So many young children had imaginary friends. At first, this could be troubling for parents. But gradually they came to the conclusion that there was nothing to worry about, there was nothing to worry about. That this is only one of the stages that a child goes through on the path to growing up.
Are imaginary friends just a child’s game, or is there more to it?
Research and examples
Experts who study the psyche and human health believe that children who have imaginary friends only develop a certain mechanism of protection against negative emotions and feelings.
For example, if a child is separated from their parents for a long time, with the help of an imaginary friend they can more easily survive this period, feeling additional security. The presence of an imaginary friend allows the child to carry out some actions that he cannot perform alone, without the help of parents or loved ones involved in his education.
With regard to the protective mechanism, everything is clear. But how to explain the fact that children who were not afraid to be alone and did not experience negative emotions still had imaginary friends?
Completely prosperous and obedient children with no problems constantly interacted with their imaginary friends. Researchers came to such conclusions after interviewing a large number of children and observing their behavior.
There is also the opinion that an imaginary friend is a copy of the person who invented them. But this is not always the case. In some situations, a very young child may have an imaginary friend, much older than him, and sometimes even of the opposite sex.
There is a really described case, which is described by the writer Nikki Sheehan. As a child, when the girl was about seven years old, she talked with an imaginary friend who was well over thirty. He had a mustache, a beard and a very specific name. She told him about everything that happened to her at school, about her friends, relationships with her parents. She received advice from him to help her make serious and difficult decisions. At some point, an imaginary friend stopped appearing, but returned when Shihan was forty years old. It is interesting that he reappeared in the same manner as he appeared in the childhood of the writer. She later wrote a book about this entitled "Who Framed Clariss Cliff?"
In the famous film "Harmful Fred, " an already adult girl has an imaginary friend named Fred. This happens immediately after her lover leaves her. It is Fred who helps her eventually gain self-confidence and become a completely different person.
If imaginary friends helped in these cases, then there are other options when such a “friend” could interfere with certain actions, didn’t disappear, even when he was very asked about it, talked too loudly, not letting him concentrate or communicate with someone, and sometimes he could even push a person to a crime.
