"Attachment to Inanimate Objects".

I am very much a similar personality type to you (very much a packrat as well ), yet I don't think I've bonded as closely to my dolls as I could have. I'd never dream of selling them, but still haven't quite "clicked" as many others have with their dolls.

It may be an issue of my SD girl just being incomplete (her head is my dream girl, her body not so much) but there's still something that keeps her from being real.. even though I have no issue talking to her plush toys that I make or even to my sewing machine while I make them Dolls are a unique species of "object".

 

Dolls to me have always been dolls, inanimate objects that don't have feelings. If someone manhandled my doll, I'd be annoyed because I take care of my possessions. It would be no different if someone borrowed one of my books and returned it to me with dogeared pages or broken spines (though I'm working on not being so anal retentive about these things).

I am a very sentimental person, but I do not like attaching those feelings to materialistic objects. I like my dolls, but I rarely find myself "bonding" in the way most people in this community do.

Also, in regards to throwing away things, you can always donate or pass objects on to people who can appreciate them and get more use out of them than you. Or recycle and reuse components to make something else.

 

As a kid, all my stuffed animals had names and characters and personalities and such.

I still have sentimental attachment to my dolls and all, but I don't feel compelled to give them stories or characters or "bond." I've just never felt that bonding was important and sort of boggle over the way people cast dolls into the wind because they "can't bond" with them. I just don't buy a doll if I don't intend on holding onto it forever.

So naturally, I don't think bonding should be a stressed component of having dolls. I think with all the talk of bonding, some people worry about "not bonding" without having a clear idea of what the hell that even means and sell off dolls too quickly when they get over the honeymoon phase.

And this is, IMO, totally different from being attached. I'm attached to a lot of my objects. But ... they're not sentient.

 

I do get sentimentally attached to things, and I do bond with my dolls--they are more than just chunks of human shaped resin to me. However, I feel much more strongly about my dolls than I do to other things that I own. My bjds are really in a league of their own in this regard. So while I'm a sentimental person, I think that there is more to it than that with my dolls.


Wanted to add:

Some of the not bonding/selling off of dolls I think stems from the fact that we don't usually get to buy them in person. I've never personally had issues with not bonding to a doll, or getting a doll and being unhappy with it. However, once some folks get the doll actually in their hands might find that it wasn't what they really expected or wanted. I don't think there's anything mind boggling about that--it's just a byproduct of buying off the internet vs getting to walk into a store and inspect what you're going to buy in person.

 

When I was little I believed that I had to treat all of my stuffed animals the same or they'd come alive at night and smother me... does that count?

I personally have this thing where I talk to inanimate objects all the time. I'll yell at my computer and tell it to work, I'll pat things that are broken and tell them that it'll be okay because I'll make them all better... I warn stuff animals before I stitch up their holes and that sort of thing.

As far as bonding with dolls, they have to have a name and character from one of my stories before I bring them home. I'm always afraid that if I get a pretty doll because she's pretty she'll sit on the shelf and I won't play with her as much. Giving my dolls personality gives me things to do with them.

Though I must say... out of all the things I've talked to, Sanyu is the only one that has ever talked back. Not to sound crazy or anything... it's just that I've played her character so much that I know how she'd react and what her voice would sound like. So she 'talks' and 'responds' in my head because of the establishment of her character. So I suppose she's different from the other objects I talk to. She's closer to my... brain? oO

 

Hmm, I'm not really a packrat. Most of my possessions are books, and i routinely go through everything I own to make sure I don't have anything that's not necessary or loved. Dolls are special to me, they always have been. I have always looked at dolls (I use the word traditionally to include stuffed animals and such) as special in the realm of objects. I only keep those that I absolutely love as I feel guilty and suffocated if I have things around me that are neglected.
With all that said, dolls are still objects. The only soul they have is the one that exists in my head. The soul is part of me, not the object and could be housed anywhere I choose to put it. I don't talk to or for my dolls, I admire them, pose them, customize them, and make things for them but i don't view them the same way I view living things.

 

I get easily attached to things too.. I once pulled some little stuffed rabbit out of the garbage that my mom threw away cause the eye was coming out.. and my little kid self thought this was the saddest thing in the world, so I stitched it up, and still have it somewhere.

Another story, we were loading stuff into the truck at my grandma's to take to the dump and I was hearing this music box play really slowly and sadly, almost at the end of its winding.. and so I climbed into the truck and dug for it. I eventually found it, but it did make me cry because it was like this thing trying one last time to get something to notice it before it would be thrown away...

As for my doll, I haven't really bonded excessively yet, but I haven't had him very long either... I'm still waiting to really click, but I think the real problem is that I don't know his character yet, so he doesn't have my personality in my head.. I really need to work on it, cause I want that bond. I think I need to do some photostories.

If it was unusual for human beings to bond to objects, we wouldn't have endless sci-fi about humans becoming attached to robots, from the relatively simple to the fullblown complex AI. Ultimately, a robot is an object, but nevertheless, humans find it very easy to bond with them in those stories. That means it is a very common and recognized aspect of being human.

