Creative imagination is self-creation new images that are implemented in original products of activity. Creative imagination is the production of an original image without relying on a ready-made description or conventional image. This kind of imagination plays important role in all types of creative activity of people.
A special form of imagination is a dream. A dream is always aimed at the future, at the prospects for the life and activities of a particular person. A dream allows a person to outline the future and organize his behavior to achieve 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.
The images that a person creates in his dreams are distinguished by their bright, lively, concrete character and, at the same time, emotional richness and attractiveness for the subject. However, dreams and imagination are useful only when they daily connect the desired future with the present. If this is not the case, then from a stimulus for action the dream can turn into a substitute for action and degenerate into daydreaming, into fantasy.
A careful analysis of the images created by the imagination notes in them the features of images known to the subject. But in the new image they are transformed, changed, combined in unusual combinations. Psychologists see this feature of new images and ideas as the main mechanism of the imagination. The essence of imagination lies in the ability to notice and highlight specific signs and properties in objects and phenomena and transfer them to other objects. It is generally accepted that imagination as the ability to create new images and objects arose at the dawn of mankind along with labor. The first acts of imagination were associated with the creation of elementary tools and household items. Their creation became possible on the basis of transferring the functions of the hand and other body organs to other objects. For example, the cup arose as a result of separating the function of capturing liquid from the hand and transferring this function and the shape of folded palms to another material - clay. Man transferred to clay a function that was not characteristic of it, and created a new, original thing necessary to satisfy needs. Psychologically, the basis of any invention is the work of the imagination, the ability to separate some properties of objects and transfer them to others.
How is it possible to create new images through the process of imagination? In other words, what is the psychological prerequisite for the described mechanism of imagination?
This is well known in psychology characteristic images and ideas about the environment, their flexibility and dynamism. “Images,” wrote S. L. Rubinstein, “are non-static, unchanging, lifeless things; they are dynamic formations. It is worth making an attempt to capture any image in order to be convinced of how it changes, shifts, and changes every time before our eyes.” transforms to some extent: now some of its sides come to the fore, then others; those protruding at one moment retreat, fade away, fade into nothing the next. The image-representation is by its nature a labile, dynamic, changing formation every time. Therefore, it is easy transformable." If a person separates some features of an image from others (reproductive imagination works here), then at some point he can transfer them to other objects, even to things that do not themselves possess these features. When this happens, you will get the image of a new thing that has not yet existed.
This transference, which allows the construction of new images, is the work of the creative imagination. In other words, the process of imagination consists of separating any property of an image from its other properties and transferring this property to another image. If the transferred properties (or functions), included in the properties (functions) of the existing image, cannot be realized in one or another object material, then the new image remains an image of the imagination (for example, a centaur, dragon, sphinx, etc. ).
Enough for a long time The image of a flying carpet remained a fabulous object. People separated the ability to fly from the body of the birds themselves and transferred it to another object - to the carpet. This is a fabulous image because it did not take into account the conditions under which the carpet could actually fly. It turned out to be not the object in which the ability of birds to fly, transferred to it, could be realized. But the very imaginary transfer of birds' ability to fly to other bodies was justified. When people scientifically established the conditions of flight, they realized the dream. In the case of the objective implementation of transferable properties or functions, a person actually creates a new thing.
The creation of imaginary images involves the use of a number of techniques. One of them is combination - a combination of individual elements of various images of objects in new, more or less unusual combinations. Combination is not a simple movement or regrouping of elements, not a mechanical combination of sides of different objects, but a process of significant transformation of the elements from which a new image is built.
Transferring the properties of one image to another makes it heterogeneous. In light of the demands of this new property, it is necessary to transform such heterogeneity into a new homogeneity. As a result of combination, what is obtained is not just a new summation, but a holistic new image in which individual elements are transformed and generalized. Writers, artists, scientists, and inventors purposefully select elements and transform them, guided by a specific idea, design, and general composition.
A special case of combination is agglutination - the creation of new images based on the “gluing” of ideas. Based on agglutination, mythological images were created: a centaur, a Minotaur (a monster with a human body and a bull’s head). Pegasus; fairy-tale images - mermaids, dragons, etc. Agglutinations appear not only in art, but also in technology: a trolleybus, an snowmobile, and an amphibious tank were created in this way.
Another technique of imagination is accentuation - emphasizing certain features (for example, the image of a giant). This is achieved on the basis of highlighting, abstracting and transforming the essential features of an object or phenomenon.
