is the girl's thought power based on? In the free will of another person. Her boyfriend did not want to marry, but they had been dating for many years. And the chain "my thought" - "obedient Universe" - "obedient guy" obviously failed.

The structures of magical thinking in some people coexist side by side with other, later, more developed and complex cognitive programs. In the same way, incompatible things can be combined in the Orthodox consciousness: faith in the Providence of God and faith that a person can magically control the circumstances of his life and use, for example, the power of thought or mental image to control reality.

Roots of the problem

“And you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). The first people were tempted by this, and we are also tempted by this, forgetting that “the Provider and Giver of every good thing” is the Lord, starting to seek the power to influence people and events.

Of course, few people consciously fantasize that they can become a "god" in the "kingdom of the earth", but many feel this way and look for confirmation of this in the circumstances of life. This is how the protection called "omnipotent control" manifests itself.

For some people, the need to feel a sense of omnipotent control and to perceive what happens to them as conditioned by their own absolute power is completely irresistible. If a person seeks pleasure from the feeling that he can effectively exercise and use his own omnipotence, there is reason to consider him as psychopathic.

And about achieving results at all costs ... Famous film actress Audrey Hepburn in her memoirs, she recalled how she did not once become a ballerina. What a hard blow it was for her. And how glad she was afterwards:

“The teacher Madame Rambert did not hide her opinion: too tall, too skinny, too undeveloped for such years. I promised to study from morning to evening in order to catch up with the others, and I really did it, but you cannot change nature. Madame Rambert was sharp and frank, for which I am grateful to her, because if she had pity on me then, I would have become a regular ballerina, but I certainly would not have become an actress.

Sometimes our failures are as useful to us as our successes. Christianity reminds us of this all the time.

Health and pathology

Schizophrenia researchers rightly argue that we are forced to distinguish between healthy and pathological fantasy. Healthy fantasy is basically a preparation for action in the outside world. Pathological fantasy is used as a means to maintain contact with fantasy objects, while at the same time separating from reality objects.

And here we turn to Harry Guntrip and his descriptions of the schizoid personality:

“Attitude to the outside world…: non-involvement and aloof observation… Than more people cut themselves off from human relationships in the outside world, the more they plunge into emotionally charged fantasy object relations in their inner mental world; the extreme limit is the state of a psychotic living exclusively in his inner world.

If you try to summarize the meaning of what was said in the great quotes, then you can start with the statement Federico Garcia Lorca that imagination is synonymous with the ability to discover, and end with words Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin: « Unlimited imagination creates an imaginary reality».

It is between these poles that our ability to control our imagination and not let our imagination control us lies.

Anastasia Bondaruk

Personality psychology is the science of intangible processes. Thinking helps to make plans for life and solve problems, the ability to feel - to hear yourself, and imagination makes life brighter and more exciting. The ability to fantasize important place in individual psychology. A person is born with this amazing ability, develops it in favorable conditions for him and uses it for his own good. It often happens that imagination as a process is often not conscious and, therefore, it may take the form of a pathology in the presence of psychological or psychiatric diseases.

How to distinguish a healthy and developed imagination from an escape from reality or hallucinations? How can the ability to clearly and clearly represent images be useful? What are psychological tests, allowing to reveal the level of imagination in each person? Answers to these and other questions in this article.

According to the dictionary revealing the essence psychological concepts, the process of imagination is the ability of the psyche to build images in the mind. A person, using his imagination, can find answers to his questions, see the beauty of his thoughts, surrounding objects, and even attract positive events. Imagination in psychology - important process without which life would be boring and dull. Everyone knows that young children have a rich imagination, and that is probably why they always rejoice not only in the amazing events of the outside world, but also in their own thoughts. Having matured, a person can significantly lose the ability to have a rich imagination. Personal psychology explains this by the fact that with age, the desire to control your life and everything that happens in it increases. A person focuses more and more attention on what he sees, hears and does, giving preference to reality. Practicality and logic have largely replaced creative thinking, which is the basis for developed imagination. However, not everyone knows that the formation of the habit of fantasizing can be very useful.

What is the use of the habit of fantasizing

Life in reality is not always easy and pleasant. Difficulties, achievements, mistakes and failures can spoil the mood and take away the ability to see the beauty in everyday things. The psychology of personality introduces readers to such a theory as the materiality of thoughts. It lies in the fact that everything that a person imagines and “sees” inside himself has a chance of real embodiment.

