Many children had imaginary friends at an early age. At first, the parents might have been worried about this. But gradually they came to the conclusion that there was nothing terrible in this, there was nothing to worry about. That this is just one of the stages that a child goes through on the way to growing up.
Are imaginary friends just child's play, or is there more behind it?
Research and examples
Experts who study the human psyche and health believe that children who have imaginary friends only develop a certain mechanism of protection from negative emotions and experiences.
For example, if a child is separated from their parents for a long time, he, with the help of an imaginary friend, can more easily get through this period, feeling additional security. The presence of an imaginary friend allows the child to carry out some actions that he cannot perform alone, without the help of parents or close people involved in his upbringing.
With regard to the defense mechanism, everything is clear. But how to explain the fact that children who were not afraid to be alone and did not experience negative emotions still had imaginary friends?
Quite happy and obedient children who have no problems constantly communicated with their imaginary friends. The researchers came to such conclusions after interviewing a large number of children and observing their behavior.
There is also a belief that an imaginary friend is a copy of the person who invented them. But this is not always the case. In some situations, a very young child may have an imaginary friend, much older than him in age, and sometimes completely of the opposite sex.
There is a real case described by the writer Nikki Sheehan. As a child, when the girl was about seven years old, she talked with an imaginary friend who was well over thirty. He had a mustache, a beard and a very specific name. She told him about everything that happened to her at school, about her friends, her relationship with her parents. She received advice from him to help her make serious and difficult decisions. At some point, the imaginary friend stopped appearing, but returned when Sheehan was forty years old. It is interesting that he appeared again in the same image as in the childhood of the writer. She later wrote a book about it called Who Framed Clariss Cliff?
In the famous film "Bad Fred", a completely grown-up girl has an imaginary friend named Fred. This happens immediately after her beloved leaves her. It is Fred who helps her eventually gain self-confidence and become a completely different person.
If in these cases imaginary friends helped, then there are other options when such a “friend” could interfere with performing certain actions, did not disappear, even when he was very asked about it, spoke too loudly, not allowing to concentrate or communicate with someone, and sometimes he could even push a person to a crime.
Who are imaginary friends
Psychologists studying this issue have come to the conclusion that an imaginary friend is a character created by a child in order for him to take on a very specific role. In other words, this is a kind of role-playing game.
Very often, imaginary friends are extraordinary and complex personalities with unpredictable behavior. For the creator, an imaginary friend is absolutely real, but research has shown that such people do not and never existed in the real life of a child.
There are times when an imaginary friend is next to a person throughout his life. In fact, he can be called a guardian angel.
Some children prove that they see their imaginary friends in reality, others say that they are only in their head. And still others - not only see and talk, but also feel the presence of such a friend nearby.
American research in the field of psychology suggests that an imaginary friend is a consequence of a phenomenon called "paracosm" or his own world invented in childhood. There is nothing strange in this, and this phenomenon is quite typical for children with violent imagination. In these cases, while inventing his own world, the child does not try to escape from the problem or fear. With the help of this illusory world or an imaginary friend, the child tries to understand and cognize the real world that surrounds him.
Famous science fiction writers, authors of fairy tales or children's books, artists, musicians and everyone who, in one way or another, is engaged in creativity, have repeatedly mentioned that their creations are based on childhood memories and fantasies.
Yet imaginary friends don't always have a positive impact. In cases where an imaginary friend (or an unreal world) is created only to escape from reality or hide from a problem, this can lead to serious mental disorders. Therefore, an imaginary friend / imaginary world is not always an innocent game. In each case, there is a very specific reason for its appearance, due to events occurring in the life of a child or an adult. It’s not just children who have imaginary friends.