But when accentuated, not only the selected quality or property is transformed, but also all the others. At the same time, some of them are omitted altogether, others are simplified, freed from a number of particulars and details. As a result, the entire image is transformed, it acquires a generalized character, becomes a generalized image.
6. Psychology of attention
In the preface to the “Chrestomathy of Attention,” its editors A. A. Puzyrey and V. Ya Romanov write: “It is apparently difficult to find another concept that is just as familiar to everyday consciousness and at the same time has an equally complex and dramatic fate in psychology, as the concept of attention."
You can point out one more point related to the concept of attention, but already related to legal practice. It's hard to find another psychological concept, just as often used by lawyers to explain the characteristics of witness testimony. Perhaps only the concept of “interest” is used as often as the concept of “attention”. They are often understood as synonyms, which is psychologically understandable.
19. The concept of imagination. Types of imagination and mechanisms for creating images of imagination.
Imagination is the mental process of creating something new in the form of an image, idea or idea, based on previous experience.
A person can mentally imagine something that he did not perceive or do in the past, he may have images of objects and phenomena that he had not encountered before. Being closely connected with thinking, imagination is characterized by greater problem uncertainty than in thinking. situations.
The process of imagination is unique to man and is a necessary condition for his work activity.
Imagination is always directed towards the practical activities of man. A person, before doing anything, imagines what needs to be done and how he will do it. Thus, he already creates in advance an image of a material thing that will be manufactured in the subsequent practical activity of a person. This ability of a person to imagine in advance the final result of his work, as well as the process of creating a material thing, sharply distinguishes human activity from the “activity” of animals, sometimes very skillful. A.V. Petrovsky classifies imagination as one of the highest cognitive processes, considers imagination as the basis of creative activity and as the main action programming component. He believes that imagination is responsible for creating a program of behavior in cases where the problem situation is characterized by uncertainty. At the same time, imagination can act as a means of creating images that do not program active activity, but replace it
The physiological basis of imagination is the formation of new combinations from those temporary connections that have already been formed in past experience. At the same time, simple updating of existing temporary connections does not yet lead to the creation of a new one. The creation of a new one presupposes a combination that is formed from temporary connections that have not previously been combined with each other. In this case, the second signal system, the word, is important. The process of imagination is a joint work of both signaling systems. All visual images are inextricably linked with him. As a rule, the word serves as a source of the appearance of images of the imagination, controls the path of their formation, and is a means of retaining, consolidating, and changing them.
Imagination is always a certain departure from reality. But in any case, the source of imagination is objective reality.
The essence of imagination is the transformation of ideas, the creation of new images based on existing ones.
Mechanisms for creating imaginary images.
Images are formed on the basis of previous experience, on the basis of ideas about objects and phenomena of objective reality. The process of creating imaginary images from impressions received by a person from reality can occur in various forms. The creation of imaginary images goes through two main stages. At the first stage, a kind of division of impressions, or existing ideas, into their component parts occurs. – T. Ribot called it dissociation. With these images, transformations of two main types can then be carried out.
Firstly, these images can be put into new combinations and connections. Secondly, these images can be given a completely new meaning. In any case, operations are performed with abstracted images that can be characterized as synthesis (the process associations). These operations, which constitute the essence of the synthesizing activity of the imagination, are the second stage in the formation of imaginative images.
The simplest form of synthesis in the process of imagination is agglutination, i.e., creating a new image by attaching in the imagination parts or properties of one object to another. Examples of agglutination include: the image of a centaur, etc.
One of the most common ways of processing images of perception into images of imagination is increase or decrease (hyperbolization) object or its parts. The most significant ways of processing ideas into images of the imagination, following the path of generalization of essential features, are schematization and emphasis. Schematization may arise as a result of incomplete, superficial perception of the object. In this case, the representations are schematized randomly, and they sometimes highlight minor details that were accidentally discovered during the perception of the object. As a result, distortions arise that lead to the creation of imaginary images that distort reality. The reason for schematization may be a conscious distraction from unimportant, or secondary, aspects of the object.
Accenting consists in emphasizing the most significant, typical features of the image. The main feature of this processing of images of perception into images of imagination is that, reflecting real reality and typifying it, an artistic image always gives a broad generalization, but this generalization is always reflected in a specific image. Moreover, the processing of ideas when creating a typical image is not accomplished by mechanical addition or subtraction of any features.
