Children's Fantasy Research Articles

The Narrative Organisation of Children's Fantasy Play: the effects of age and play context

Abstract The intention of the study was to examine the extent to which the narrative organisation of children's play varied as a function of age and play context. Same age and same gender dyads from each of two age groups (four‐ and five‐year‐olds) were observed playing in an experimental playroom. On two occasions they played in a high structure, scripted, context (doctor props and dolls) and on two occasions they played in a low structure, non‐scripted, context (blocks and novel shapes). Narrative organisation of play was measured by the children's integration of events into complex fantasy play themes. Predicted age effects were supported to the extent that play scripts became more complex with age. Context effects were minimal; older children's play was more advanced than younger children's in the low structure context. Results were described in terms of children's ability to play independently of props present in their play environments. Further research is recommended on the effects of context on play.

The child's fear of infanticide and the nuclear cause of the neuroses

The concept that the child is predisposed to the fear of infanticide, and that that fear may be the central cause of his psychological problems and the primary motive force of his defense, allows us to view the defensive process from a different perspective than that offered by Freud's nuclear theory. Children's fantasies make it apparent that the idealization of their parents' image, and the devaluation of their own, constitute their basic defense against their fear.

The Organization of Dramatic Content in Children's Fantasy Play

Study of fantasy play as drama illuminates developmental differences in the elements of social knowledge and characterizes relations between these elements.

Margaret Powell Esmonde

Margaret Powell Esmonde Perry Nodelman, Marilyn Apseloff, and Priscilla Ord Click for larger view View full resolution It was a shock to members of the Children's Literature Association to learn of the death of Margaret Powell Esmonde, after a long illness, on August 13, 1983. As a president of the association, and as first editor of both the ChLA Quarterly and the ChLA Proceedings, Margaret contributed greatly to the development of this organization. To mourn her untimely passing and to honour her memory, the ChLA Board has decided to dedicate this issue of the Quarterly to her. It should be a fitting memorial, for it marks the first appearance of ChLA conference proceedings as a special section of the Quarterly, and thus represents the coming together of the two publications to which she contributed so much. Margaret graduated from Immaculata College in 1955; while there, she revealed her leadership and academic abilities by being awarded full scholarships and by becoming president of her class. After her marriage to Larry Esmonde, Margaret devoted some years to her family of young children; Joan was born in 1958, Marguerite in 1959, Kathleen in 1961, and Larry Jr. in 1966. Margaret's husband writes, "As fine as her professional accomplishments were, they were second to her achievements as a wife and mother. That is such a difficult thing for a woman to accomplish successfully that I believe only a very exceptional woman can do it, and certainly she was such a one." In 1963, Margaret went on to do graduate work at the University of Miami in Florida, in the area of Middle English and Early Renaissance Literature; she was granted an M.A. in 1966. For her Ph.D., which she was granted by the University of Miami in 1970, she moved into the area of her greatest interest: fantasy. In 1972, she joined the Department of English at Villanova University, where she frequently taught her two favorite subjects, children's fantasy and science fiction, as well as composition and British literature. She was known and respected as a talented, dedicated teacher. Meanwhile, Margaret both maintained her high level of participation in family life and was intensely active as a scholar in her chosen fields. She was involved in the ChLA throughout its formative years. Priscilla Ord speaks of how she and Margaret missed the first ChLA conference: "We could not predict the impact of the gasoline shortages that year, and without accurate knowledge of whether my 1973 Dodge Colt could go as 0far as Storrs on one tank of gas . . . , we were forced to cancel our plans." But they did make it to the next conference, where Margaret gave a paper on The Wizard of Earthsea. Pris recalls, At the business meeting, sensing, I believe, the fine line between the success and failure of the infant organization, and wishing to be an integral part of the stabilization and perpetuation of the association, Margaret did something that has always seemed, at least to me, out of character for her . . . . Just as I was about to ask her if she would allow me to nominate her, Margaret touched my arm and whispered, "Nominate me for the board." I did. [End Page 3] Margaret was elected to the ChLA board. She served two years of her three year term before being elected vice president/president elect. In 1978-79, she served the Association as its president. Marilyn Apseloff writes, Since she was adept at managing and coming up with solutions for difficult problems, her election to the presidency of ChLA was fitting. Still in its infancy, ChLA had its share of growing pains that Margaret coped with coolly (some of the board meetings were pretty heated at times), always trying to think what would be best for the Association; she logically and rationally approached problems until a resolution was reached, not often easy to do when the issues are not clearcut. At times she had self-doubts, which she sometimes revealed in private; in public any hesitancy vanished as she listened to others and made her suggestions and recommendations. Meanwhile, Margaret found the time to deliver numerous papers-on young adult novels, on science...