As for why, well, I suppose that's a psychological/philosophical case all its own.

 

Hmm I never really got easily attached to objects.

I think the thing that has made me 'bond' with my BJDs is the fact that they're 'human-like'~

 

I think I have that kind of attachment with things. Not objects like toothbrushes but if an object has sentimental vaule to me. Like a pen I got from holiday or a necklace my aunt got for me. I can attach quite easily to dolls or toys, but not all. There are some dolls I have that I could sell or give away with no problem. Others would break my heart to part with. It guess it depends what I have invested in the object.

 

I'm a packrat, and when I was little I too had legions of stuffed toys who each had names and personalities. It shouldn't surprise anyone who knew me as a kid that I'd end up having big-kid toys! I don't find bonding with inanimate objects a difficult experience at all, even now I still name my laptop and phone and other 'grown-up' objects just as much as I named toys when I was little. The humanoid shape of BJDs just helps the bonding process because they are so human-like!

I've tried to explain it to friends who don't understand the hobby and I just get blank looks. One of my friends always asks "But what do you do with these dolls?" and I explain that I like photographing them, I like dressing them up, customising them, creating my own characters...the possibilities are endless, but she doesn't really understand it. If I started talking about bonding issues she'd think I was a weirdo!

 

This is a really good point--this article is about real soldiers becoming attached to combat robots. Might not be sci-fi for long ^^; (bring it on!)

Anyways, I find it easy to bond with dolls. I also really love my car, my computer, my sewing machine, various plushies and UFO catchers, my New Rock boots, and certain articles of clothing. Dolls, I think, are really appealing to people who have a predisposition to becoming attached, because, well, they look back at you

I think attachment to the inanimate is definitely a human trait, but people may see it as "childish" or possibly weird so generally people in "weird" hobbies have a better time talking about it.

 

I'm one of those people who gets overly attached to random inanimate objects, I always have done this. From teddybears to blankets and at one point (according to my parents) a stick I found on the ground, named and the proceeded to take with me everywhere for a good couple of weeks before our dog chewed it to death.

These days I still get attached to things, most of my electronics have names (and in a few cases personalities, although I would like to say this is usualy derived from the way they function. My ipod that freezes all the time I consider grumpy for example). This actually seems to run in my family, my grandmother does the same thing, as did my mother.

As such it wasn't hard for me to 'bond' so to speak with my dolls. I tend to get attached to them pretty quickly after they arrive (and in a few cases even before hand), I take great comfort from having my dolls around and I generally try to have at least one of them with me where ever I'm staying at the time.

I actually think there's a bit too much emphasis on 'bonding' with out dolls in this hobby sometimes. I've a doll friend who doesn't really want to do much with her dolls other then have them sit around a look pretty and there's a good number of times when she's commented that she feels she's doing wrong by liking them like that.

 

I get attached to all sorts of inanimate objects and have all my life. It's just part of my personality. I try not to get attached to things that wear out and have to be replaced from time to time, like my car, but even that is a struggle sometimes, especially if I particularly like it. I think it's because I didn't have anyone to talk to or play with when I was a child, so I pretended that everything was alive. Old habits die hard, I guess. I have friends who just collect dolls and don't bother to give them names and personalities and I understand why they don't. I usually don't discuss the subject with people because even I think it's a little odd for a person my age. Oh well...

 

I don't know that I would be overly attached to the doll itself, but more the idea of the personality behind the doll. I'm very attached to the characters I write in my stories. I think the dolls are a physical representation of a personality that I care about. However, I have always found it much easier to be attached to ideas than anything real. I guess I'm just odd that way.

 

Oh, I am right there! I tend to name my electronics (it's actually kind of odd that my DS doesn't have a name, come to think of it...), I have all my childhood plush animals, little plastic oddments and endments I can't get rid of, things I buy because I connect with them (I call them 'muse objects', in the hope that if I have them sitting around when I write, that connection will help them inspire me). Things family members were going to get rid of that I had to 'rescue'...

I have trouble meeting and bonding with people, so stuffed animals, plastic figures, and electronics just sort of... filled that 'friend void'.

=^__^=
Anneko

 

I am so like that.
I get attached to all sorts of things.
We're moving to another house, so my mum is saying that I should get rid of some stuff.
I just couldn't throw some things away, although they are completely useless and don't even think about them.
But when someone says I should throw it away I'm extremely protective over it.
As if that person is hurting the feelings of the thing.

 

I will admit, there are some inanimate objects that are not dolls which I am attached to....my mobile, my laptop...my iPod. Also bags. For some reason, I collect bags.

However, while they have stir some emotions, I would not be sad if I needed to replace them. I don't know why that is, honestly. I'll try thinking about it when I don't have a headache...LOL.

 

I kind of did this in reverse - I'm very attached to my characters, to the people in my stories and my writing, and so I'm compelled to make dolls for all of them.

...This would be a very expensive venture

So I understand where you're coming from, just... in reverse?