The cerebral cortex is involved in complex imagination processes. But the complexity of the structure of imagination and its connection with emotions testify in favor of the hypothesis that the physiological mechanisms of imagination are located not only in the cerebral cortex, but also in deeper parts of the brain. Such deep parts of the brain, which, together with the cortex cerebral hemispheres form images of the imagination and include them in activity processes, is hypothalamic-limbic system, the hypothalamus in its connections with the ancient cortex and subcortical regions, forming the limbus, or boundary, around the anterior part of the brainstem at the entrance to the cerebral hemispheres.
When the hypothalamic-limbic system is damaged, a person develops characteristic mental disorders: its behavior consists of a series of individual behavioral acts, and there is no general program regulating behavior. So, the damage has captured the structures responsible for planning human actions, and, as you know, the most important function of the imagination is the development of a program of action and behavior.
Some scientists consider the physiological mechanism of imagination as the movement of ideas that replace each other like sea waves. These ideas are connected by certain associative connections. “The intensity of one neural trace, having reached a certain degree, then begins to decrease, while the intensity of the second trace (association) begins to increase, and as a result of this, one idea changes in the minds of others” (K.D. Ushinsky).
The duration of the idea (that is, the duration of its awareness) depends on the time it takes for it to come into equilibrium. During this time, the movement of the idea, which was in a state of tension, spreads to another idea (especially bright, vital), and then this latter one passes into a state of tension.
The level of intensity of the nerve trace depends not only on the process of its nutrition, but also on the degree of irritation to which this trace is subject. If in the processes of memory the nervous connection formed remains permanently and is restored in the future, then in the processes of imagination the systems of nervous connections disintegrate and are not restored, but are combined into new systems throughout a person’s life.
Such a union is possible when a strong focus of excitation arises (need, direct impression). Therefore, in a person with great imagination, groups of nerve cells are connected into more and more new formations. The characteristic novelty in the images of fantasy in comparison with the images of memory and their partial coincidence depend on this.
Types of imagination. Imagination processes
The process of creating imaginary images, or fantasies, can be involuntary and arbitrary character.
When in the human imagination the creation of new images is not directed by a special purpose, the imagination has involuntary character. Thus, under the influence of the teacher’s story, new images are created, their separation or combination occurs. When reading a work of fiction, images of characters, the area where events take place, the time when they occur, and the like appear in the imagination without any special intention.
Involuntary imagination is determined by needs and feelings. Hungry man poses delicious dishes, a person who freezes in the cold imagines a warm house, and in the heat, imagination brings coolness to the person. Parents, worried about their children taking exams, spontaneously depict the course of events and imagine critical situations that their son or daughter may find themselves in.
When a person sets a special goal to create an image of a particular object, the imagination acquires arbitrary character. For example, in a lesson, a teacher suggests imagining a historical event, a certain area, traveling on a map, imagining certain cities or countries.
A person who creates a new piece of music, draws an image of a literary character or a picture, uses his free imagination.
Depending on the nature of human activity, voluntary imagination is divided into reproductive, or reproductive and creative.
Imagination based on the creation of images that correspond to the description is called reproduced. By reading educational and fiction literature, studying geographical maps and historical materials, a person reproduces with the help of his imagination what is reflected in works of art and historical documents. In conditions of verbal communication, when a person has to imagine unfamiliar objects or events based on their description, the reproductive or reproducing imagination is triggered. The reproducing imagination serves the communication of people. An engineer uses this type of imagination when he studies a new machine from the drawings. On the basis of musical works, rich material is formed for the reproduced imagination.
Creative imagination is also voluntary, productive in nature and is always included in creative activity. This is the independent creation of new, original images. Creativity is an activity as a result of which a person discovers something new, creates new original works, material and spiritual values. Creativity is a type of activity in which all mental processes are involved, but imagination plays a leading role. Creative imagination is necessary where human activity takes on a creative character; it is an essential condition for any type of creativity. Creative and reproductive imagination are interconnected and transform into each other.
Imagination is divided into active and passive.
Active imagination is always aimed at performing creative or logical problem. The process of storing information in the brain is dynamic, that is, there is a gradual change in the content of the material and the mutual movement of its elements. This process reflects active imagination. Hence - intuition, insight. Active imagination is directed primarily outward; a person is more occupied with the environment, socially significant things, and less with himself. Active imagination determines and controls the will; it can be reproduced (reproductive) or creative. The apparatus of imagination constitutes the condition creative activity personality.
Passive imagination flows without setting a goal, sometimes like an illusion of life, where a person speaks and acts mentally. She temporarily retreats into the world of fantastic ideas that are far from reality. It seems to a person that she is hiding from unsolved problems, from the need to act, or difficult living conditions, etc.
A person can cause passive imagination intentionally. Evoked images of fantasy that are not associated with the will and are aimed at bringing them to life are called delirium. People are prone to delusions. In them it is easy to find a connection between the products of imagination and human needs. When a person’s needs are extremely strong, and the possibilities of satisfying them are scanty, then the imagination develops with amazing force. A satisfied need does not generate imagination. If most of the needs cannot be fulfilled, then a person develops a dominant dissatisfaction, which gives rise to a change in personality with a departure from reality, suffering, stubbornness, and neuroses.
Satisfaction of human needs is not always accompanied by a feeling of pleasure. Quite often, the expectation of great happiness minimizes the feeling of real pleasure from real happiness. Thus, there is a discrepancy between the expectation and what has been achieved in life, which is why it is so difficult to control the imagination.
If delirium, that is, images evoked arbitrarily and not aimed at implementation, predominate in the imagination, then this indicates a person’s passivity, his inaction, and possibly defective personality development.