Television Viewing and Styles of Children's Fantasy

Two distinct models of the predicted relationship between children's TV watching and fantasy life are derived from the literature in this area. The first model predicts a negative correlation between heavy TV viewing and the process of fantasizing, particularly for imaginative enjoyable fantasy. The second model predicts a positive correlation between TV viewing and dysphoric, hostile, ruminative fantasies. Theoretically, both models could apply at once. A study of eighty-two first graders' TV awareness and fantasy styles offered support only for the second model. Television viewing by children as young as six may serve, it is suggested, to drown out and distract them from unpleasant fantasy imagery, but may be unrelated to their production of pleasant, imaginative fantasy.

Depressive Themes in Children's Fantasies

Abstract Puppet stories were elicited spontaneously from 65 school children between the ages of eight and nine in a recent study designed to collect normative data. Findings provided an opportunity to study more closely a subgroup within the population: those children who deviated significantly from the norm, most notably in their preoccupation with misfortune. This paper will discuss (1) techniques of child assessment through play, (2) research efforts, (3) findings of the normative study, and (4) depressive themes among the clinically suspect subgroup.

The Balancing of Child and Adult: An Approach to Victorian Fantasies for Children

The Balancing of Child and Adult: An Approach to Victorian Fantasies for Children

Anatomy of Wonder: An Historical Survey and Critical Guide to the Best of Science Fiction , and: Images in a Crystal Ball: World Futures in Novels for Young People , and: Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching , and: The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Fiction , and: Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Checklist (review)

Reviewed by: Anatomy of Wonder: An Historical Survey and Critical Guide to the Best of Science Fiction, and: Images in a Crystal Ball: World Futures in Novels for Young People, and: Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching, and: The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Fiction, and: Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Checklist Margaret Esmonde Barron, Neil , ed. Anatomy of Wonder: An Historical Survey and Critical Guide to the Best of Science Fiction. 2nd ed.New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1981. Wehmeyer, Lillian Biermann . Images in a Crystal Ball: World Futures in Novels for Young People. Littleton, Co: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1981. Parrinder, Patrick . Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching. New York: Methuen & Co., 1980. Schlobin, Roger C. The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Fiction. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979. Lynn, Ruth Nadelman . Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Checklist. New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1979. Science fiction and fantasy, long the stepchildren of literary criticism, have received ever increasing scholarly attention in the last ten years. From sophisticated analyses such as Darko Suvin's The Metamorphosis of Science Fictionand W. R. Irwin's The Game of the Impossibleto practical bibliographies and teaching aids, volumes devoted to SF/F scholarship continue to be published with some frequency. If you can buy only one SF reference work, the one to buy, without doubt, is Neil Barron's Anatomy of Wonder, now in an updated and revised second edition. Divided into two main sections, "The literature" and "Research," it first preseents three essays covering the history of SF from its inception to 1980. Chapter 4, "Children's Science Fiction" by Francis Molson, and Chapter 5, "Foreign language Science Fiction" by six different foreign scholars, offer a special focus within the larger area of interest. A bibliography accompanies each essay. The research section includes bibliographies related to "Selection, Acquisition and Cataloging of Science Fiction," "Indexes and Bibliographies," "History and Criticism," and "Autobiography, Biography and Author Studies." Each entry in these various bibliographies is annotated with a paragraph averaging about 10 lines, which presents a balanced evaluation of the work in question. The last six chapters of the section offer comprehensive bibliographies of "Science Fiction on Film and Television," "Science Fiction Illustration," "Science Fiction Magazines" (both scholarly and popular), and "Classroom Aids." The volume concludes with a chapter indicating the location and summarizing the contents of library and private collections of SF/F, and, finally, a core collection checklist. A wonderfully complete work. Of particular interest to ChLAQ readers is Francis Molson's excellent essay on children's SF. He has greatly expanded the essay which appeared in the first edition with material discussing pre-Heinlein SF written for young people, an area almost totally ignored in most histories of children's literature because it appeared, for the most part, in boys' story papers in the nineteenth century and the Grosset & Dunlap/Stratemeyer Syndicate series which librarians and teachers have traditionally considered subliterature. He has likewise added new titles to his original bibliography, deleting such works of pure fantasy as LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea, which were included in the first editions. I heartily agree with Analogmagazine's comment that Anatomy of Wonderis ". . . probably the most significant and valuable bibliographical tool in the history of the field to date." Lillian Wehmeyer's Images n a Crystal Ballis a less ambitious "resource book" which focuses on what she calls "futuristic fiction." Its text was developed from her 1978 dissertation (UCal, Berkeley), and her opening chapters have not entirely escaped the blight of dissertation style. Once past the discussion of futuristics, she competently annotates 154 science fiction novels, giving publication data, and a two-to-five-paragraph plot summary followed by a short paragraph in which she offers a brief evaluation and suggestions for teaching. An index arranges the novels according to sub-genre, theme, and topic. As an aid to teachers, a dagger symbol identifies each novel which contains sufficient material on a specific topic to lend itself to classroom teaching. The books selected for inclusion were required to meet four criteria, the third of which was rather limiting...

