imagination

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Imagination ( Latin imago "picture") is synonymous with imagination , imagination , imagination , vivid visual representation. This is understood to mean the psychological ability to develop so-called inner images in the spirit that are not sensually present or to remember them, to combine them and to perceive them clearly with the inner spiritual eye . They lack the character of reality, i. H. the knowledge of the visualization of what is currently not present in the outside world. This meaning is derived from the poetic usage of language and can be equated with “fantasy image”. Some people have no problems with the ability to imagine, others only with great effort or even with the help of unconscious processes under hypnosis . In 18th century medicine, the imagination was systematically used for healing purposes.

To distinguish in a scientific context, it is important that imaginations are fancies, while fantasies are transformations of inner images.

In the psychotherapeutic sense, imagination is the ability to perceive internal or mental images when conscious and with (mostly) closed eyes . The inner images are similar to dream images, but their emergence can be encouraged and modified at will. Imagination (exercises) are often combined with relaxation methods .

etymology

The Latin imago is based on the meaning of image, portrait, image , illusion and dream image, imagination, ancestral image, wax mask, shadow image, cf. also → Imago (psychology) . There is a relation to Latin imitari = to imitate and aemulari = to compete, to emulate, insofar as a “picture” does not correspond to reality, but only “imitates” it or “competes” with it. In the German language, imaginary is defined as unreal, only present in the imagination. In mathematics, an imaginary number is a non- real number that cannot be represented by any positive or negative value.

The synonymous term imagination , which emerged in the middle of the 17th century, is of Latin origin, as is Imagination, as it was translated into German from the Latin facultas imaginandi . From a linguistic point of view, this is a so-called loan translation.

philosophy

According to Immanuel Kant and his critical theory of knowledge, the imagination has no psychological secondary meaning, but represents a necessary transcendental-logical basic requirement for all objectifying relations of intuition and thinking . For the possibility of experience, Kant distinguishes “three subjective sources of knowledge [...] meaning, imagination and apperception "(KrV A 115). Kant distinguishes association and reproduction in the imagination . The reproductive imagination represents reality, while the productive, creative imagination is related to the imagination .

Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schiller argued about what role the imagination and the images it produces can play in philosophical thinking. According to Hegel , the power of imagination is “the emergence of images from the ego's own inwardness, which is now its power”.

In his Philosophy of Imaginary Things , published in 2017, Hans Rainer Sepp examines processes of creating meaning in imaginary things, commonly referred to as 'works of art', using examples from prehistory to the present; if a thing also documents the bodily actions of its authors and recipients, it is demonstrated how these processes are profiled against the background of the forms of bodily behavior that manifest themselves with them.

Of Albert Einstein the famous phrase is: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. [...] It is, in the truest sense of the word, a real factor in scientific research. "

For the esoteric , the imagination is one of the most important means of gaining knowledge. Scientific evidence is not required.

psychology

Methods with imagination techniques are e.g. B .: The upper level of autogenic training , catathymic picture life , hypnosis with hypnagogic pictures , meditation , lucid dream . The resulting images can be influenced by imagination , sentences and thoughts, but also have an unconscious momentum of their own and are thus, like breathing, controlled both consciously and unconsciously.

Imagination was and is used in many cultures in a religious context and was introduced into psychotherapy by Carl Gustav Jung , who saw the consciously experienced inner images as a mediator between consciousness and the unconscious .

Imaginations are used in the context of many different forms of psychotherapy, especially in depth psychological procedures, but also in the context of logotherapy and existential analysis ( including Böschemeyer ), in cognitive behavioral therapy (Lazarus) and the like. a.

From around 1950 Hanscarl Leuner tried to make imaginations usable for medicine and systematized procedures and training on a psychoanalytic basis. A professional, solid basic training (medicine, psychology ) appears to be indispensable for professional work with deep imaginations.

Like dreams, imaginations open windows to the unconscious. In contrast to dreams, however, imaginations are about more or less consciously controlled pictorial representations, whereby all senses can be involved (sight, hearing, taste, etc.). Just imagine you cut open a lemon and bite into it!

Depending on the strength of the ego control one can visualize z. B. According to Simonton (more consciously controlled), guided imaginations travel as fantasy (control is largely given to companions, often also in hypnotherapy) and deep, authentic imaginations (deep imaginations), where conscious control in a hypnoid state goes so far is withdrawn as much as possible, which requires a certain freedom from fear and, at least in the initial phase, professionally trained support.

Imagination in psychotherapy can be used for many mental disorders .

The reincarnation therapy used imaginations of past or future life to heal problems "in the current incarnation."

For patients with chronic pain, particularly positive pictures (beach scenes, nature pictures, walks, vacation pictures) have proven to be helpful.

The combination of relaxation and imagination has the following advantages:

  1. Relaxation is deepened
  2. Positive emotions are experienced
  3. Increased pain distraction
  4. Motivation to cope with illness is strengthened.

Literary studies

In literary studies the term “scientific imagination” can be used for certain narrative techniques, e.g. B. in French realism with Honoré de Balzac ( father Goriot ).

Arts and Culture

Above all, the idea of ​​imagination in André Malraux and his imaginary museum (Le Musée imaginaire) should be mentioned here. Its influence on art and culture after 1945 cannot be overestimated. It is unclear how strongly the influences of Marcel Duchamp and André Malraux are distributed. Daniel Spoerri with his Musée Sentimental , Marcel Broodthaers with his Adler Museum (1968-72) should be mentioned here. The imaginary Museum of Modern Art Munich , founded in 1991 by Hans-Peter Porzner , was, however, geared towards analyzing the art business (art industry art).