1. Agglutination(gluing) is a mechanistic, unreal combination of parts or properties of various incompatible objects (mermaid, centaur, minotaur, goblin, merman; amphibian - boat, plane, car).
2. Analogy- new images are created by analogy with specific objects. Example: many labor tools were created by analogy with the human hand - a rake, hammer, pliers, etc.
3. Hyperbolization(exaggeration) is an exaggeration of some qualities, properties, number of elements in the created image. (Caricatures - Pinocchio, or the dog - the owner).
4. Typing- this is the inclusion in the created image of the most typical features characteristic of any group of objects (an amphora is an image of a woman).
There are several types of imagination, among which the main ones are passive and active. Passive, in turn, is divided into voluntary (daydreaming, daydreaming) and involuntary (hypnotic state, dream fantasy). 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 sympathize, to rejoice, to empathize...
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. Stimulation of this process creates objective opportunities for the emergence of original new connections between the conditions recorded in the memory of a person and society. 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.
Recreative (reproductive) 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. Basically, the reconstructive imagination is a process during which recombination occurs, the reconstruction of previous perceptions in a new combination.
Creative (productive) imagination- this is a type of imagination during which a person independently creates new images and ideas that are valuable to other people or 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 creative human activity... Images of creative imagination are created through various methods of intellectual operations.Vygotsky L.S. studied creative 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. In older and older people, the imagination is more focused on events of the past.
A special form of imagination forms dream. It is addressed to the sphere of a more or less distant future and does not imply the immediate achievement of a real result, as well as its complete coincidence with the desired image. At the same time, a dream can become a strong motivating factor in creative search.
Passive imagination subject to internal, subjective factors, it is tendentious. 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”. The materials of passive imagination, like active imagination, are images, ideas, elements of concepts and other information gleaned through experience. Unintentional passive imagination is observed when the activity of consciousness is weakened, its disorders are in a half-asleep state, in sleep, etc. The most indicative manifestation of passive imagination are hallucinations, in which a person perceives non-existent objects. As a rule, hallucinations are observed in certain mental disorders. Dreams can be classified as passive and involuntary forms of imagination. According to the degree of transformation of reality, they can be either reproductive or productive.
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, through an effort of will, at will evokes corresponding images.
- 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.
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.
Imagination processes, like memory processes, can vary in the degree of voluntariness or intentionality. An extreme case of involuntary imagination is dreams, in which images are born unintentionally and in the most unexpected and bizarre combinations. The activity of the imagination, which unfolds in a half-asleep, drowsy state, for example, before falling asleep, is also involuntary at its core.
Among the various types and forms of voluntary imagination, one can distinguish reconstructive imagination, creative imagination and dream.
Recreating imagination manifests itself when a person needs to recreate a representation of an object that matches its description as fully as possible.
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.
If the voluntary or active imagination is intentional, i.e. is associated with volitional manifestations of a person, then passive imagination can be intentional and unintentional. Intentional passive imagination creates images that are not associated with the will. These images are called dreams. In dreams, the connection between imagination and the needs of the individual is most clearly revealed. The predominance of dreams in mental life a person can lead him to be separated from reality, to go into a fictional world, which, in turn, begins to inhibit the mental and social development of this person.
Unintentional passive imagination is observed when the activity of consciousness is weakened, its disorders are in a half-asleep state, in sleep, etc. The most significant manifestation of passive imagination is hallucinations, in which a person perceives non-existent objects. When classifying types of imagination, we proceed from two main characteristics. This is the degree of manifestation of volitional efforts and the degree of activity, or awareness.
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. 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, which this moment do not exist, but can subsequently be embodied in specific objects. The ability to reflect the future and act as expected, i.e. imaginary, situation typical only for humans.
Imagination- the 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 their 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
Exist different kinds imagination. By degree of activity imagination can be passive or 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 creative content and efficiency of 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 an 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: disease, hypnosis, exposure psychotropic substances such as drugs, alcohol, etc.
Dreams
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.
Dreams
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 a normal person.
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, imagination is called involuntary. It occurs in a half-asleep state or during sleep, as well as in certain disorders of consciousness. free 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 takes place 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. There are many cases where an image born of a person’s fantasy as completely unrealistic (for example, the hyperboloid invented by A. N. Tolstoy) later became a reality. Fantastic imagination is present in children's role-playing games. It formed the basis of literary works of a certain genre - fairy tales, science fiction, “fantasy”.
