Imagination? Or psychosis?

It's true that everyone has personification is some way. But there is a limit to where it's ' normal '
I've actually been diagnosed with personification. And it's something I get confronted with every day in my life.

 

Well, My psychiatrist told me personification dominates my way of thinking. Therefor it could be called a disorder. ( his words were that personification is a neurologically based condition )
But he told me as well that it would be wrong to call it a disorder as well since some people say it's more of a gift or a talent if you use it properly. it's true it doesn't have any ' negative ' effects in everyday life. But, I've always been to art school and it's there I often experienced difficulties because of my personification. I studied jewellery design as well and it's actually my personification that made me fail those studies. The contemporarily materials that are used in jewellery design these days I hate to use because I can't ' bond ' with those materials. they remind me of a cruel and mean character... and have difficulties working with them day in and out because they really affect my mood.
The materials I can get along with though, weren't design enough.
In the end I actually tried to use those materials I can't stand, but my teachers could see very clearly I couldn't find myself in my own designs and artwork.
But, now I'm actually starting on my own jewellery line, and I'll try to use that eprsonification to make it unique and interesting.
And yes, I still know objects aren't 'real'.
But the emotions they call up are very real.
For example, when I see a chandelier I think about a heartbroken, sad soul.
And yes, even though I know it's just an object, it still makes me sad when I see one.
I don't see objects as persons, but I link them to persons.
Because of that my personification can be triggered in the other way around as well. Not from object to person but from person to object.
Therefor I'm confronted with it every day, maybe not in a negative way, but still personification is something I wake up with and go to bed with.

you can ofcourse be perfectly right that it's not a disorder but just imagination.
But if that's true I must have a very sick imagination XD.
It's possible my psychiatrist just gave me that diagnoses because they need to put stamps on people these days. ( everybody has to take pills for something these days because there is something ' wrong ' with them ) or Because he noticed I often have difficulties with my imagination in my studies. and so he thought that diagnosing me with personification would help me accept my sick mind in a way :')

I was told personification is a form of synthesia.
and when I was told about it I looked it up on the internet as well. I found a page about synthesia on wiki and Personification is indeed mentioned there as well.
Some say Synthesia is a disorder and others say it isn't. So I guess it's the same with personification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

 

I imagine my dolls' personality & habit if they're alive as a human.
Yes I named my dolls, and actually all of my things hahaha...

My dollies are only a character for me.
Their characters are the one that alive in the story.

But I 100% realize and know, they're only a doll.
Though sometimes I feel they have soul, but I'm still sane & can see the difference between imagination & real life.

So yeah, it's all imagination for me.
My dolls are real, they do exist in my life, but only as inanimate things.

 

Synesthesia is unique in that it is a blending of senses/experiences. Psychosis is a deviation from reality. Synesthetes just experience things differently and process reality in a different way.

 

ReineDeLaSeine14 hits the nail on the head about the term "psychosis." Psychosis creates an inability to differentiate the "real" from the "unreal" -- or in other words, a delusional state. In mental illnesses with psychotic characteristics the person suffering will lose the ability to perceive which things are and are not part of the "real world" and will act accordingly, being psychologically affected by unreal objects/entities/experiences as though they were actually happening.

As a quick summation on my opinion about the simple form of this question: imagination or psychosis, as long as a person is capable of understanding the differences between what is and is not real they are not engaging in any psychotic behaviors or thoughts. However, the line between imagination and psychosis (I'm just using the terms we're using in this thread) becomes more blurred (in my opinion) when "imagination" comes without prompting, completely on its own, as it might be said occurs for Ryuutje. (Although I cannot know completely as these are not my own experiences.)

Many people have to actively imagine and create, while for other people the imagination is "overactive" (as my former psychiatrist once said about me) and creates without a conscious process -- something that can make it difficult for a person to tell when they have imagined/created something, and when they are perceiving the "real" world. I sometimes suffer from what is referred to as a "psychotic depression" (as a facet of my overarching mental illness) where I perceive unreal objects/people and sensations. My senses of smell and taste can be altered or absent, or I can experience smell and touch hallucinations (touch hallucinations being the most unnerving for me) as well as visual hallucinations, usually of "shadow people" (a fairly common term for peripherally hallucinated human forms) and bizarre humanoid figures -- the one I remember most clearly being the cat man. Haha! That was a crazy night!

When it comes to my dolls I usually decide to purchase them before really knowing their personalities/characters will end up turning into to. I try to "get to know" my dolls rather than forcing a personality I've created upon them the moment they get home. In this way I let their imagined characters be created through a combination of coincidences and my own artistic planning. I think that the way I approach my dolls leads my "imagined" personalities for them to be more convincing and more real to me. I do not feel that they are alive in any way, but I do personify them heavily and I have gotten very emotionally involved with some of them (most notably at the moment with my newest doll and oldest doll).