For the emergence of passive imagination great importance It has emotional condition. Passive involuntary imagination occurs in a state of passion, during sleep. Sleep is a passive state of a person. Before falling asleep, a person dreams about something, the imagination is released and strengthened. This process is very important for the occurrence of sleep. It is quite difficult to fall asleep when a person is excited. The best way to save your sleep is to switch your imagination to pleasant, calm topics. An example of the spontaneous emergence of new images is dreams. During sleep, when our attention is not distracted by external impressions, aimless and traceless wanderings of consciousness “top of waves of movements nervous system"takes on the vivid character of dreams, from which we remember only a few, that is, we transform them into new associations - the formation of our imagination. In a dream, we gain complete confidence in the reality we imagine. The vividness of the images of the imagination during sleep is explained by the fact that the second signaling system is inhibited and excited the first signaling system, the law of negative induction is triggered.
Dreaming is a biologically beneficial process, one of those that maintains the functional efficiency of the nervous system. However, the content of dreams is only a random result that cannot be reliably interpreted. THEM. Sechenov called dreams “unprecedented combinations of past impressions.”
From the point of view of the theory of psychoanalysis of Z. Freud, the cause of dreams lies primarily in the irresistible instinctive activity of the unconscious system of the human mental apparatus. According to Freud, the occurrence of a sleepy state psychologically indicates that a person has become isolated from outside world and focused on my own “I”. Freud called this phenomenon “primary narcissism.” In this regard, all instinctive stimuli that come from various organs of the body are significantly enhanced (cathected). “Kateksovani” impulses try to disrupt the normal course of sleep, but this is prevented by dreams that arise precisely at this time, since in them subconscious human impulses-desires are presented as fulfilled, even fantastic situations are perceived by the sleeping person as quite real. This phenomenon is called “hallucinatory wish fulfillment.”
The focused direction of dreams causes a special feeling that events are taking place in their own, completely closed world. A person has no power to react or evaluate his feelings. That is why the most incredible events that occur in dreams are perceived by a sleeping person without any surprise; they do not cause indignation or protest in her.
Strengthening, as well as weakening, imagination can be a symptom of serious mental illness. People who did not sleep for 70 hours during the experiment developed mental and neurotic disorders. Neuroses and psychoses often occur in young mothers, when all their strength is focused on the child, there are no switches or other information, and there is a constant lack of sleep. Therefore, it is so important to create an atmosphere of full-fledged, interesting, peaceful life to be saved restful sleep and good mood. Another example: prolonged consumption of alcohol leads to an “explosion/”paradoxical sleep, leading to vivid, terrifying dreams (dreams), fear, hallucinations.
Imagination manifests itself in activities of different content, therefore the following types of imagination are distinguished: artistic, scientific, technical etc. All these types of imagination have their own characteristics.
IN artistic the imagination is dominated by sensory (visual, auditory, etc.) images, extremely detailed and vivid. A human artist imagines the images of heroes so vividly that these heroes actually communicate with her, live nearby.
Different types of artistic imagination have their own specific characteristics. These features are manifested in the creation of images of artistic imagination, when one or another analyzer predominates: visual and motor - for a sculptor, artist, auditory - for a composer, and the like. The means with which the human artist operates and the ways of embodying images (paintings, scores, poetic lines) are distinctive.
Technical the imagination creates images of spatial relationships in the form of geometric figures with mental conceptions of them in various combinations. Associations by similarity play an important role in the creation of new technical designs. Images of the technical imagination are materialized in drawings and diagrams, with the help of which new items and objects are created. Products of the technical imagination can be represented in linguistic form. Language fixation helps to deeply analyze technical discoveries and verify their reliability in practice.
Scientific imagination is embodied in planning and conducting experimental research, in the ability to build hypotheses, finding extraordinary ways to solve a problem, in constructing an experimental situation, the ability to generalize empirical material, etc. New images of scientific imagination are created - a means by which natural relationships between objects and phenomena are established . Scientific imagination helps to find new, not yet known links in the system of facts.
Scientific imagination is always based on precise scientific calculations and experiments. Something imaginary that has not withstood scientific and practical testing is rejected. The scientific imagination is embodied in words as well as in images.
A special type of imagination is dream. A dream is an imagination aimed at the future, at the prospects of human life and activity. In dreams, images of what is desired are created. The importance of dreams in a person's life is very great. In dreams there is a connection between a person’s imagination and his needs, feelings, and aspirations. Dreams become the impetus for creative activity, as the lives of many outstanding people convince us of.
Social existence and social relations determine people’s dreams, determine the direction and nature of dreams, but very much depends on how the person himself relates to his dreams and how he sees the realization of his desires in certain social relations.
There is also the so-called I'm hearing imagination (from Lat. Anticipatio - guessing ahead, foresight). It underlies the human ability to foresee future events. Anticipating imagination extracts construction material from memory reserves. Anticipation of the future is possible thanks to the hidden reaction of expectation that arises on the basis of imagination. So, a person does not need to jump from the ninth floor to find out how dangerous a fall is. Images of the anticipatory imagination tune the body to certain actions when there is no reason for such activities.
Imagination processes
Imagination processes have analytical-synthetic nature, and in this they are similar to the processes of perception, memory, and thinking.
If memory restores images and situations, copying real ones, then imagination creates new images and situations that have not arisen before. That is, the mechanism of imagination is based on the images that a person has, but these images arise in new unexpected connections and combinations. The word "new" has a double meaning: it distinguishes objectively new and subjectively new. Objectively new - these are images, ideas that do not exist in this moment neither in material nor in ideal plan. Subjectively new is new for each specific person (child). The new image of the imagination can be materialized or remain at the ideal level.
