IMAGINATION

From the Lat. imaginatio (Gr. φαντασία), the power or faculty of imagining, i.e., of representing in an image or phantasm, something past or absent or otherwise inaccessible to the external senses. This article discusses the notion from the viewpoint of Thomistic and modern psychology, with emphasis on the nature of the imagination, its use, and its control.

Thomistic Notion. According to St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa theologiae 1a, 78.4), the central sense (sensus communis ) forms images of sensible things, and the fantasy or imagination preserves them to be available when needed. The memorative power, by contrast, preserves former estimates of good and bad made by means of the estimative (cogitative) power. Both imagination and memorative power are active as well as passive. They not only receive and preserve what has been experienced before but they also revive these experiences. The imagination revives sense images, whereas the memorative power revives former estimates of the way things affect one. When sense images are revived by the imagination, this can be done in exactly the same sequence and pattern as the original experience so that one reexperiences what has happened before, though it is recognized as past through the memorative power. Or, the imagination can recombine sense images in different patterns so that one can experience in imagination what has never been experienced in fact (e.g., a golden mountain).

St. Thomas's use of the term imagination covers what in modern times is called memory, but also what is called fantasy or imagination. And his term memoria or memorative power is hardly recognized in modern usage, largely because psychologists do not often engage in an exact analysis of psychological functions. It could be called "affective memory" because the revival of past estimates and the recognition of something as past is affective rather than cognitive in nature.

Uses of Imagination. Modern psychological notions of fantasy and imagination have been influenced by S. Freud's notion that the first psychological activity of the infant consists in fantasy images of wish-fulfilling objects. This "primary process" thinking, Freud says, is used even by the adult whenever wishes are not immediately gratified. But contrary to Freud, imagination is used not only for purposes of wish fulfillment but for almost every action of everyday life. Whenever a person has to do anything that is not strictly repetitive, he imagines what needs to be done and what are likely to be the consequences before he decides on action.

Imagination is used also to supplement memory. Bartlett has shown that a picture, a story, or an experience that cannot be remembered exactly is reproduced by filling in the memory gaps by imagination. When disease has made the recall of memories impossible, as, for instance, in Korsakoff psychosis, imagination takes over altogether and the patient confabulates instead of remembering. During sleep, sense experiences such as warmth, cold, and pressure cannot be identified because the recall of memories is blocked. Consequently, imagination weaves such experiences into dream sequences that may be bizarre and illogical because one cannot check dream imaginings against what he knows to be true, possible, or expedient.

Control of Imagination. Whether in waking life or in dreams, the imaginative process must be directed in some way. When awake and planning action, man directs imagination deliberately to explore various possibilities. In daydreams, he also directs and controls his imagination; but this time, to engage in imaginary actions that offer some emotional satisfaction (the conquering hero dream, or the suffering hero dream). This is the "wish fulfillment" through fantasy of which Freud speaks.

Nondeliberate Direction. In addition to such deliberate control of imagination, there are also imaginative processes that run their appointed course without deliberate direction. The dream is the best but not the only example. In writing a story, for instance, the decision to do so merely supplies the impulse to start imagining; it does not direct the creative process. Novelists often say that the story writes itself, that the characters develop a life of their own which unfolds in front of their eyes. And Arnold Schönberg tells how he wrote down the whole of his "String Quartet No. 2" as he heard it in imagination, without stopping or deliberating.

Still, there must be some direction in dreams as well as in products of artistic imagination. For imagination is a cognitive function and can only preserve and reproduce images; it cannot choose them any more than the eye can choose what it will see. Something else must guide the brush and sketch the outline: and that something can be only an appetitive tendency, either deliberate or emotional. This seems to be the will impulse when imagination is used for the purpose of daily life, and emotion when imagination is released from deliberate control (in dreams and stories). Since affective memory, in the modern sense, always accompanies imagination, the emotional attitudes a person has developed as a result of his life experiences are bound to affect and direct his creative efforts. A novelist recreates human life as he sees it and unwittingly passes judgment on his story characters and their actions in the way he lets them live and love, suffer and die.

Creativity. In present-day psychological writings, there is a reawakening of interest in "creativity," though the role of imagination in creative effort is almost forgotten. One reads, for instance, that creativity implies prelogical thought, an "appropriate selection and rejection of available connections" (Roe)—yet it is the hallmark of creative work that available connections are neglected and entirely new ones are hit upon. Surely, creativity implies imagination freed from deliberate control, imagination that is extraordinarily fertile and original. When a man's attitudes are so rigid that they prevent him from looking for the unexpected, the unconventional, his imagination remains fettered and never blossoms into creativity. (see creative imagination.)

As a human power, imagination is active whenever conditions are favorable. If man does not employ it deliberately, in planning, or creatively, in writing or artistic pursuits, it will call to mind spontaneous images that mirror his desires, emotions, and appetites. A man tormented by hate will be plagued by thoughts of revenge, the lover distracted by the image of his beloved. So also, sexual desire will inevitably arouse tempting images. Since all these images arouse action tendencies, this poses a moral problem (see thoughts, morality of). To avoid taking delight in such unsought fantasies, imagination must be employed in other ways, in absorbing interests, stimulating work. To block fantasy by engaging in exhausting physical effort is rarely effective because imagination will flourish more luxuriantly during enforced rest.

See Also: senses; phantasm.

Bibliography: m. b. arnold, Story Sequence Analysis (New York 1962); "The Internal Senses: Functions or Powers?," The Thomist 26 (1963) 15–34. j. a. gasson, "The Internal Senses: Functions or Powers?" ibid. 1–14. h. rugg, Imagination (New York 1963). a. roe, "The Psychology of the Scientist," Science 134 (1961) 456–59. s. freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, tr. w. j. h. sprott (New York 1933). f. c. bartlett, Remembering (New York 1932).

[m. b. arnold]