The Imaginary Friend Syndrome
project spearheaded by Tom Baurley
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Friends – This article will be an ongoing-work in progress based on my research since 1994 on the Imaginary Friend Syndrome.
As time allows, I will be placing pieces of my research here and open it for discussion. Please submit your input via email to Leaf below. Thanks!
The Imaginary Friend Syndrome
The Imaginary Friend Syndrome
And the Evolution of
Symbolic Imagination
And concepts of Religious Development
By Thomas Baurley
Anthropology of Infancy
Fall 1994 – Florida State University
Infants begin to develop ideas and conceptions of the world around them as their brains grow larger, coming to terms with the various elements of the environment they are becoming attached to. What they do not understand often frightens them until they develop conceptualized ideas of how things work. Once grasping control of these anxieties, the infant/child becomes brave and explores further their surroundings. These fears take many different forms. For example, “a sixteenth month year old human child who only a few months before was oblivious to bath water streaming down the drain may now scream when her mother pulls the drain plug.” Parents magazine theorizes this is possibly “because she comprehends just enough about how the drain works to misunderstand them completely. She does not realize that she is too large to go down that little hole. After all, the water is big too, but somehow it manages to squeeze down the drain.” (Parents June 1994) This is what some refer to as “primitive thought”. The conceptualization of ideas, surroundings, nature, items, and physical structures, as being comparable to one’s own being or self, having spirit, life energy (Animism) and/or its own consciousness. Alicia Lieberman, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of California, claims the fear is from not making sense of the way things change.
By 10-11 months children learn caution – becoming cautious of heights, perceiving three-dimensional being/structures. By age 1, children are completely sensitive to sound, especially loud sounds like garbage trucks, appliances, with reasoning that something so noisy must be dangerous. It is at this age that infants are supposed to become afraid of various new feelings – such as the splashing of water on the face. One year olds learning to use the potty may worry they could fall in and be sucked down the toilet. The instilled fears of the unknown. This is the beginning phase of creating mental explanations, theories, and symbolic imagination to disperse those fears. The fears are however all centered around real places, real things, and real people. (Parents June 1994) Children are not believed to be able to enact symbolic imagination until about age two or three.
At this point of my revision, what are your thoughts currently? input?
More coming soon!