Imagination processes are analytical and synthetic in nature and are carried out in various ways. The ones used are:
Agglutination (from Latin Aggiutinare - glue) - creating a new image by combining elements taken from different ideas. For example, the image of a mermaid in fairy tales, where the head and body are women, and the tail is a fish. This technique is not widely used, since its images are difficult to translate into objective things. However, examples of the materialization of such images in real life there is a tank, an accordion, an amphibian, a trolleybus.
Hyperbolization - characterized by an increase in the object (the giant Gulliver), a change in the number of parts of the object (a dragon that has seven heads) or their displacement.
Litotes - unlike hyperbolization, it is characterized by a decrease in the subject (thumb-thumb). These techniques are used in folk tales, fantastic works.
Underline - emphasizing which part of the image or a certain quality. Using this technique, cartoons and caricatures are created.
Schematization - an image of the imagination when differences are reduced and similarities come to the fore. An example would be an ornament, the elements of which were taken by the artist from the plant world.
Typing - highlighting the essential in homogeneous facts and embodying them in specific images. This is the most complex technique and is widely used in literature.
The creative process of imagination is based on the emergence of associations, although their specificity differs from the usual course of associations, obeying the thoughts, emotions, desires that are in the psyche of the human artist. The mechanism of associations is the same (association by similarity, by contiguity, by contrast), and the selection of ideas is determined precisely by these preferential tendencies.
Speaking about the concept of imagination, it must be said that it has an inextricable connection with such mental processes as perception, memory and thinking. But it is significantly different from them. And, taking into account the statement of L.S. Vygotsky regarding the difference between imagination and other forms mental activity, it is important to note that the imagination does not repeat in the same combinations and forms individual impressions that were accumulated before, but builds new series from previously accumulated impressions. In other words, introducing something new into the very course of our impressions and changing these impressions so that as a result a new, previously non-existent image appears, constitutes, as we know, the very basis of the activity that we call imagination.
According to V.A. Sitarov, imagination consists of a mental departure beyond the boundaries of the directly perceived, helps to anticipate events, refreshes experience gained in the past and existing information in a new context of cognition.
Imagination reflects a person’s subjective world, his vision of the world around him. The work of imagination is especially relevant in situations where there is not enough information to carry out mental operations; then, with the help of imagination, we find solutions and a way out of the current situation, by predicting the intermediate and final results of our activities.
V.A. Sitarov gives it the following definition:
Imagination is the mental process of creating images of objects, products of activity, circumstances by bringing a person’s existing knowledge into a new combination in conditions of current uncertainty problematic situation.
M.V. Gamezo offers a similar definition of imagination based on comparisons with other mental functions:
Imagination (fantasy) is a mental process that consists of creating new images based on data from past experience. This is the ability to imagine an absent or really existing object, hold it in consciousness and mentally manipulate it. Imagination reflects real world, but in new, unusual, unexpected combinations and connections. It differs from figurative memory (idea), since it is a fundamentally new image, dynamic, and the act of memorization and preservation is absent. Imagination differs from thinking, since it proceeds in figurative form, and thinking in concepts. It is associated with thinking, since it arises in a problem situation and represents an analytical-synthetic activity of the brain (old objects are divided into parts and combined into a new image, for example, “mermaid”).
Similar judgments about the concept and essence of imagination were put forward by: S.L. Rubinstein, R.S. Nemov, A.G. Maklakov, A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky, E.I. Nikolaeva, V.P. Ermakov, G.A. Yakunin, A.G. Litvak and other researchers).
Further, speaking about the physiological aspect of imagination, I would like to give an example described by L.S. Vygotsky. Speaking about the work of the cerebral cortex, L.S. Vygotsky compares the work of the brain to a track left by a wheel on the ground, which subsequently facilitates movement. The essence of this example is that the brain, by storing our previous experience, makes it easier to reproduce this experience in the future. But if the work of the brain consisted only of reproducing information, a person would not be able to adapt to constantly changing conditions.
In view of this, L.S. Vygotsky identifies the following function - combining or creative.
The combining activity of the brain is based on the preservation in the brain of traces of previous excitations, but the essence of this function is that having traces of excitations, the brain combines them into new combinations that were not encountered in its actual experience.
Such human activity, based not only on the reproduction of his previous experience, but also on the creation of something new, is called creative.
This creative activity, based on the combining ability of our brain, is called imagination or fantasy.
Considering this issue, A.G. Maklakov connects the process of imagination with the regulation of organic processes in the body and movement. Due to the fact that the physiological mechanisms of imagination are associated not only with the cortex, but also with deeper structures of the brain. In particular, big role The hypothalamic-limbic system plays here.
Further, A.G. Maklakov notes that imagination influences many organic processes: the functioning of the glands, the activity of internal organs, metabolism in the body, etc. For example, the idea of a delicious dinner causes profuse salivation, and instilling in a person the idea of a burn, one can cause real signs of a “burn” on the skin. On the other hand, imagination also influences human motor functions. For example, if we imagine that we are running along a stadium track during a competition, the devices will record subtle contractions of the corresponding muscle groups.
Thus, we can conclude that the brain as a whole has a regulatory effect on all organs of the human body. In turn, imagination, like other mental processes, has a significant impact on the functioning of many systems of the human body. This means that imagination plays a huge role in shaping a person’s personality and life in general.
In his essay L.S. Vygotsky identifies several forms of connection between imagination and reality, which, in his opinion, will help to better understand the mechanism of imagination and its connection with creative activity.
Firstly, imagination is based on a person’s previous experience, consisting of images of reality.
Further L.S. Vygotsky formulates the first and, according to him, the most important law that the creative activity of the imagination depends on the richness and diversity of a person’s past experience, which is the material from which fantasy constructions are created. Therefore, the richer a person’s experience, the wider the material available to his imagination.