Wales as a setting for children's fantasy

Wales as a setting for children's fantasy

Children of dialysis patients.

The authors interviewed and administered projective drawing tests to 14 children of dialysis patients in order to understand the children's fantasies about their parents' illness and treatment. They uncovered latent aggressive feelings toward the sick parent among a majority of the children and found that many children defended themselves against these feelings by identification with the sick parent or by pseudomature behavior (reinforced by the parent). The authors believe that the dialysis of a parent has a profound impact on the development of these children and stress the need for further investigation.

Reading and Mapping: Directions in Children's Fantasy

This is an exploratory essay about finding places and finding one's place in fantastic stories for children. It proceeds from a consideration of the actual maps illustrators have provided to help readers visualize fantastic realms to a discussion of the geographical boundaries and shapes of these realms on to what having a sense of place means to children traveling to and in new fictional worlds. Finally, it offers a hypothesis about how mapping provides, not simply a metaphor for what goes on in reading fantasy, but also a working description of the actual process by which young readers engage themselves in or "play" the genre of fantasy.

Freud's Psychohistory of Leonardo da Vinci: A Matter of Being Right or Left

Freud's Psychohistory of Leonardo da Vinci: A Matter of Being Right or Left Freud's Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood has become a classic because it marked the beginning of an entirely new approach to the study of personality and set in motion a new trend of investigation which has proved to be very productive. Freud's psychoanalytic interpretation of the personality of Leonardo aroused a great deal of interest, as well as violent criticism, because the deductive procedures involved in the analysis were novel and its conclusions daring. In order to support his controversial interpretation, Freud relied heavily on three sources of information: Leonardo's recollection of a childhood fantasy about a vulture, the nature and composition of his paintings, and slips and errors found in his writings. Viewed from a psychoanalytic perspective, these phenomena inevitably led Freud to conclude that Leonardo had the characteristics of a neurotic obsessional personality.' Freud's interpretation of Leonardo's personality, however, is subject to criticism on several points. The psychoanalytic elucidation of the vulture fantasy is considerably weakened by the fact that Freud wrongly translated the Italian word nibbio (which actually refers to another kind of bird, the kite) as vulture. In this article, the remaining two sources of evidence are critically examined and a neuropsychological explanation, which could be considered an alternative to a psychoanalytic approach to the phenomena, is presented. This neuropsychological interpretation is based on the possibility that Leonardo's brain was organized differently from that of most other human beings, and that this

Psychische Aspekte der Strahlenbehandlung von Kindern und Jugendlichen

The increasing importance of radiotherapy in tumor of childhood demands the investigation and consideration of the psychological aspects of this afflicting therapy. In this paper the results obtained by questioning and observing 28 children of different ages, their parents, attendants and employees of several radiological departments are discussed. As the children's fantasies and the resulting anxieties and reactions are depending on the respective intellectual and emotional developmental stage detailed proposals concerning the preparation and performance of radiation in toddlers, school children and adolescents are presented.