Based on this, experts say that the habit of fantasizing about the good, imagining your dreams and desires as if they were fulfilled, will one day lead to their actual fulfillment.

In order to make dreams come true as soon as possible, you can use not only your positive thoughts, but also improvised means: dreams and desires are useful to draw, write out on paper, sculpt from plasticine. During this process, you should completely surrender to your imagination. Thought is material, which means that everything that happens in the inner world will soon be reflected in the outer.

When figurative thinking is not highly developed, it can be difficult for a person to imagine things and events in colors, sounds and smells, as happens with those who love and know how to fantasize. The habits of relying only on logic and facts leave no room for creativity, solving complex collective problems, changing the external sphere or interior towards beauty.

In order to understand the level of your imagination, you can pass psychological tests. In order to increase it, it is worth doing a creative hobby. The best thing for this is doing exercises that you can do with your own hands. All types of needlework, carving, drawing, poetry, dancing - can be an excellent base for expressing and developing your own imagination.

Fulfilling creative pursuits, it is quite possible that at first you will have to use the experience of other people and repeat their creations. The most valuable experience of developed figurative thinking is what a person can create himself. In this case, what he will create will have no analogues in the whole world and will become the best reflection inner world and consciousness.

The habit of going into dreams can become dangerous

In addition to visible advantages, a rich imagination can also negative sides. Escape from reality into the world of fantasy is often inherent in children. Usually they "hide" in their own unconscious processes when external environment can't satisfy them psychological needs. Children have a habit of “running away” into dreams and fairy tales, invent non-existent friends for themselves, can talk with them and even play. Often this behavior is normal for childhood. However, you should know that the signal for alarm is the fact when in Everyday life the child ceases to distinguish reality from fantasy and often ignores what is really happening to him, preferring an imaginary world.

Adults also tend to be too carried away by their dreams. This behavior may be a response to stress. People who persistently ignore reality for a long time - pain, suffering, loss, loss, serious trouble, while pretending that nothing is happening - are in dire need of psychological help.

Since figurative thinking is responsible for the development of the imagination, psychological tests that help determine its level are often associated with drawing. These may be tasks aimed at supplementing simple forms and lines. It is believed that the more elements a person can add to the proposed picture, the better his imagination is developed. Excellent level such a result is considered when the proposed picture is completely lost in the plot depicted by the tested person.

In addition, at present there are a lot of tests and exercises that help not to set the level of imagination, but to stimulate it. In any case, this mental process, when it is normal and controlled by a person, can be very useful and can open up a world of amazing things to everyone.

To fantasize and invent something incredible is characteristic of the vast majority of children. Toddlers refuse to sleep in a dark room because they are afraid of monsters, and schoolchildren talk about dogs eating notebooks with homework. Such fruits of wild imagination of some parents only amuse, while others are enraged. This is not surprising, because many adults have long forgotten how to imagine and fantasize. We will try to find out how useful fantasy is and how to develop imagination.

What it is?

Child psychologists say that it is simply necessary for a child to imagine and fantasize for a normal life. mental development. In the first years of life, the child calls on fantasy to help in all situations that he cannot explain on his own. As you accumulate life experience dreams and fantasies take on great connection with reality. Adults devote very little time and attention to dreams. And really, why the world of illusions, if in reality there are enough worries? In fact, a good fantasy not only does not hurt anyone, but can also help in many areas of life. Imagination is abstract concept, expressing the ability to fantasize and imagine something that does not exist in reality. The word “imagination” can be considered a synonym for such popular definitions today as “creativity” and “ creative thinking».

The benefits of fantasy

Before we talk about how to develop imagination, let's try to understand why it is needed. It would seem that thinking creatively and constantly coming up with something new is useful only for musicians, artists and writers. This is a big misconception, in fact, imagination is useful to every person. People with a good imagination are never bored. They come up with interesting options pastime for the whole company and instantly find something to do alone. People with developed creative thinking are not afraid to master new activities. They prepare food without looking at recipes, come up with their own design projects with ease when remodeling, and very quickly choose clothes for any occasion. Usually such employees are also appreciated at work, because they are the first to put forward interesting ideas and are happy to work on non-standard projects. And if you give your imagination free rein, you can even try to open your own business.