With all the variety of types of imagination, they are characterized by general function, which determines their main importance in human life - anticipation of the future, the ideal representation of the outcome of an 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- combining various, real-life parts and properties of objects in unusual combinations (for example, creating 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.
The relationship between imagination and creativity
There are different types of creativity: scientific, technical, literary, artistic etc. None of these types is possible without the participation of imagination. In its main function - anticipation of what does not yet exist, it determines the emergence of intuition, conjecture, insight as the central link of the creative process. Imagination helps a scientist to see the phenomenon being studied in a new light. In the history of science there are many examples of the emergence of images of the imagination, which were subsequently realized into new ideas, great discoveries and inventions.
The English physicist M. Faraday, studying the interaction of conductors with current at a distance, imagined that they were surrounded by invisible lines like tentacles. This led him to the discovery of force lines and phenomena electromagnetic induction. The German engineer O. Lilienthal observed and analyzed the soaring flight of birds for a long time. The image of an artificial bird that arose in his imagination served as the basis for the invention of the glider and the first flight on it.
When creating literary works, the writer realizes in words the images of his aesthetic imagination. Their brightness, breadth and depth of the phenomena of reality they cover are subsequently felt by readers, and evoke in them feelings of co-creation. L.N. Tolstoy wrote in his diaries that “when perceived truly works of art an illusion arises that a person does not perceive, but creates; it seems to him that he has produced such a beautiful thing.”
The role of imagination in pedagogical creativity is also great. Its specificity is that the results pedagogical activity They do not appear immediately, but after some, sometimes a long time. Their presentation in the form of a model of the child’s developing personality, the image of his behavior and thinking in the future determines the choice of teaching and upbringing methods, pedagogical requirements and influences.
All people have different abilities for creativity. Their formation is determined by a large number of different aspects. These include congenital inclinations, human activity, characteristics environment, conditions of training and education that influence the development of a person’s characteristics of mental processes and personality traits that contribute to creative achievements.
What is imagination . 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. So, imagination is a cognitive process that consists of the creation of new images, on the basis of which new actions and objects arise.
Every image created in the imagination is, to some extent, both a reproduction and transformation of reality. Playback - main characteristic of memory, transformation- the main characteristic of imagination. If the main function of memory is the preservation of experience, then the main function of imagination is its transformation. Images of the imagination are based on representations of memory. But these ideas are undergoing profound changes. Memory representations are images of objects and phenomena that we do not currently perceive, but once perceived. But we can, based on knowledge and relying on the experience of mankind, create ideas about such things that we ourselves have never perceived before. For example, I can imagine a sandy desert or tropical forests, although I have never been there. Imagination is the creation of something that has not yet existed in a person’s experience, that he has not perceived in the past and that he has not encountered before. Nevertheless, everything new, created in the imagination, is always somehow connected with what really exists.
All representations of the imagination are built from material received in past perceptions and stored in memory. The activity of the imagination is always the processing of those data that are delivered by sensations and perceptions. The imagination cannot create out of “nothing” (a person blind from birth cannot create a color image, a deaf person cannot create sounds). The most bizarre and fantastic products of the imagination are always built from elements of reality.
Imagination is one of the fundamental characteristics of a person. It most clearly shows the difference between man and his animal ancestors.
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.
How do images of the imagination arise, according to what laws are they constructed? Imagination is a cognitive process and is based on analytical-synthetic activity. human brain. Analysis helps to identify individual parts and characteristics of objects or phenomena, synthesis- combine into new, hitherto unheard of combinations. As a result, an image or system of images is created in which real reality is reflected by a person in a new, transformed, changed form and content.
Physiological basis imagination - the formation of new combinations from temporary nerve connections already formed in the cerebral cortex.
Kinds imagination . Psychologists distinguish types of imagination for the following reasons.
