Imaginary , from Latin imagineius, is what only exists in the imagination . Imagination, meanwhile, is the process that allows a human being manipulate intrinsically generated information (that is, without the need for environmental stimuli) to create a representation in the mind.
For example: “When I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend whose name was Marcos and who looked a lot like my uncle.”, "The book tells an imaginary event, so I do not recommend looking for connections with reality", "I'm not interested in Benefits Imaginary, I want you to explain precisely what will be the real and concrete gains that I will obtain with this project ”.
The creation of a imaginary friend It is of great importance for the psychology Since, for children, these characters usually assume a guardian role with varying degrees of impact on their daily lives. Imaginary friends can develop complex personalities and actively talk with their creators; The observation of such a situation by a professional can be very enriching to discover hidden traumas, among other problems.
Imaginary friends often help children to go through stages of uncertaintyor channel anxiety which causes them a traumatic situation, such as sexual or psychological abuse by a family member. Given the limits of cultural resources that such a young person usually has at his disposal, even those supposedly adult characters act as their creators conceive that they would if they were real beings, which is especially useful for studying the perception that a child has of behavior of his elders.
The reasons that lead people to create imaginary friends are many, and respond to different needs, not all related to serious issues. In fact, it is believed that in many cases it is a healthy way to channel creativity, a tool available to all human beings to know us more, trying to see us through the eyes of a third party.
Many actors, especially comedians, have publicly claimed to have lived together with friends imaginary for years, and some of them have no problem admitting that these peculiar relationships have accompanied them to adulthood. Far from a mental disorder, the conception of various entities can be beneficial to give voice to those parts of one's own personality that are often relegated for not responding to the expectations of us in the real world.
The imaginary countries On the other hand, they are created by writers and artists to be part of a work of fiction. In their territories, which cannot be identified or found in a Map real, the limits we know do not govern the facts narrated; In other words, the possibilities are endless.
The creation of an imaginary world usually goes hand in hand with developing of one or more species that inhabit it, with its physical characteristics and its own social organization, with a language appropriate to its needs and with a series of physical and chemical properties that can exceed the limits of what is known in reality. One of the most celebrated cases is Middle Earth, from Tolkien, the continent where most of his stories take place, including "The Lord of the rings".
He social imaginary it is a concept of the social sciences that refers to the representations of the society They are embodied in different institutions. The concept is often used as a synonym for worldview or collective consciousness, although the exact meanings differ.
For the math , the imaginary numbers They are those whose square is negative. Who coined the term was the mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler (1707-1783).