We determine the creative potential and the level of development of the imagination

It is a mistake to consider fantasy an innate skill. Rather, it is one of psychological techniques, which, with the desire and regular training, everyone can master. And yet, one can really notice that someone's imagination is developed to a greater extent, and someone's to a lesser extent. Try to sensibly assess how easily and quickly you come up with a plan of action in a non-standard situation? Those who think for a long time about gifts for their loved ones should think about developing their own imagination. If you don't like to read and only a few books impress, the problem may also be insufficient developed fantasy. It is believed that imagination is most useful to children. And this is true, because what earlier man begins to engage in some kind of creativity and think creatively, the more success he will achieve.

Simple tricks to train your imagination

Imagination and fantasy can be developed at any age. The easiest way is to offer children to dream up. Perfectly stimulates the imagination of any kind of creativity. During classes with your child, invite him to do something unusual, to invent as much as possible on his own. Any role-playing games are a qualitative figment of the imagination. When a child transforms into fairy tale hero he truly believes in his new role.

This game will also be useful for adults. Play with your child pretending to be an animal or fictional character. You can try this exercise alone. Imagine yourself in a different place or a person of the opposite sex. The main thing is to discard constraint and prejudice. Play your chosen role as if you were a professional actor.

How to develop imagination in adults and children? It is quite simple - to fantasize whenever possible. You can think over your tomorrow morning in the evening, imagining it in all colors. Use meditation techniques - close your eyes and imagine whole new worlds. How to develop imagination in a child of 8-9 years old with the help of simple exercises? Introduce your son or daughter to new art forms. When discussing a particular work, ask what could be changed in it. From time to time ask your child to try to write a story, do not be lazy to look for constellations together and discuss what the clouds look like. Stimulate imagination and the right toys: all and some puzzles.

Learn to think and act outside the box

Very often in the adult world daydreaming is considered negative trait character. About people who love to plunge into the world of dreams, they say: "He seems to be hovering in the clouds." But if you turn to fantasies from time to time, you will only get useful skills. How to develop imagination without losing touch with reality? Use your imagination to solve everyday problems. Visualize how you are doing something. It is especially useful to think about several options at once in cases where the situation is completely beyond your control. Try to break the usual course of events every day. Learn to act impulsively. Of course, this is not a call to quit work or household chores. Try walking along an unusual route, go to a new store for yourself, or take an extra half hour for a walk.

How to develop imagination for drawing an adult or a child?

It's hard to believe, but sometimes they suffer from a lack of imagination. A simple example: a person knows how to draw or sculpt well, but does not know what to depict. It is important to understand that any kind of visual art is born in the thoughts of the creator. And this means that there is no separate technique for developing imagination for drawing, you just need to fantasize more. In order to create a drawing, you can take as a basis a character or landscape that you have already seen or thought of before. Then you just have to think through the details, and remember: there are no prohibitions. And you can draw directly in the world of dreams. with this approach? Close your eyes and imagine a white sheet of paper, then mentally draw some kind of drawing on it. Try to really see the whole process and see all the details and proportions. Performing this exercise regularly, you will learn how to draw real masterpieces. After that, you will only have to transfer them to paper with the same quality as your imagination creates them.

Practice fantasy every day

Still not sure how to develop imagination in adults? Exercises that you can do in between times will help you with this. Remember any story - let it be the plot of a movie or a book. Imagine alternate ending, and even better a few. If you like reality shows or watch with interest the stormy personal life neighbors, you can fantasize about what will happen to the heroes in the future. Turn on the TV without sound, looking at the picture, invent dialogues and monologues of the characters. While talking on the phone, put a few dots on paper. Try to connect them with a continuous line to get some kind of complete drawing.

Human imagination. In itself, this phrase is wrong. because only man has imagination and animal imagination does not exist. Let's look into this amazing, truly human ability to imagine.

Some people are said to have good imagination, some people have a rich imagination. They can come up with dozens entertaining stories, will tell what others have not heard and even in such a way that others cannot reproduce it like that. Is there a person without imagination?

If we're talking about healthy person In fact, everyone has an imagination. It belongs to higher cognitive processes in our psyche. Yes, there are tragic cases when people, as a result of injury or illness, lose many cognitive abilities. But we are talking about healthy people.

The concept of imagination

What does "cognitive" mean? In this context, this means that the imagination helps a person to cognize the world and use this knowledge as the person sees fit. Based on the information received, a person can create new images. It is impossible to come up with something new if you do not know the old.

Therefore, any brilliant discoveries that scientists have made are the result of fruitful work, and not talent. Every person is talented. It's just that his level of experience does not allow him to fully imagine. This is quite difficult for him.