Secondly, L.S. Vygotsky highlights higher form connection between fantasy and reality - connection between the final product of imagination and a real phenomenon. This form of connection is made possible by others' or social experiences. In other words, if no one observed the described phenomenon, then a correct representation would be impossible.
The third form of connection between the activity of imagination and reality, which the author identifies, is an emotional connection. The essence of this connection is that images and impressions that have a common emotional coloring are united, even if they are not similar. In this case, feelings influence imagination, but there is also a feedback loop in which imagination influences our emotions. For example, the acting, their experiences disturb us and make us think, put ourselves in their place. That is, even if we know that all this is fictional, feelings arise in us that are experienced in reality.
The essence of the fourth form of connection is that the product of fantasy can become an object that does not correspond to a really existing object. Such a product can be created from several elements that interact to form a qualitative new thing, which from the moment of its appearance begins to influence other things in the surrounding world.
By connecting these four forms, we can conclude that the mechanisms of human creative activity are not only thoughts and feelings, but also their direct connection and interaction.
Summarizing the above, it can be noted that many researchers, studying imagination, adhere to the provisions presented by L.S. Vygotsky as fundamental. This suggests that L.S. Vygotsky made enormous contributions to the study of imagination and psychology in general. He examined the imagination and its role in the human psyche in great detail, focusing on all aspects of this function. But research does not stand still, because questions about the mechanisms and physiological basis of imagination remain not fully understood. Behind Lately we learned more about the physiological aspects of imagination, about the structures of the central nervous system with which it is connected. This allows further research to be carried out, both in general and special psychology, based on the experience and knowledge provided by scientists in this area.
Like all mental processes, imagination due to activity of the brain, its cortex. It closes connections when perceiving and consolidating impressions from the surrounding world. When a person stops perceiving an object, the state of excitation in certain centers of the cortex remains in the form of a “trace”. This “trace” excitation of the neurons of one analyzer is combined in one way or another with the excitation of another analyzer. The formation of such associative connections in the human cerebral cortex is the physiological basis of imagination. In this case, subcortical centers also play a certain role, in particular, hypothalamus. This structure of the lower parts of the brain is involved in the construction of successively alternating excitations during their mutual transitions from the first signal system to the second and vice versa. The ability to replace direct stimuli with verbal ones provides such analytical and synthetic activity of the human brain, which is based on the operation of trace and directly evoked verbal signs - finely differentiated stimuli. This is how images arise not only of the past, but also of the future, not only of the real and probable, but also of the incredible and unreal. Leading reflection named this formula mental reflection, providing forecasting, foresight (vision ahead) Russian scientist P.K. Anokhin.
“Numerous irritations with words,” wrote I.P. Pavlov, “... removed us from reality, and therefore we must constantly remember this so as not to distort our relationship to reality.”
It is precisely thanks to the fact that imagination is closely related to the second alarm system , it can have a profound and powerful physiological effect on the entire body. It is on this connection between a person’s images and his organic states that the theory and practice of psychotherapy is built.
Let's look at some classic examples.
Example one. French writer G. Flaubert said that while describing the scene of Madame Bovary’s death, he felt the taste of arsenic in his mouth.
Example two. Among medical university students, the so-called “third-year syndrome” is common, when, having become familiar with the symptoms of a number of diseases, learning and imagining them, they begin to “discover” them in themselves.
Example three. If a person only imagines the movement of any part of his own body (arms, legs, head), but does not actually perform this movement, nerve impulses are formed in the muscles responsible for the required movement, which are recorded during the actual execution of movements. This phenomenon even received a special name “ ideomotor act", i.e. imaginary action.
The ideomotor act explains why what a person is afraid of happens. This is easy to understand from the following experiment: here is an athlete standing on a finely balanced platform. As soon as he has the idea that he will fall, the center of gravity of the body instantly shifts in the direction in which, in his opinion, he may fall. In other words, just the idea of falling immediately causes an involuntary movement in the direction of falling.
This is why it is so important to cultivate images of a positive future, train yourself to achieve victory, or, at a minimum, not set yourself up for defeat.
Types and techniques of imagination
There are the following main types of imagination: active And passive.
Active imagination– this is imagination, which is the creation of images in connection with a set goal or a task that has arisen, i.e. allows you to imagine the end result before starting work. Active imagination develops in the process of work, especially when work requires independent effort, when there is no necessary information when initiative and willingness to achieve a goal are required.
Active imagination can be restorative and creative.
Recreating imagination is imagination, the images of which are based on a given description of them. Thus, the imagination of literary characters when reading books is a recreating imagination. Studying geographical maps and imagining a particular area is a recreating imagination. Working with stereometric material, studying drawings, volumetric figures– also a recreating imagination. It develops artistic and spatial thinking, enriches the imagery of the psyche.
Creative Imagination involves the creation, construction of new images, original ideas embodied in products of technical, scientific, artistic or other creative human activity. Creative imagination is a precious gift. It is closely connected with thinking, with mental operations of comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction and generalization. In the creative imagination, the analytical-synthetic nature of the brain processes inherent in this function of the psyche is clearly manifested.
Creative imagination is characterized by a number of techniques, i.e. established ways of creating new images.
These are agglutination, analogy, hyperbolization, emphasis and typification.
Agglutination(from the Greek word “to glue”) is the technique of combining parts from various objects. For example, the image of a mermaid is the body of a woman and the tail of a fish; centaur - the torso of a man and the body of a bull. The same technique is used in technology (amphibious aircraft) and in art (accordion - accordion body, piano keyboard), etc.
Analogy- a technique for constructing an image based on the principle of similarity. For example, a helicopter was created based on the principle of similarity to a dragonfly, and based on the principle of similarity to an orientation organ bat a locator was created.
