www.womanthismonth.com 79 January 2014 Adults we have the sense, hardly enough, to know the difference between good and bad, right and wrong, friends and strangers. Can children tell what is a figment of their imagination? Is it our right to quash those that entertain our little earthlings and yet don’t exist? On the subject of smarter minds, Sigmund Freud thought it absurd that children should interact with invisible friends, imaginary people or inanimate objects as if they lived. But Einstein theorised that imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and understand. Perhaps those who have imaginary friends find the answers to much that others otherwise cannot because they see the world differently. Are imaginary friends real guides that only our children can see? When the tutorial has been taught does the guide dissipate, allowing the child to follow his or her own path to success? Or are they merely entities we imagine for no reason at all? Studies suggest that children with imaginary friends are smarter, more aware and develop better earlier speech patterns than those who do not. In a way, an imaginary friend is apparently a teacher and a companion, who assists a child in dealing with anxiety, fear and loneliness. That a young child can distinguish any of these blows my mind and makes me wonder if I had one when I was younger. I don’t remember having conversations with inanimate objects until my thirties and invisible people now just seem far better company to be around. But it is us, the supposed normal people, who label them imaginary. What if they are not? Few people ever discuss their imaginary friends. While it is commonly known children have them, we seem scared of being seen as psychotic to actually verbalise the fact that we did ourselves enjoy the company of someone unseen. he says It’s Unreal! by JAMES CLAIRE Have you wondered why on television for children even the most loveable characters often have an imaginary friend? Is it only crazy people who have them into older age as an effect of drugs, trauma or psychosis? Should we be so doubtful of things we ourselves can’t prove? If Big Bird was not seen as crazy for decades on Sesame Street because only he could see his friend Aloysius Snuffleupagus, then I think it must be okay to admit that we have them too. I just wish my imaginary friends were less like Drop Dead Fred. I’m sure it wasn’t me who drew with crayon on the walls as a child, but I always seemed to be getting the blame for it!
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