The Development of Metaphoric Competence: Implications for Humanistic Disciplines

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Development of Metaphoric Competence: Implications for Humanistic DisciplinesHoward Gardner, and Ellen WinnerHoward Gardner Search for more articles by this author , and Ellen Winner Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Critical Inquiry Volume 5, Number 1Autumn, 1978Special Issue on Metaphor Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/447976 Views: 14Total views on this site Citations: 14Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1978 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:玮仪 王 Foreign Language Learners’ Metaphor Production Competence and Cultivation, Modern Linguistics 10, no.0404 (Jan 2022): 561–568.https://doi.org/10.12677/ML.2022.104070Ran Zhang, Dhamotharan Mogana, Abbas Pourhosein Gilakjani Metaphor Enriched Medical English Supplement for First-year Students in an Selected Chinese Medical University, Cogent Education 8, no.11 (Apr 2021).https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2021.1898710Emma Adriana De la Rosa Alzate La metáfora verbal: entre la comparación y la creación, Lingüística y Literatura 41, no.7777 (Aug 2020): 410–431.https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.lyl.n77a18芳 袁 A Review of the Research on Metaphoric Competence, Modern Linguistics 08, no.0202 (Jan 2020): 162–171.https://doi.org/10.12677/ML.2020.82024Anna Babarczy, Andrea Balázs, Fruzsina Krizsai Preschoolers’ Metaphor Comprehension. Methodological Issues in Experimental Pragmatics, Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica 11, no.22 (Jan 2020): 133–150.https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2019-0017Nicolás Alessandroni Development of Metaphorical Thought before Language: the Pragmatic Construction of Metaphors in Action, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 51, no.44 (Dec 2016): 618–642.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-016-9373-3Maryam Teymouri Aleshtar, Hamidreza Dowlatabadi Metaphoric Competence and Language Proficiency in the Same Boat, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 98 (May 2014): 1895–1904.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.620Anthony Wilson A joyous lifeline in a target-driven job: teachers’ metaphors of teaching poetry writing, Cambridge Journal of Education 43, no.11 (Mar 2013): 69–87.https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2012.749217Kathryn Geldard, Rebecca Yin Foo, Jane Shakespeare-Finch How is a Fruit Tree Like You? Using Artistic Metaphors to Explore and Develop Emotional Competence in Children., Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling 19, no.0101 (Feb 2012): 1–13.https://doi.org/10.1375/ajgc.19.1.1Brenda Miller Power Pop-Ups: The Rise and Fall of One Convention in a First Grade Writing Workshop, Journal of Research in Childhood Education 6, no.11 (Dec 1991): 54–65.https://doi.org/10.1080/02568549109594822Kay M. Kincade Patterns in children's ability to recall explicit, implicit and metaphorical information, Journal of Research in Reading 14, no.22 (Sep 1991): 81–98.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.1991.tb00010.xMary J. Reichling Images of Imagination, Journal of Research in Music Education 38, no.44 (Aug 2016): 282–293.https://doi.org/10.2307/3345225Stella Voeniatou Children and Metaphors, Child Development 58, no.33 (Jun 1987): 870–885.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1987.tb01426.xValerie F. Reyna Figure and Fantasy in Children’s Language, (Jan 1985): 143–179.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9544-7_5

Dragons and Dinosaurs: The Child's Capacity to Differentiate Fantasy from Reality

