Pretend Companions (Imaginary Playmates): The Emergence of a Field

Abstract

Over the last century, investigation of pretend companions has developed as an emerging field. Although pretend companions are a commonplace childhood phenomenon and perhaps an epitome of children's imagination, that topic received little attention before the end of the 19th century. Only since the last decade has attention to it truly begun to burgeon. Broad developments in the history of thought and research on pretend companions fall into 6 stages: (a) early history, (b) early theory, (c) earliest empirical research, (d) midcentury lull, (e) a renewal of empirical attention, and (f) emergence into a significant field whose investigators are committed to reliable, increasingly sophisticated methods and to the examination of pretend companions within the broader context of pretend play. Following depictions of the field's past and current status, the authors present future directions for its progress.

Exploring the links between childhood imaginary companions and auditory hallucinations

“…It has been suggested that CICs are a childhood form of auditory hallucinations experienced as part of normal development (Pearson et al, 2001). However, the focus of research in this field has largely been on the examination of this phenomenon within the broader context of pretend play (Klausen & Passman, 2007). This article builds upon the existing research and looks at the links between CICs and pathological auditory hallucinations (PAHs) experienced by adults, a previously under-researched area.…”

Imaginary companions, theory of mind and emotion understanding in young children

“…(Taylor, Cartwright, and Carlson 1993;Taylor 1999;Gleason, Sebanc, and Hartup 2000). While the phenomenon of ICs had been largely ignored within developmental psychology until the late 1990s (Klausen and Passman 2007), the first psychiatric investigation into the nature of these companions were carried out in the 1940s (Bender and Vogel 1941;Svendsen, 1934;Ames and Learned 1946).…”

Developmental Implications of Mental Imagery in Childhood Imaginary Companions

“…The creation of these pretend games requires them to create a world with a set of rules that are often quite different from their everyday environments. These fantastic settings, or paracosms (Klausen & Passman, 2007), often play with the boundary between the "real" world and alternative systems. The functions of imaginary companions in child development are discussed next followed by a pilot study we conducted.…”