Since I was a child I tended to have a hard time understanding that my neglect or misuse of objects would not upset the objects as people get upset. And as an adult I very strongly feel that if I am ignoring my dolls that I am making them sad. I understand that this feeling of mine is unreasonable -- and I can see how my dolls actually having feelings and emotions is not possible -- however I feel compulsive guilt when I neglect them.

So this illustrates where I feel the grey area begins. Is it psychotic or delusional if you fully know that something is not real but persistently think of it as though it's real regardless? Personally I don't know. But I have found the ideas in this thread very interesting. It was great to hear all of your experiences and ideas.

 

AlisonVonderland , that's what I meant completely! I couldn't find the correct words to explain it, but yes! that's exactly what I was trying to say XD ( I was actually nodding the entire time when reading your text )

And I can recognise myself in the way you act with your dolls. I often have a character ready when ordering a doll. but once it has arrived the doll often 'leads it's own life ' and in the end there's nothing left of the character I had in mind at first.
It's amazing how different you can look at a doll once you start bonding with it.

 

I don't consider my dolls to be living things. they are just pretty object to help me kill time! (having a human looking face arround makes me feel a bit less lonely )
and making up stories and personnalities for them is a big part of the fun IMO!
I do do not consider my dolls to be alive or have a soul, mind or anything of that kind. but for some reason, I always stuck up to the belief that if they would come to life, their personnality would be just like I make them and therefore they would be armless. and I think I'm such a freak for that xD It's so weird because I KNOW that nothing can ever make them alive (as I don't really believe in magic of any kind) but for some reason I am mentally prepared for that eventuallity Ô_o;; . the thought originally occured because of people freaking out about dolls and be all "omg it's gonna wake up at night and kill everyone D: " and I thought "pffft my dolls are nice! no worries". and yeah... I don't quiet know how to explain it but it's weird. I'm weird xD;

and like AlisonVonderland said: even though I know my dolls don't feel anything, I still feel so bad when I neglect them! side effect of the "human looking face that makes me feel less lonely" I guess. in the end, I think it's just because it makes me feel good to take care of them and spend time with them. so not taking care of them would logically end up with not feeling good about it

 

I'm so glad Ryuutje.

I was thinking about this thread in my free time today, and it seems to me that the general question "when does what we do with our dolls become weird" is asked over and over again. The way I feel, it is natural for humans to have an emotional response to representations of our own kind. I believe that it is probably more unhealthy to not be able to feel any emotions for our dolls than it is to occasionally catch yourself worrying about the doll being "mad" at you (in my case for un-stringing one of my dolls to fix him up. . . then getting some new dolls and playing with them while he sits in a box). Children, when they play with dolls learn how to understand and deal with relatively complicated social situations and learn to interpret the individual's societal role, so I don't see any reason why we, as adults, should feel ashamed for using our dolls -- to whatever extent -- to work out our own social frustrations.

What makes me sad is that some people seem to honestly think that their emotional connection with their dolls should be a cause of shame. I think that to be unable to feel anything for a mock human is more unfortunate. Those of us who experience animism (and can still differentiate between reality and fantasy!) in many ways have a great joy in life, and in our dolls, that others might one day experience if they would only allow themselves.

Here's a thought I want to leave you with Sahoma -- because I found what you were saying about your friends joking about your dolls coming to life interesting.

A doll in your arms is just as alive as a person in your memories.

 

I actually really like what you said here a lot. Especially the last bit you wrote. I have a character that I am getting her in doll form soon (grrr hits head because missed sale on her) that was based on a friend of mine, this character has gone through three changes in character and looks as I finally had to let go of this friend (due to her untimely death). But I really liked what you said about the memories thing. Its all a function what we deem as ourselves as being unhealthy and if it impairs our function. I actually think that in this case changing this characters personality helped me separate and start to let go a little bit. I just thought that I should tell you how much I really liked what you said.

 

It is very sad to hear about your loss Arashi222, but I'm glad that I was able to say something that could resonate with you. I strongly believe that dolls can help ease the process of recovering from emotional loss and I hope that you and your growing character have many wonderful days together.

 

Thank you now all I have to do is buy her but yes thank you so much for that. I am glad too it just really resonated with me and I think it resonates with others as well.