MORISON, PATRICIA, and GARDNER, HOWARD. Dragons and Dinosaurs: The Child's Capacity to Differentiate Fantasy from Reality. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 642-648. Despite the indisputable importance of fantasy in children's lives, little is known about their ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality. The present study was conducted to gain information on the extent to which this means of classifying experience is available to and used by children. In addition, the contributions of the power exhibited by a character, the source from which the character is drawn, and the competing modes of classification were assessed. A 3-card sorting task was administered to 20 subjects at each of 4 grades (K, 2, 4, 6). For each set, subjects were given 2 opportunities to make pairings and to offer explanations for their pairings. In addition, subjects were asked to place 20 pictures into piles of real and pretend figures. The results document a regular improvement with age in the use of fantasy classifications and explanations. Furthermore, fantasy groupings were more likely to occur when the competing mode of response was categorical and when the characters to be sorted were potent and were drawn from the same source. Fantasy explanations proved infrequent at the younger grades; moreover, children at all ages were less prone to offer fantasy explanations than to make fantasy pairings and to sort on that basis when explicitly instructed to do so.

The Nurturant Fantasies of Olive Schreiner

In our society, at some time between the ages of seven and thirteen, the little boy who could achieve greater control over his life by playing daddy, Superman, or Bionic Man, or the little girl who could gain applause and admiration by assuming the role of a prima ballerina, famous aviator, or Wonder Woman, no longer acts out these roles. Sometimes a gesture or two lingers on in adulthood as an overt expression of the heroic model, but generally by adolescence, the role-player's yearnings have retreated to her imagination: her head alone enacts the desire.1 The impulses for a larger measure of control over our lives do not suddenly diminish with adulthood, nor do the scores of other impulses which kindle fantasy. While we do know something about types and styles of fantasy, the contents of fantasies as sources for understanding the interaction between social attitudes and the individual psyche within a given time and space have rarely been studied. The following examination of feminist Olive Schreiner (1855-1920), reveals a clear link between her nurturant fantasies and the social attitudes of her time.2 Schreiner, who was brought up in a respectable mid-Victorian home, found that childhood fantasies did not endear her to those around her.3 Raised in a stern, conventional Evangelical home on the periphery of British civilization--a South African missionary outpost--Olive Schreiner began making up stories at the precocious age of three or four, vigorously pacing the homestead while talking to herself, engrossed in an imaginative world all her own. Schreiner's making-up was solitary and exceedingly private; if a sibling or household servant overheard her tales she was outraged. She accurately perceived the mocking amusement of her family and household servants in response to her intensity, and suffered from their frequent allusions to her oddity.4 Shreiner's fantasy life did not abate in later childhood or adulthood. In a letter to her close friend, the late-Victorian

The State of the Field in Contemporary Children's Fantasy: An Interview with George Woods

The State of the Field in Contemporary Children's Fantasy: An Interview with George Woods

Participatory Art with Steam as Medium: 'Steam Works'

I began working not with steam as medium but with yards of theatrical scrim draped over wires strung from the ceiling of a high room. Reflecting on Jean Tinguely's expression 'Be movement' [1], I directed on to those fabrics streams of air by means of a number of ordinary household fans and watched them flutter and undulate. Although the artistic demonstration satisfied my desire to produce continuous unpredictable movements, it was unsatisfactory for other reasons. I wanted my art to be free from historical references, but the fabrics seemed to suggest drapery of the past. I wanted to challenge the traditional object-viewer relationship. Also, although the fabrics moved, they did not provide a sufficiently new format for this purpose. Most important, the fabrics were too palpable to express the ideas of immateriality and mystery that I wished to convey. Then I thought of 'steam', the dream substance of childhood fantasies: visible, yet, in a way, immaterial, seemingly dematerializing what it engulfs, capable of being entered by a viewer, amenable to control, yet unpredictable in behavior when released. Steam and water vapor are water in an invisible gaseous state. A visible mist, a fog or a cloud, consists of air containing water droplets formed by condensation due to the lowering of the air temperature. When the droplets evaporate in the warmth of the Sun's rays or in the presence of drier air, the mist disappears. Invisible water vapor and visible mists are part of the water cycle in nature. Water evaporating from the Earth's surface rises in the atmosphere as water vapor, condenses