How does imagination arise? It is a consequence of the needs that a person has in life. Everyone wants to change something, but from the very beginning you need to present the finished result, and then go to it. Any object the inventor first appeared in fantasy, and then brought to life. Imagination is a great tool for visualize goals.

Imagination was developed in man through labor. A well-known genius in the field of physics A. Einstein said that imagination better knowledge , since it can create something that can significantly affect the processes taking place in the world. Many imaginations arise in a person's head every day. Their number in most cases goes over a thousand.

Some of them leave no trace. They are not remembered as those that mean little. But the most interesting ones can settle in a person's head for a long time. They are the ones who form content of the imagination. The emergence of the iPhone in Steve Jobs' head was preceded by a series of other imaginations that the genius of the mobile industry did not even remember. But since the idea of ​​the iPhone was beyond praise, it was even brought to life.

So, imagination is a process that consists in creating new images, this happens due to the processing of the material of perception and experience (memory).

The value of imagination in human life

Imagination in human life has a very great importance. Imagination allows a person to fully live:

• communicate with other people
• visualize goals
• apply your natural creativity
• make discoveries
• come up with something new
• find solutions to complex problems
• to know what is still unknown
• imagine and understand what a person has never seen in reality (for example, how electrons move around an atom)
• calculate your actions a few steps ahead (in business, career, relationships)
• predict events and solutions

And much more. In our age intellectual activity of a person is connected with the imagination quite strongly, especially in those professions in which computers cannot be entrusted with everything: programming, design, research. This is the reason why each of us needs to develop imagination.

The Importance of Imagination for Child Development

If we are talking about children, then human development and imagination are closely intertwined. In the first years and throughout preschool childhood, the child actively develops this cognitive process. And it turns out that if a child, for some reason, cannot develop his imagination enough, he may not develop many other necessary abilities.

Developed imagination allows in the future to form creativity, creative thinking, the ability to find original solutions, find a way out difficult situations. Agree, all these skills are so necessary in modern world that the development of the imagination is worth doing. In my opinion it is.

Imagination and human activity

If we look at human activity, we will see that any successful activity, any product, invention, object, work was done by people with a good imagination.

• any new invention is first imagined by a person, and only then is brought to life
• a quality item (be it a pen, a table, a scarf, a car) first appears in the mind of the developers
• writers, artists, sculptors, screenwriters, musicians, directors first come up with everything in their imagination
• entrepreneurs draw in their imagination possible options transaction results, risks and rewards
• athletes (both amateurs and professionals) calculate many moves ahead in order to understand how to conduct their race, match, attempt
• each of us always imagines before doing a conscious act, without imagination there is no responsibility, there is no understanding of what each of our actions can lead to

As you can see, imagination in human activity is present in most life and professional situations. The better it is developed, the more chances we have to make our actions of the highest quality and favorable for us.

Imagination functions

1. Cognitive. By imagining what is not available to the human eye, we can mentally study the most complex elements of the surrounding world: atoms, distant space objects.

2. Planning function. Setting goals and plans for ourselves, we imagine the final desired result. Works here too anticipation- anticipation of performance results.

3. Presentation function. We can imagine characters in stories, books, movies, friends, acquaintances.

4. Protective / therapeutic. When events have not happened, we can prepare for them and reenact the good and bad moments with the help of our imagination. Or, when the event has already happened, thanks to the imagination, we live it again in a more mild form, thereby calming (or, conversely, enhancing) emotions and sensations.

5. Transformative. Changing reality, creating new objects, processes, relationships.

Forms of imagination

1.passive. Arises by itself, without our will.

• dreams- passive involuntary imagination operates.
• dreams- daytime protective fantasies, passive voluntary imagination operate.
• hallucinations- act under the influence of the disease, or under the influence of any psychotropic substances (narcotic drugs or alcohol).

2. Active. We make an effort for the imagination.

• Recreating imagination. This imagination of what in reality a person has met or seen, perhaps partly contains a new one.
• creative imagination. This is the imagination of a completely new, previously non-existent person in the experience.

Imagination is one of the fundamental mental processes, which determine our overall intellectual development. Therefore, the development of the imagination is one of the most important contributions to one's intelligence.

by the most simple ways imagination development are:

• The accumulation of various vivid images from real life: observation of nature, animals, viewing works of art (painting, sculpture), listening to the sounds of nature, classical music.
• Try to imagine in bright colors a person whom you know, but who is this moment missing near you. Remember and imagine what he is like, how he smiles, what color his eyes are, the structure of his hair, the tilt of his head when talking.