Hyperbolization- a technique with the help of which, by exaggerating or minimizing something, one achieves maximum expressiveness of an idea. So, the image of Gulliver is, of course, an exaggeration, as is the image of Thumb.
Accenting- highlighting, protruding in the image of one feature. Often used in caricatures, jokes, satire and friendly cartoons.
Typing– the most difficult technique of creative imagination. Images of the most famous literary characters– a striking method of typification. When we say Childe Harold, Faust, Othello, Eugene Onegin - this is high level generalizations typification. A typification that contains a whole bunch of human culture, the virtues and vices of a person of his time, his era. And, at the same time, it is a typification of a person’s character - romantic, jealous or contemplative.
Passive imagination– this is imagination, replacing purposeful productive actions.
Passive imagination can be intentional or unintentional.
Intentional Passive Imagination- these are images that a person indulges in without intending to bring them to life. Beautiful dreams dreams- this is another name for this type of imagination. Dreams are closely related to a person’s desires, to his needs, but they do not even involve thinking through real ways to implement them. This type of imagination is fraught with a certain danger, namely the danger of going into the fictitious world of personal illusions, which can neuroticize a person, i.e. cause mental disturbances in him.
Passive imagination can also occur unintentionally. This occurs when consciousness control is weakened, half asleep, in sleep (dreams), in a state of passion (i.e. stress accompanied by strong emotions), with mental or somatic illnesses (hallucinations).
In essence, unintentional passive imagination is the simplest type of imagination. It is typical for preschool children, since the instability of “trace” excitations in the cerebral cortex leads to the ease of children’s fantasy and lack of criticism of emerging images.
A special type of imagination is dream. A dream is a socially determined and imaginary image of the desired future.
Dreams are an extremely powerful motivator. human life. She can perform motive, i.e. motivating reason for human activity. That is why any object made by the mind and efforts of a person can be considered as his materialized, realized dream. Be it an airplane or a car, a spaceship or a man-made house.
A dream come true is the highest happiness of a person. Therefore, the process of imagination is directly related to the meaning of people’s lives. The main thing is that the dream is aimed at transforming life in accordance with the ideals and moral values humanity.
Imagination and creativity
Imagination is a mental process that is a prerequisite and condition for such productive human activity in which a product is created, i.e. an ideal (in an image, in a text) or material (in the form of a tool, product) object that has personal or social value.
Children's drawing and a painting by an artist, a hare sculpted from plasticine or a sculpture of a hero, a children's airplane model and a jet airliner - all these are products of creativity.
Imagination occupies a central place and is the focus of creative activity. Creation- one of higher manifestations man, the actual human manifestation. After all, an animal does not create anything except the purely instinctual construction of a nest or burrow. And people, unlike animals, are capable of creation. The study of this creative process showed that it differs in such stages: 1) the emergence of an idea (the emergence of an image, a dream, a plan in the imagination); 2) concentration, accumulation of knowledge required for its implementation; 3) conscious and unconscious work of the psyche and, above all, imagination in combination with thinking to search for options for implementing the plan; 4) insight and its implementation; 5) checking what has been done.
Scientific and literary creativity, musical and artistic creativity, theatrical and cinematic creativity, the creativity of an inventor and the creativity of a teacher have their own characteristics.
But all these varieties of creativity have one thing in common: common feature. This is a huge tension of all forces and the emergence of a special, inherent state, which is called inspiration.
Inspiration- this is a state of the highest rise of all creative forces, in which all mental processes, driven by the imagination, are combined into one endless creative impulse, inexorably leading to the solution of a problem, to the embodiment of a plan, to the manufacture, generation of a new product, the creator of which is a person.
In the history of mankind, imagination has primarily played a culture-forming role. All world religions, the essence of which is to affirm and maintain ideal images and patterns of behavior, are based precisely on the universal acceptance of imaginary causes and principles human existence. These imaginary models and standards served, and even now sometimes still serve, as an absolute measure of the correctness or incorrectness of human actions. The crown of culture-forming images of the imagination are religious ideas different eras. These ideas, having great motivating power, prompted many artists, who, as we know, have a very developed imagination, to create numerous artistic canvases, sculptures and other works of art; the design of temples is a special direction in architecture. Thus, imagination stimulates creativity.
Imagination endows people in whom it is developed with special traits. This is, first of all - spirituality, i.e. the ability to be distracted from the immediate, mundane and see the image of the desired future. This is then - romance, i.e. the tendency to neglect the comforts of life in order to achieve one's dreams. This - observation, i.e. the ability to deeply and subtly perceive the world around us in its nuances and the most diverse manifestations, while at the same time being distracted from the unimportant. And finally - creativity. Creativity– this is a person’s ability to see something new in the familiar, notice the possible in the impossible and make efforts to bring the idea to life.
CONTROL QUESTIONS
1. Define the concept of “imagination.”
2. Justify the significance of imagination for the human psyche.
3. Indicate what mental formation underlies imagination.
4. Give various bases for classifying representations, as well as specific examples.
5. Name the main types of imagination and briefly describe their specifics.
6. Analyze the physiological basis of imagination.
7. Explain the psychophysiological basis of ideomotor acts.
8. Provide a description of the techniques active imagination. Justify the impossibility of using them when consciousness control is weakened.
9. Argue the relationship between creativity, creativity and dreams.
10. Justify the culture-forming role of imagination.
1. Karandashev Yu.N. Development of ideas in children: Tutorial. – Minsk, 1987.
2. Korshunova L.S. Imagination and its role in cognition. – M.: Pedagogy, 1979.
3. Rozet I.M. Psychology of fantasy. – Minsk: graduate School, 1977.
4. Vygotsky L. S. Imagination and its development in childhood: Collection. works in 6 volumes. T. 2. – M.: Pedagogy, 1982.