1. Level of activity a person’s creation of new images and awareness of these images:
Involuntary or passive imagination - new images arise under the influence of little conscious or unconscious needs. These are dreams, hallucinations, reveries, states of “mindless rest”. So, images in a dream are born unintentionally. People came to discover the secrets of sleep only in late XIX- early 20th century Scraps of memories of the past are intricately combined in dreams; they are born unintentionally, entering into unexpected, sometimes completely meaningless combinations. In a half-asleep, drowsy state, the same thing can happen. Sechenov said that dreams are “unprecedented combinations of experienced impressions.” When a person sleeps, his consciousness seems to recede into the background, since those parts of the brain that control consciousness and control our impressions and ideas stop working. Sleep is a diffuse inhibition of the cerebral hemispheres. When complete and deep inhibition occurs, sleep is deep, without dreams. But inhibition occurs unevenly, especially in the initial stage of sleep and in the last stage before awakening. Dreams are caused by the functioning of a group of cells that remain uninhibited. Characteristics of dreams are:
Sensory authenticity. When I have a dream, I don’t doubt for a minute that all this is happening to me in reality. Only after waking up, “shaking off” the dream, will I be able to take a critical look at the fantasies I had in my dreams;
Incredible whimsicality, unusual connections and combinations of images;
Clear connection with immediate human needs. For example, Tatyana writes to Onegin: “You appeared to me in dreams.” In love with Evgeniy, she constantly thinks about him, and here is his image in a dream.
Despite all the fantastic nature of dreams, they can only contain what was perceived by a person. Today some mechanisms of dreams are known. For example, the reason for dreams can be irritations that the body of a sleeping person receives: the blanket has moved - your feet are frozen, you may dream that you are freezing, that the ice has broken under you, or that you are knee-deep in water and are fishing in delirium. There can be many variations. This is the basis for the methodology for studying the content of dreams: the subject is subjected (of course, with his consent) to certain stimuli during sleep, and then asked about what he dreamed. Thus, illuminating the face of a sleeping person with red light can evoke in a dream images of a thunderstorm, flashes of lightning, and reflections of a forest fire. If you bring a bottle of perfume to the nose of a sleeping person, you can imagine an image of a blooming garden or a holiday when people give each other bouquets of flowers. Or: the sleeping person’s face was covered with a blanket, it became more difficult to breathe, and he dreams that a bandit attacked him and strangled him. Sometimes the cause of a dream is the turbulent events that happened during the day - the dream is about the same topic, in continuation of these events. A dream may indicate some kind of illness. Thus, one woman was haunted by a dream for a long time: she ate raw or spoiled fish. A medical examination revealed that she had an acute form of gastritis. There are many more various reasons dreams, which you can, if you are interested, learn about from specialized literature.
Sleep is a product of a healthy psyche. All people see dreams. Research recent years lead scientists to believe that dreams are even necessary for the normal functioning of our brain. If you deprive a person of dreams, it can lead to mental disorder. The product of a sick or unhealthy psyche is hallucinations.
Hallucination – This is also passive, unintentional imagination. In people who are mentally abnormal or not entirely healthy, fantasy images take on the characteristics of reality. In a mentally ill person they compete with what he actually perceives. If a long-dead relative appears to him, he talks to him as if he were alive, and does not doubt for a minute the reality of the latter. Such “daydreams” are called hallucinations.
Hallucinations appear in various mental illnesses, under the influence strong feelings: feelings of melancholy, fear, obsessive thoughts. At auditory hallucinations the patient hears voices, music, sounds. The voices either threaten him or ask him for something. At the same time, voices can be quiet, loud, “commanding”, as a result of which a person commits unexpected actions. This mental disorder often occurs due to alcoholism.
Visual hallucinations usually occur in diseases such as epilepsy, hysteria, as well as in alcoholics who have reached the point of delirium tremens.
These phenomena are explained by the fact that significant areas of the mentally ill person’s brain are constantly inhibited to a greater or lesser extent. Traces of past perceptions, combined in fantasy images, cause the same reaction as real stimuli.
Dreams – it is a passive but intentional imagination. These are dreams that are not associated with the will aimed at fulfilling them. 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...”
Voluntary or active imagination - This is a process of deliberate construction of images in connection with a consciously set goal in a particular activity. This type of imagination arises at an early age and is most developed in children's games. In the game, children take on different roles (pilot, driver, doctor, Baba Yaga, broker, etc.). The need to build your behavior in accordance with a pleasant role for yourself requires active work of the imagination. In addition, you need to imagine the missing items and the game situation itself.
According to originality, voluntary (active) imagination is divided into recreative, or reproductive, and creative.