 

I just have to say here that some of these posts assume that reality has actually been defined & that everyone shares the same philosophy of 'real' vs 'imaginary'.
That hits right in the heart of belief systems.
I agree that ability to function in society is a good indication that a person is fine, however weird they may sound.
I'm a witch - I meet LOTS of weird. I'm sure lots of people think I'm weird. Doesn't matter. If someone thinks their doll has a soul & whispers to them at night, but holds down a dayjob, family (ie has a life), then there is NO PROBLEM

 

Ryuutje's experiences are interesting to me.. while I'm not constantly afflicted with personifying objects, I notice this most heavily whenever I am using my colored pencils. It is really distracting when I realize that my entire mood is being affected by what color I'm using... and I don't think it's just because some colors naturally induce certain moods.. it's actually because ... I don't know why! But in any case, I am definitely affected by the unwanted personification of my colored pencils....

But I know it is all in my head, not something the object is projecting.

I am NOT a fan of when people believe dolls have legit souls and feelings. It leads to judging people based on their treatment of dolls. How someone treats their inanimate property (as long as it does not affect the rights or health of others, ie one shouldn't burn hazardous material and cause poisonous smoke) is a complete nonissue. If people are worried about what other people are doing to their dolls, or if other people are 'mistreating' or 'abusing' their dolls, it cheapens situations of real abuse.

There are many people still alive today (which baffles me) who do not believe animals have souls or feelings. I don't want these people to perceive the average person as believing "just ANYTHING can have a soul!" because then they are less likely to eventually take an animal soul seriously.

Also, there is so much incredible abuse of animals going on like in factory farms, that if people spend their energy being worried about the abuse of an inanimate object, they are wasting energy they could be using to concentrate on actual problems of abuse.

 

I've been keeping up with this thread and thought now would be a good point to jump in.

Harlequin-Elle, you've practically taken the words right out of my mouth. I am one of those people who believes anything can have a soul. CAN have a soul, not DOES have a soul. I've always believed that if you love something enough, in a special way, it can develop its own soul and life. Now, this doesn't mean that my dolls are sitting on my bed having everyday conversations with me. It doesn't even necessarily mean that any of my special possessions are self aware or can think for themselves. I can't be sure exactly what it means. But I can tell you this. If I'm in my room thinking one of my dolls is staring at me from across the room because he's lonely and I haven't let my rat out all day for exercise-the rat will be let out! If I've been saving for a new doll and I'm almost there, but one of my cats needs to go to the vet of course I'm going to take my cat to the vet! Just because I may believe my dolls have souls, doesn't mean I believe they can get sick or have a beating heart. They are just as alive as any other creature to me. But in a very different way.

 

This is a very interesting topic for me. I have always been able to project emotions, thoughts and feelings onto my 'toys' from being a young child, and I do see Cesavier as a personality rather than just pretty resin. If you asked me what I'd just bought, I'd say 'a doll' not 'a person', but I do bond with dolls etc and I'd be genuinley very sad first and foremost if my doll got broken rather than thinking that the money had been wasted or whatever.

So I can distinguish.. in a sense?

 

I believe that the line between imagination and "psychosis" is when one cannot function in the society on a reasonable level, the line has been crossed. By "a reasonable level", I mean in a way that is not hazardous to oneself or to others. I am cautious to define "the line" any further, because, as a few have mentioned earlier in the thread, there's much philosophical debate as to what constitutes normalcy and reality. What is normal to me, may be abnormal to someone else, and so on. For example, I have a friend who thinks that anyone who plays video games has underlying mental issues (I play video games once in a while, and we've gotten in debates over them quite often), while the fact that she has to devote at least a few hours of her free time to cleaning her very small apartment on a daily basis is perfectly normal.

As far as dolls having souls, no, I don't believe that my dolls are anything more than beautiful inanimate objects. Some of my dolls have little biographies, but most don't. I'm not a writer or an artist, so, most likely, that's why I do not see them as anything more than dolls that I love to pose and take pictures of. However, I can't say that I lack imagination. In fact, I have a few ongoing stories that I've developed over the years, that are quite complex. It's too bad that I truly dislike writing, which is why they will forever exist only in my imagination.

 

I have an imagination that I can live in. I can literally sit on my bed and get lost in stories and lives that never and will never exist. I do believe that my doll has emotions but I don't believe he can talk or move on his own. I believe that if I dropped him he would be mad at me and not do what I want him to do. Or if he likes something I made for him he'll be submissive and let me dress him in it. But I'm nothing like my friend who honestly believed that her doll had a soul and could move and speak on her own. She also believed that the dolls hair and limbs would grow.

She mentioned casually once that her dolls breasts were getting bigger.

I believe that my friend is psychotic but not only because of her connection with her doll but other things that have happened.

But if I ever got to that point where I believed that my doll could grow I would hope someone would set me down
and explain that I'm being a little crazy.

that's my line between imagination and psychosis. Once you start believing it can move and talk and grow then it's psychosis but them having some kind of emotion is from imagination.