5. Natadze R. G. Imagination as a factor of behavior. – Tbilisi: Metsniereta, 1982.
6. Nikiforova O. I. Research in psychology artistic creativity. – M.: Pedagogy, 1977.
7. General psychology / Ed. V.V. Petrovsky. = M.: Education, 1986.
8. Introduction to psychology / Under the general editorship of prof. A. V. Petrovsky. – M.: Academy, 1996.
9. Altshuler G.K. Algorithm of creativity. – M.: Knowledge, 1989.
Chapter 9. Will
Will is a mental process, the essence of which is the regulation by a person of behavior and activity related to overcoming internal and external obstacles.
Will – important component human psyche, due to the ability of people not only to respond to higher or internal stimuli, but by holding the image of a goal, controlling themselves with the help of speech, to achieve the intended result.
Of all living beings, will, like speech, like imagination, is peculiar only to man, since it is based on higher, ideal ways of reflecting the world and on controlling one’s own actions as opposed to certain stimuli. A person’s will can be so strong that it even overcomes the instinct of self-preservation.
The psychological manifestation of will is volitional effort, i.e. conditioned by the desire for a goal, the activation of all resources of the body and psyche to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that have arisen. Volitional effort is experienced as tension caused by the desire to perform the required actions.
The concept of will was introduced into the system of categories of the science of the soul by Aristotle in order to explain how a person achieves his goals, despite the fact that the knowledge of what needs to be done in itself is devoid of motivating power. The specificity of the will lies in the fact that often the volitional effort is not aimed at overcoming external obstacles, but at overcoming oneself, one’s own weakness, laziness, and fatigue. By its psychological nature, volitional effort is a voluntary action, i.e. determined by man himself. Therefore, people differentiate range of will: at one pole there are people with a strong will, at the other - weak-willed. The former are able to overcome enormous difficulties, the latter easily give in to them. In addition, there are people suffering from impaired will.
Like all mental processes, will has a complex structure, in which there are two aspects: the actual psychological and physiological.
Related information.
Fantasy as a function of the brain. The emergence of fantasy images is the result of the activity of the human brain. Imagination, like all other mental processes, is a function of the cerebral cortex. At the same time, the complexity of the structure of imagination and its connection with emotions gives reason to assume that the physiological mechanisms of imagination are located not only in the cortex, but also in deeper parts of the brain. Research in recent years confirms this assumption. Such deep parts of the brain, which take part together with the cerebral cortex in the formation of fantasy images and their inclusion in activity processes, are the hypothalamic-limbic system (hypothalamus in its connections with the ancient cortex and subcortical areas forming the limbus, or border, around the anterior part of the trunk brain at the entrance to the cerebral hemispheres).
It has been experimentally established that when the hypothalamic-limbic system is damaged, a person may experience characteristic mental disorders: the impression arises that his behavior is not regulated by a specific program and consists of a series of separate, isolated acts, which, however, are quite complex and integral in themselves.
If you send such a patient to the store and give him a shopping list, he will complete the task quite accurately. But, having finished shopping, he will no longer be able to understand what to do with them, and will begin to wander aimlessly until he receives new instructions about the necessary actions or until he comes across some object that will cause his usual reactions, for example, a green traffic light. Such patients are able to repeat a series of numbers read to them, or a passage from a book, but they are not able to outline even a simple plan of action and foresee their consequences.
Thus, it is assumed that in such a case the damage affected the structures that are responsible for planning behavior, drawing up a program for future actions, and, as already noted, the most common, but perhaps at the same time the most important role of the imagination is precisely consists in developing a plan, a program of behavior.
Imagination and organic processes. The human brain, which produces fantasy images, has a regulatory effect on the peripheral parts of the body and changes the process of their functioning. Even in the Middle Ages, an amazing fact was known: some people, mostly suffering from a nervous disorder (hysteria), after thinking about the torment that Jesus Christ endured on the cross, had signs of the crucifixion on their palms and soles in the form of bruises and even ulcers. Such signs are called stigmata (in Greek “stigma” means “scar”, “sign”).
Some observations of people who are impressionable and imaginative also provide interesting facts about the influence of imagination on the course of physiological processes. When Flaubert wrote the scene of the poisoning of Emma Bovary, the heroine of the novel Madame Bovary, he clearly felt the taste of arsenic in his mouth. Voltaire fell ill every year on the anniversary of St. Bartholomew's Night. Thoughts about this day, when thousands and thousands of innocent people were killed, victims of religious fanaticism, caused him to have an attack of fever: his temperature rose, his pulse sharply increased.
For a number of years, S.Sh. was subjected to psychological study, who had phenomenal vividness in the images of his imagination and memory.
“It was enough for Sh. to imagine something or, as he said, “see,” and we could observe the amazing changes taking place in his body. In special experiments... we could observe how he could increase the temperature of his right hand by 2 0 and lower the temperature of his left hand by 1.5 °; for this it was enough for him to “see” that his right hand lies on the edge of the stove, and with his left he holds a piece of ice. Without much difficulty, he accelerated the rhythm of his heart ("seeing" himself running after a tram) or slowed it down ("seeing" himself calmly lying on the bed); he experienced phenomena of depression of the alpha rhythm in the electroencephalogram, when he, sitting in the darkness of the experimental chamber, began to “see” a bright beam of light. He could endure tooth extraction without anesthesia, “seeing” that someone else was sitting in the chair and that it was someone else, and not him, who was having a tooth pulled out” 1 .