Six Fantasies: Theme and Style

Six FantasiesTheme and Style William H. Green (bio) The Master Key, by L. Frank Baum. Illustrated by F. Y. Cory. Introduction by David L. Greene and Douglas G. Greene. Hyperion, Conn.: Hyperion Press, Inc., 1973. $3.75. Reprint of the 1901 Bowen-Merrill Company edition. Sailing to Cythera, by Nancy Willard. Illustrated by David McPhail. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974. $5.95. Sweetwater, by Laurence Yep. Illustrated by Julia Noonan. New York: Avon Books, 1975. $1.25. Previously issued, New York: Harper & Row, 1973. Mr. Death, by Anne Moody. Foreword by John Donovan. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. $5.95. Into the Unknown. Edited by Terry Carr. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1900. $6.50. Ladies of the Gothics. Edited by Seon Manley and Gogo Lewis. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, 1975. $6.95. Critics of children's books are expected to be moralists. Probably this is inevitable. There are books which, regardless of one's politics, are evidently harmful to young readers—books which countenance cruelty, cowardice, or despair. But if morality becomes the chief concern of criticism, literature is degraded to propaganda, critics to would-be censors. Whatever harm immoral books may do to readers, poorly written books do greater harm to the practice of literature—especially if they are applauded for the mere moral correctness of their themes. The best children's books are unsurpassed in their precision of style and richness of imagination; and the best children's fantasies, in particular, evoke a miraculous sense of completeness, of word-magic raised to sacramental perfection. Magic is our birthright. If we disinherit ourselves for moral correctness or transitory social causes, we lose. Happily, of the six fantasy books reviewed here, two exhibit the lucid style, smooth pacing, and imaginative completeness characteristic of classic fantasies such as the Alice books, The Hobbit, and the tales of Narnia and Oz. Not surprisingly, one is by the creator of Oz himself. The Master Key, subtitled "An Electrical Fairy Tale," is a reprint of L. Frank Baum's 1901 novel about a boy named Rob who accidentally invokes the Demon of Electricity and is given electrical marvels to show the world: a ray which induces unconsciousness, [End Page 288] small tablets which contain one day's nourishment, and an anti-gravity device shaped like a wristwatch. With these devices, Rob flies foolishly to a cannibal island, barely returning in time to receive three more marvels. Turn-of-the-century American ambiance pervades the tale. Full of optimism and industry, Rob soars across the Atlantic wearing only walking clothes and a small anti-gravity device, later to return and conclude that there is no place like home. While abroad, Rob displays an American willingness to intervene in local politics. Of course, he always intervenes on the good side, but his notions of good and evil are frankly ethnocentric: "I believe it's about time I interfered with the politics of this Republic," he tells himself in Paris. "If I don't take a hand there probably won't be a Republic of France very long and, as a good American, I prefer a republic to a monarchy" (p. 136). Such lambent faith in Truth, Justice, and the American Way may seem passé, and Baum's stock characterizations of cannibals and Turks might draw charges of racism if he wrote today; but it would be ungracious to blame the author of such a lively and good-natured fable for occasionally reflecting the values of his age. And the ending of the story, where Rob returns the Demon's gifts because he has seen how unready men are to control such powers, transcends optimism and addresses a warning to our gadget-ridden nuclear age. Solid meals, it proposes, are more satisfying than energy pills—happy homes more important than transoceanic tours. Finally, however, it is not the moral which makes the tale successful, but rather the vividly evoked wonder, the eerie realism of Rob's soaring—almost the reader's soaring—asleep through night skies, with only the stars above and the sea beneath him. A reprint of the 1901 edition, with large print and strong illustrations, the book is at...

Imaginative involvement: some characteristics of the highly hypnotizable and the non-hypnotizable.

Abstract Interview material with high and low hypnotic Ss adds to the evidence previously reported that imaginative involvements (such as the savoring of sensory experiences, drama, reading, childhood fantasy, adult fantasy, physical space traveling, mental space traveling, religion, creativity) play a central role as background factors for hypnotic susceptibility. The 42 high Ss had far more imaginative involvement than the 15 low Ss. A relationship between higher hypnotic susceptibility and childhood punishment appears to be mediated via fantasy development. The results are discussed in terms of Sarbins role theory, Gill and Brenmans theory of regression in the service of the ego, and E. R. Hilgards neo-dissociation theory.