So there\u2019s the name: Imagination Development. Imagination can and should be developed! It\u2019s a theme that helps rationalize some hobbies, or it could be a hobby in itself. It\u2019s a kind of mental yoga. Stretching and bending the imagination, playing, pretending, consciously daydreaming. It relates to Jung\u2019s suggestion that we actively imagine. <\/p>\n
Most people don’t imagine a lot. They’re sort of told that imagination is too close to letting your mind run loose, which is too close to madness; or heresy. George Orwell\u2019s scary dystopian novel, 1984—written in the 1950s—described how political incorrectness could be a capital crime.<\/p>\n
More commonly people are taught the de-facto religion of scientism, that reality is only that which is material and measureable. But kids know the world of \u201cIF\u201d is a whole realm accessed by imagination. It is not to be scorned. <\/p>\n
Of course people imagine! They do it to varying degrees, and they do it frequently. They just don\u2019t think of it as a dimension of their personality that they could consciously develop. It seems to many as a secret, like masturbation. (Indeed, with the continuing publicity being given to overt sexuality, that which is \u201cprivate\u201d shifts from sex to other mental forms of enjoyment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Imagination Takes Off<\/strong><\/p>\n People get funny notions, and I want to celebrate these: They give spice to our humdrum lives. For example, I have one acquaintance who, upon getting a porcelain penguin as a gift over thirty years ago, started collecting penguin figurines, soft toys, puppets, all sorts of variations. She also read up on this. Other people have a fancy for certain types of animals, and behind most collectors of all kinds there are other, often subconscious subtle fantasies. My point is, first, as a certified psychiatrist with many qualifications, I want to assert most imaginative activities are just fine; second, we might flourish more of we could admit to ourselves that we like this or that and come out with it to friends.<\/p>\n Maybe what I\u2019m suggesting is to be more conscious of what used to be called eccentricity so as not to be annoying to others, but yet to own, enjoy, and get validated for uniqueness. Let it be known that everyone has quirks and it\u2019s good to admit it. It\u2019s a shift away from the idea that it\u2019s good to be \u201cadjusted.\u201d indeed, we need to pop the bubble of the illusion that there is such a thing as \u201cnormal.\u201d We need to recognize that the idea that we should rid ourselves of quirks is misleading and limiting.<\/p>\n One way to do this is to realize that quirks and eccentricities are extensions of imaginativeness, and that dimension of the psyche is valid; it satisfies many longings that cannot be satisfied by mundane existence. These are not to be explained away or \u201ccured.\u201d (Well, maybe if the fixation involves behaviors that are problematic, but then perhaps the challenge is not to turn away from the attraction of the symbolic object, role, field, whatever, but rather to align it so that it\u2019s not problematic.)<\/p>\n Sometimes this involves changing some friends or clubs or who you expect to get validation from, because some folks aren\u2019t going to be able to enjoy your enjoying yourself that way. So to some extent, eccentricities are socially defined. If you can find some folks (especially in close family) who like you that way, go with that!<\/p>\n One step beyond coming to terms with it is opening the object of fascination to your conscious mind. You may find it opens you to other things you enjoy imagining, stories, myths, characters. The goal is to enlarge your sense of living, to consider and maybe even enter an identity that partakes of more than mundane reality.<\/p>\n All this goes against a shallow and servile attempt to adjust, as if being like everyone else is a good thing. It used to be seen that way, and no one ever said that it\u2019s not so. They dared not, because there were authorities who presumed to make judgments about what was okay to think and what was seriously \u201csick.\u201d Or perhaps \u201cirreverent.\u201d<\/p>\n