Some mental disorders also owe their occurrence to excessive impressionability and vivid imagination. Sometimes the immediate cause of such a disease is a misunderstood word from an authoritative person. There are cases when, under the influence of a careless word from a doctor, a patient imagines that he has fallen ill with a dangerous disease, and he develops the corresponding symptoms. There are so-called Iatrogenic diseases. A traumatic effect that arouses fantastic fears can also be caused by a pedagogically tactless act of a teacher or his careless word. This is how nervous disorders arise, which are sometimes called didactogenic.
IN scientific literature the following case is described: “Lyudmila V., 16 years old, IX grade student high school, healthy, hardworking, diligent (according to her mother), complained about " panic fear", which for some time began to take possession of her before class written work; long before the upcoming written work, she develops a state of internal anxiety, with a painfully tense expectation of "something inevitably terrible." At the same time, these days there is a sharply reduced appetite, poor sleep, cannot prepare lessons. During the written work itself, she experiences a state of confusion, cannot concentrate, and “everything goes by in a fog.” As a result, she makes many unusual typos and gross grammatical errors according to the rules of grammar that she knows very well. In a normal, calm state, he does not make such mistakes at all. On this basis, a conflictual relationship with the teacher arose, which resulted in a severe neurotic state with thoughts about the “futility” of studying. At the same time, he writes such written works quite well at home. without worry and without mistakes.
The conversation... revealed mental trauma: being in fourth grade, the girl was transferred from one school to another, and in new school the Russian language teacher greeted her unfriendly and gave her too difficult tasks during oral answers (at the blackboard). But the girl coped with oral answers. However, during her first written work, the teacher, approaching her, sharply said: “You use your tongue well, but let’s see how you write!” The girl immediately became very excited: “What if I make mistakes!” And she felt that she was “overtaken by heat”: her hands, face and whole body were sweating, a fog appeared in her head, and the whole work was written by her as if in a fog: “I don’t remember what I wrote!” And when she heard about the bad mark given for this work, she said: “I knew it!” Something happened to her: “Everything inside somehow became haggard, and fog appeared in my head again.” From that day on, the fear of class written work arose"" 1,
It is easy to see that all these facts are similar to the stigmata of religious fanatics. The similarity lies in the fact that in both cases fantasy ideas not only regulate human behavior, but also modify the course of physiological processes.
The so-called ideomotor acts - movements that arise when a person only imagines them.
You can perform the following experiment. In his hand a person holds a pendulum - a thread to which a freely hanging weight is attached. The subject is asked to imagine as clearly as possible that the weight begins to describe concentric circles. After some time, this actually happens. A clear and vivid representation of the movement causes muscle efforts that are not registered by consciousness, which set the pendulum into a circular motion. The effect of the experience of the artist Wolf Messing, famous in the recent past, was based on the principle of deciphering ideomotor acts, who, possessing incredibly subtle sensitivity, received from the person in contact with him weak signals ideomotor acts, “guessed” the direction of his movements and thus found a hidden object, indicated a planned line in a book, etc.
Ideomotor acts affect the reactivity of the vascular system.
So, when a person is just about to bend his arm, the volume of the forearm increases, even if the intended movement is not carried out. This increase in volume is due to the dilation of blood vessels in the arm muscles. Increasing blood flow during real movement is, of course, useful, as it leads to a better supply of oxygen and glucose to the muscle, as well as to the removal of metabolic products. If a person was asked to imagine that he was lifting a load, then his muscles tensed weakly and electrical activity appeared, and muscle biocurrents were recorded. Muscle tension and the intensity of electrical activity increased the more the greater the load the person imagined. Similarly, there is activity in the eye muscles when a person imagines looking up, down, or to the side. Recently, a number of devices controlled by biocurrents have appeared. A prosthetic arm with bioprecision control has gained wide and well-deserved fame.
The brain that produces fantasy images is a single system; changes in one part of it also affect the work of its other departments. The brain as a whole has a regulatory effect on all organs of the human body. Any mental process leads to certain changes in the life of the body. In turn, imagination, like other mental processes, has a significant impact on the functioning of many systems of the human body.
Imagination is the mental process of creating something new in the form of an image, idea or idea. 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 has not encountered before. The process of imagination is peculiar only to man and is a necessary condition his work activity.
Imagination is always directed towards practical activities person. Before doing anything, a person imagines what needs to be done and how he will do it. Thus, he already creates in advance the image of a material thing that will be manufactured in his subsequent practical activities.
A special form of imagination, addressed to the sphere of a more or less distant future, is a dream. It does not imply immediate achievement real result, as well as its complete coincidence with the desired image.
The main types of imagination - active And passive imagination. In turn, the latter is divided into imagination arbitrary(daydreaming, daydreaming) and involuntary(hypnotic and other altered states). Active imagination includes artistic, creative, critical, reconstructive and anticipatory imagination. 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 empathize.
Active imagination is 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.
Recreating imagination is one of the types of active imagination in which new images and ideas are constructed in people in accordance with externally perceived stimulation in the form of verbal messages, diagrams, conventional images, signs, etc. Despite the fact that the products of the reconstructive imagination are completely new images that have not previously been perceived by a person, this type of imagination is based on previous experience. K. D. Ushinsky viewed imagination as a new combination of past impressions and past experience, believing that the recreating imagination is a product of the influence of the material world on the human brain. Basically, the reconstructive imagination is a process during which recombination occurs, the reconstruction of previous perceptions in a new combination.
Imagination- this is the mental process of creating images of objects, situations, circumstances by bringing a person’s existing knowledge into a new combination.
Imagination cannot develop in a vacuum. In order to begin to fantasize, a person must see, hear, receive impressions and retain them in memory.