Recreative, or reproductive, imagination is the construction of an image of an object, a phenomenon in accordance with its verbal description or according to a drawing, diagram, picture. In the process of recreating imagination, new images arise, but new ones are subjective, for this person, but objectively they already exist. They are already embodied in certain cultural objects. When reading fiction and educational literature, when studying geographical, historical and other descriptions, it constantly turns out to be necessary to recreate with the help of imagination what is said in these sources. Any viewer, reader or listener must have a sufficiently developed re-creating imagination to see and feel what the artist, writer, storyteller wanted to convey and express. Excellent school The development of reconstructive imagination is served by the study of geographical maps. K. Paustovsky wrote: “Even as a child, I developed a passion for geographical maps. I could sit over them for several hours, as if reading a fascinating book. I studied the flow of unknown rivers, whimsical sea coasts, penetrated into the depths of the taiga... Gradually all these places came to life in my imagination with such clarity that it seems that I could write fictitious travel diaries across different continents and countries.”
The essence of the reconstructive imagination is that we reproduce what we ourselves did not directly perceive, but what other people tell us (by speech, drawings, diagrams, signs, etc.). We seem to decipher signals, symbols, signs. For example, an engineer, looking at a drawing (a system of lines on a sheet), restores the image of a machine that is “encrypted” with symbols.
Recreating Imagination plays an important role in human life, it allows people to exchange experiences, without which life in society is unthinkable. It helps each of us to master the experience, knowledge and achievements of other people.
Creative imagination - This is the independent creation of new images that are implemented in original products of activity. Images are created without relying on a ready-made description or conventional image.
The role of creative imagination is enormous. New original works are being created that have never existed. However, their characters (from artists, sculptors, writers) are so vital and real that you begin to treat them as if they were alive (remember Don Quixote, Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova, Anna Karenina, Tatyana Larina, Grigory Melekhov, Vasily Terkin, the Turbin brothers ...).
A special type of imagination is a dream. 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, Buns are an image of N.V.’s creative imagination. Gogol, but not his dream. Here are the heroes Scarlet Sails"A. Green - a 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, like a dream, 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.
Another type of creative imagination is fantasy or daydreaming. Here 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. And fairy tales and Science fiction- 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.
There is a great dependence between the imagination and the human mind. The development of imagination is inextricably linked with the development of the personality as a whole. Imagination can be trained and developed, like any aspect of human mental activity. Imagination develops, first of all, in those activities in which it is impossible to do without imagination. Each person contains some kind of “piece of fantasy,” but each person’s fantasy, or imagination, manifests itself differently, depending on the orientation of the individual - his interests, knowledge, emotional mood.
Psychological mechanisms imagination. In the images that arise in the imagination, there are always features already known to man images But in the new image they are transformed, changed, combined into unusual combinations.
The essence of imagination lies in the ability to notice and highlight specific signs and properties in objects and phenomena and transfer them to other objects. There are several imagination techniques.
Combination – a combination of individual elements of various images of objects in new, more or less unusual combinations. Combination is a creative synthesis, and not a simple sum of already known elements, it is a process of significant transformation of the elements from which a new image is built.
Special case combinations – agglutination - a way of creating a new image by connecting, gluing together completely different objects or their properties. For example, a centaur, a dragon, a sphinx - a lion with a human head, or a flying carpet, when the ability to fly was transferred from a bird to another object. This is a fairy-tale image: the conditions under which the carpet could fly are not taken into account. But the very imaginary transfer of the ability of birds to fly to other bodies is justified. Then we studied the flight conditions and made our dream come true - the plane appeared. The Minotaur is a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, a mermaid... Such combinations of different objects exist not only in art, but also in technology: trolleybus, snowmobile, amphibious tank, etc.
Accenting – emphasizing certain features (for example, the image of a giant). This method underlies the creation of caricatures and friendly caricatures (smart - very high forehead, lack of intelligence - low). Emphasis manifests itself in several specific actions:
a) exaggeration - deliberately emphasizing the features of a person’s external appearance;
b) exaggeration or understatement (Tom Thumb, Thumbelina, the seven-headed Serpent-Gorynych);
c) typification - generalization and emotional richness of the image. This is the most difficult way to create an image of creative imagination. A.M. Gorky wrote that talented writers can be considered those who are proficient in the techniques of observation, comparison, and selection of the most characteristic features people and incorporating the “imagination” of these features into one person. “How are types constructed in literature? - asked A.M. Bitter. - They are built, of course, not in portraiture, they don’t take a specific person, but take 30-50 people of one line, one row, one mood, and from them they create Oblomov, Onegin, Faust, Hamlet, Othello, etc. All these are generalized types.”
Individual characteristics imagination are defined:
1) the degree of ease and difficulty with which imagination is generally given to a person;
2) the characteristics of the created image itself: absurdity or an original solution;
3) in which area is the creation of new images brighter and faster (personal orientation).
