This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ... reality and phantasy /Tphe last chapter was concerned with the " struggle of the developing child in relation to the authority-independence principle. We pass from that to consider the phantasyreality principle, which involves a struggle of comparable importance. Phantasy, like suggestibility, is a ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ... reality and phantasy /Tphe last chapter was concerned with the " struggle of the developing child in relation to the authority-independence principle. We pass from that to consider the phantasyreality principle, which involves a struggle of comparable importance. Phantasy, like suggestibility, is a characteristic of childhood: both tendencies have their racial value; both must be to a great extent discarded before the individual can be said to have reached maturity; both are primary factors in educability, and both are capable of abuse by educators. Phantasy is like an air-cushion: there is nothing in it, but it eases the joints wonderfully. It is the magic that tempers the winds of reality to the shorn lamb. It smooths the path of the child's adjustment to reality; and when that reality offers too menacing an aspect, it provides a way of escape. It may be stimulated from within, and find expression in day-dreams, castles in the air, a"nd in all forms of imagining and pretending; or it may be stimulated from without by fairy-tales, legends, fables, myths and allegories. All these are of the stuff of phantasy. What part should they play in the life of the child? And how far must they be discarded by the adult? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to distinguish various forms of phantasy. The first, and by far the most common, is the compensatory phantasy. In the child, it is, in moderation, a perfectly normal response to the harshness, rigidity or monotony of real life. The weak little boy has day-dreams in which he performs incredible feats of strength and valour. The little girl, who has been told that she is ugly, pictures herself as a princess of transcendent beauty. Sometimes the phantasy takes the form of an elaborate...
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