Imaginary Companions of Preschool Children.
This article is about why some preschool children have either an imaginary friend or a personified object as an animate object whereas some children do not. At the beginning of this article it is clearly stated that previous studies on this subject have been widely scattered in the "development and psychoanalytic literature". Most of the previous investigations had been about why some children create friends as opposed to why others had not done such a thing. In this article it tells the process and findings in the role of imaginary friends and why some children have the need to create them. The article goes into explanation then about defining and categorizing these imaginary companions. Basically there are two types of imaginary companions. One of these types is a simple made up invisible person to which the child associates with and relates too. The other type of an imaginary companion is an object that a child will personify and animate. A prime example of this, is the long aged comic of Calvin and Hobbes where a little boy creates a full sized character out of his stuffed tiger. What is very interesting about this article is the fact that there is no trigger as to why imaginary companions are formed. It explains that most imaginary companions that are formed are most frequently human but at the same time the child cannot explain what the imagined companion looks like. Imaginary companions are not restricted to just humans though, they are also sometimes aliens, monsters, or animals. But regardless of the form, the article explains that the companion is most frequently a child. The article also tells the reader that the imaginary companion's gender is mostly male. A male child will more than likely create another male companion whereas a female child will create a same sex companion only slightly more frequently than a male companion.