See also

literature

  • Hans Rainer Sepp: Philosophy of Imaginary Things (Orbis phaenomenologicus, studies vol. 30). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2017.  ISBN 978-3-8260-5944-5 .
  • Henry G. Tietze: Imagination and Interpretation of Symbols. How inner images help heal and prevent (= Knaur Taschenbuch , Volume 4136: Esoteric ). Knaur, Munich 1986 (license from Ariston, Geneva), ISBN 3-426-04136-7 , (an esoteric overview).
  • Jerome L. Singer, Kenneth S. Pope (eds.): Imaginative procedures in psychotherapy (= Innovative Psychotherapy and Human Sciences , Volume 24). Junfermann, Paderborn 1986 (original title: The Power of Human Imagination , translated by Irmgard Hölscher and Angelika Fischer), ISBN 3-87387-204-8 (classic overview).
  • Volker Friebel: Inner Pictures. Imaginative Techniques in Psychotherapy. Walter, Düsseldorf 2000, ISBN 3-530-42151-0 (overview).
  • Hermann Maass: The therapist in us. Healing through active imagination . Walter, Olten / Freiburg im Breisgau 1981, ISBN 3-530-54310-1 (Active Imagination according to CG Jung).
  • Robert Johnson: Images of the Soul. Dream work and active imagination. (based on the approach of CG Jung). Hugendubel, Munich 1995.
  • Hanscarl Leuner : Textbook of the katathym-imaginative psychotherapy . Huber, Bern 1988 ff.
  • Leonore Kottje-Birnbacher, Ulrich Sachsse, Eberhard Wilke (eds.): Imagination in psychotherapy. Huber, Bern 1997. (Katathym-Imaginative Psychotherapy according to Leuner)
  • Uwe Böschemeyer: Value-based imagination . Hamburg 2000.
  • Klaus Krüger u. a. (Ed.): Imagination and Reality. On the relationship between mental and real images in early modern art. Mainz 2000.
  • Elmar Dod: The Reasonable Imagination in Enlightenment and Romanticism . Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1985.
  • Armin Pfau: On the perception of inner images from a psychological point of view. In: Existence & Logos. 11, 2001, (H. 1), pp. 43-80. (Perception aspect)
  • Gerald Hüther : The power of inner images. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004. (brain research)
  • Bernd Hoffmann: Handbook of autogenic training. Rowohlt / dtv, Munich 1977, 1981.
  • Shakti Gawain: Just imagine . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1988.
  • Ang Lee Seifert, Theodor Seifert, Paul Schmidt: Following the energy of the soul. Relaxed and free through active imagination . Patmos Verlag, 2003.
  • Tanja Michalsky : projection and imagination. The Dutch Landscape of the Early Modern Age in the Discourse of Geography and Painting. Munich 2011.
  • Luise Reddemann : Imagination as a healing force. To treat the consequences of trauma with resource-oriented procedures. 2001, ISBN 3-608-89708-9 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Imagination  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georgi Schischkoff (Ed.): Philosophical dictionary. 21st edition. Alfred-Kröner, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-520-01321-5 , p. 306.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Karl Arnold u. a. (Ed.): Lexicon of Psychology . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-508-8 , Col. 963 on Lemma “Imagination” and Col. 2505 on Lemma “Presentation”.
  3. ^ Carl Gustav Jung : Definitions . In: Collected Works. Walter-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, paperback, special edition, volume 6, “Psychological types”. ISBN 3-530-40081-5 , p. 444, § 688 on Lemma "image".
  4. ↑ Imagination. In: Uwe Henrik Peters : Lexicon of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Medical Psychology . 6th edition. Urban & Fischer, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-437-15061-6 , p. 153, further mention of "imagination" see Stw. Somnambulismus , p. 514 (online)
  5. ↑ Uhlig, Bettina: Art Reception in Primary School, Context Art Education, Munich, 2005, p. 38
  6. ^ Günther Drosdowski: Etymology . Dictionary of origin of the German language. Volume 7, 2nd edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim 1997, ISBN 3-411-20907-0 , p. 301.
  7. ↑ Heinrich Ratke : Systematic Handlexikon zu Kant's Critique of Pure Reason . Meiner, Hamburg 1991, ISBN 3-7873-1048-7 , p. 51. (Philosophical Library 37b)
  8. ↑ Imagination. In: The Great Brockhaus. Compact edition in 26 volumes . Volume 10, 18th edition. Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 3-7653-0353-4 , p. 152.
  9. ↑ Andreas Dorschel, 'In the vortices of the imagination. Philosophical imagination in Fichte, Schiller and Nietzsche ', in Matthias Schmidt / Arne Stollberg (eds.), The pictorial and the non-pictorial. Nietzsche, Wagner and the music drama (Paderborn: Fink, 2015), pp. 29–41.
  10. ^ Rudolf Eisler: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms . 2006.
  11. ↑ Hans Rainer Sepp:  Philosophy of Imaginary Things  (Orbis phenomenologicus, studies vol. 30). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2017.  ISBN 978-3-8260-5944-5 .
  12. ↑ wikiquote Albert_Einstein
  13. ↑ Esotericism # Esotericism as a way of thinking: The Faivre paradigm
  14. ^ Museum of Modern Art, Eagle Department. Marcel Broodthaers: The first artist curator (1968-1972). Retrieved October 29, 2019
  15. ^ Helmut Mayer: Walter Grasskamp on André Malraux. A museum made entirely of paper. A man of art, politics and marketing: Walter Grasskamp shows how André Malraux created his large picture theater on book pages. On the FAZ online portal. May 14, 2014. Retrieved October 29, 2019