The more knowledge, the richer a person’s experience, the more diverse his impressions, the more opportunities for combining images. Imagination arose in a person during his work activity. It was possible to foresee the results of labor only by “running ahead” of those things that were being done at the moment. Whether a primitive man was sharpening a stone for an arrowhead or an ax, breaking a stick for a bow, or preparing a pit for capturing an animal - in all these matters there was an image, a mental picture of what would happen, what would happen in the near future as a result of efforts, purposeful actions.
With the development and complexity of work activity, the imagination also improved: it painted pictures of a more distant future, long-term results. Primitive was weak, in single combat with nature. Nature suppressed him: he could not explain what was happening around him. This is how the idea of the existence of forces above man was born, and religion appeared.
Modern man can explain a lot. He doesn't believe in supernatural powers, but knows the laws of nature, and not only knows, but also uses them in creating means of subsistence, in satisfying spiritual needs. And yet, imagination continues to play a huge role in his life. There are no limits to knowledge, to the work of thought; fantasy and imagination are also limitless, which sometimes goes ahead of thinking, paving the way for it.
Only a person can have imagination in its own specific sense of the word. Only in a person who, as a subject, social practice really transforms the world, genuine imagination develops. In the process of development, it is first a consequence, and then a prerequisite for that human activity, through which he actually changes reality. Every action by which a person changes the world contains a piece of fantasy, and the development of imagination as a transformation of reality in consciousness is closely related to its real transformation in practice, although it often goes immeasurably far beyond its limits.
Any imagination generates something new, changes, transforms what is given to us in perception. This change, transformation, deviation from the given can be expressed, firstly, in the fact that a person, based on knowledge and relying on experience, imagines, that is, creates for himself a picture of something that he himself has never actually seen.
Imagination can, anticipating the future, create an image, a picture of something that never happened. So M.V. Vodopyanov or I.D. Papanin could imagine in their imagination a flight to the North Pole and landing on it when it was only a dream, not yet realized and it is unknown whether it is feasible.
Imagination can also make such a departure from reality that it creates fantastic picture, clearly deviating from reality. But even in this case, it to some extent reflects this reality. And the imagination is the more fruitful and valuable the more it, while transforming reality, deviating from it, still takes into account its essential aspects and most significant features. Thus, even in this form, which deviates from reality to the point of fantasy, the imagination does not break its connection with reality.
In its highest creative forms, the imagination takes flight from reality in order to penetrate deeper into it.
Imagination, therefore, is not an abstract function, but a naturally protruding side of conscious activity. On this basis, a certain ability then develops, as the imagination is formed in some specific creative activity.
The very perception of reality is often transformed by the imagination under the influence of feelings, desires, likes and dislikes. These transformations then lead to distortion, and sometimes to a deeper knowledge of reality.
Imagination, under the influence of feelings, sometimes, at its whim, arbitrarily generates the desired image, but it can also more clearly reveal the true image of a person. When we love a person, we usually see him differently, in a different light created by our feelings than the one in which he appears to others. It happens, therefore, that the image created by our imagination under the influence of feeling differs significantly from the actual appearance of a person. Submitting to our feelings, imagination in this case can prepare us many bitter disappointments. The story of more than one love takes place in the struggle between that imaginary image of a person, which is generated by feeling, and the real image of this person. But it also happens differently: the image that develops with an indifferent - and perhaps even soulless - attitude towards a person on the basis of everyday impressions, in small everyday relationships, can cover the true appearance of a person with small and insignificant touches, and a great genuine feeling can turn out to be a powerful manifester not only the most beautiful, most human traits in a person, but at the same time precisely those that constitute his true essence.
Imagination is one of the fundamental characteristics of a person. It most clearly shows the difference between man and his animal ancestors. The philosopher E.V. Ilyenkov wrote: “Fantasy itself, or the power of imagination, is one of not only precious, but also universal, universal abilities that distinguish a person from an animal. Without it, it is impossible to take a single step, not only in art... Without the power of imagination, it would be impossible to even cross the street through the flow of cars. Humanity, devoid of imagination, would never launch rockets into space.”
D. Diderot exclaimed: “Imagination! Without this quality one cannot be a poet, a philosopher, or smart person, neither a thinking being, nor just a person... Imagination is the ability to evoke images. A person completely devoid of this ability would be a stupid person.”
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 the analytical and synthetic activity of the 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.
No matter how new what is created by a person’s imagination, it inevitably comes from what exists in reality and is based on it. Therefore, imagination, like the entire psyche, is a reflection of the surrounding world by the brain, but only a reflection of what a person did not perceive, a reflection of what will become reality in the future.
The physiological basis of imagination is the formation of new combinations from temporary nerve connections already formed in the cerebral cortex.
The main meaning of imagination is that without it any human work would be impossible, since it is impossible to work without imagining the final result and intermediate results. Without imagination, progress would not be possible in science, technology, or art.
Functions of the imagination.
People dream so much because their minds cannot be idle. It continues to function even when it does not enter the human brain. new information when it doesn't solve any problems. It is at this time that the imagination begins to work. It has been established that a person, at will, is not able to stop the flow of thoughts, stop the imagination.
In human life, imagination performs a number of specific functions. The first of these is to represent reality in images and be able to use them when solving problems. This function of imagination is connected with thinking and is organically included in it. The second function of imagination is regulation of emotional states. With the help of his imagination, a person is able to at least partially satisfy many needs and relieve the tension generated by them. This vital function is especially emphasized and developed in psychoanalysis. The third function of imagination is related to its participation in voluntary regulation of cognitive processes and human states, in particular perception, attention, memory, speech, emotions. With the help of skillfully evoked images, a person can pay attention to the necessary events. Through images, he gains the opportunity to control perceptions, memories, and statements. The fourth function of imagination is formation of an internal action plan– the ability to perform them in the mind, manipulating images. Finally, the fifth function is planning and programming activities, drawing up such programs, assessing their correctness, and the implementation process.
