“Invisible Friend..?” by evans.photo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Childhood Imaginary Friends as Externalised Projections
There is the suggestion that the phenomena of Imaginary Friends, seen in many children around the globe, very often fitting into that child’s acceptable world-view, but often found concerning, by their parents, could be externalised projections from their own mind. Some kind of imaginative overlay, but with the ability to offer additional insight to the child, by adding a second, or third view to any situation.
This suggests that the process of self-rejection as well as acceptance, combined with externalized projections, could explain the phenomenon of childhood imaginary friends in a psychological development context that would allow those parents to better help and support their children, by listening more carefully to these alternative, imaginative views of what the child is thinking and feeling.
There is also good reason to suggest that these imaginary friends may well be helping the child form early connections to their archetypical influences, and that again, this means the relationship will benefit from being carefully understood, and this may allow both the parent, and the child, to enter the child’s dream world together, via that additional exploratory interface.
Clues from Parts Working, Jung’s Psychological Theories, and the Theory of the DNA-Self
Both the parts-working approach of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Carl Jung’s theories of self-discovery through the individuation of the unconscious shadow, offer compelling perspectives on the potential for dissociated parts to manifest as externalized projections.
Let’s explore how these concepts intersect:
IFS and Dissociated Parts
Internal Family: IFS views the psyche as a system of interconnected parts, each with its own unique role and purpose. Each part is capable of having it’s own personality, but has a set goal of helping the individual become “all they can be”.
Exiled Parts: Dissociated parts, often carrying painful emotions or experiences, are often “exiled” from conscious awareness. These parts often become “shadow”, anti-parts; rather than help, they deliberately hinder. The longer they have been dissociated and rejected, the more complex and difficult they may be to work with, or achieve long-term change.
Reintegration: IFS therapy aims to reintegrate these exiled parts, allowing for healing and wholeness.
Jungian Psychology and Archetypes
Archetypes: Jung believed that the human psyche is structured around universal archetypes, representing fundamental patterns of human experience.
Projection: We often project these archetypes onto others, attributing their qualities and behaviours to external figures.
Shadow Archetypes: The shadow archetype represents the unconscious aspects of ourselves that we are unaware of, and can easily reject or repress, if we come across them.
Collective Shadow: Jung believed that most archetypes stem from a collectively available group of differing archetypical qualities, such as the divine masculine and the divine feminine.
Personal Shadow: Jung also suggested that an individual had their own personal shadow, comprising of mainly rejected aspects of themselves.
Additional Insight from the Theory of DNA-Self
Personal Shadow: DNA-Self Theory suggests that the personal shadow may be pre-populated with largely undiscovered and therefore, to come extent, compartmentalised schemas, which include genetic traits such as natural propensities towards skill, sport, art, creativity, reasoning, and logic. These are effectively in “soft shadow“, in that they have not been dissociated. They have yet to form any meaningful association.
Symbolic Interface: DNA-Self Theory posits that within what is commonly described as the sub-conscious layer of the mind, their is an intuitive and proactive Human Symbolic Interface. This interface allows individuals to connect seamlessly to inner, non-verbal functions, originating from pre-verbal DNA.
Self Learning, and Self-Exploration: DNA-Self Theory suggests that people begin life, with this fully populated set of mainly non-verbal DNA originated automations. And that as the child grows and explores itself, words, symbols in the mind etc., as slowly mapped by the Symbolic Interface, to the child’s motor functions, for example, as they learn how to walk.
Childhood Invisible Friends: Are seen as potentially, a natural part of a higher level human interface which invariably gets rejected, as they can cause the child to become a target for scapegoating and bullying.
Dissociation: The Theory of the DNA-Self proposes that as the child grows, it is often set challenges, in order that it should fail, and often, to force it to fail, and that this can cause these DNA-based connections to self-regulatory functions, as well as many natural propensities, to become rejected. Those that are earliest in the child’s life, tend to become forgotten.
Genetic Archetypes: DNA-Self Theory suggests that within our DNA, there is effectively a comprehensive record of our genetic lineage. This includes higher level thinking functions, and the lowest level “how to be a single cell”, type instructions. The suggestion is this: these are our ancestors, and on one level, the first human that appears in this record, is the “father/mother”, of all.
Abstract DNA-based Connections: DNA-Self Theory suggests that the symbolic interface is highly abstract and confusing, due to our collective lack of understanding as to how that interface works. How it can end up relating the symbology of the Devil, to almost every one of those higher functions, simply because they have not been used enough, to be understand, and society encourages us to fear and reject it, at the first sign of it’s activation; in early childhood imaginative playing.
Integration: DNA-Self Theory suggests that the aim of our childhood is for us to find and collect our natural gifts through creative and imaginative play. That we have forgotten this personal-integration aspect of our natural process of maximising the potential of our children. Instead, we try to force ourselves and our children to be some kind of “normal”, that only heightens internal distress. Normal, is never authentic.
Dissociated Parts as Archetypal Projections
Externalization: It’s possible that dissociated parts, or parts in need of integration, particularly those carrying negative or unacceptable aspects of the self, are projected onto others or onto the world around us. Carl Jung strongly suggested that an individual’s hallucinations may well be symbolised archetypical parts. DNA-Self Theory suggests that those archetypical parts may well be DNA Archetypes, symbolising specific natural traits and propensities.
Archetypal Manifestations: These projections may take on the form of archetypes, reflecting the underlying themes and dynamics of the integrating or dissociating parts.
Example: A child may develop invisible friends that are initially, positive, but challenging. Their guardians may become concerned at some of those challenges, and may start encouraging the child not to play with those invisible characters, this may cause the child’s relationship with her inner guardians to struggle, until the child tells their invisible friends to go away.
The Role of the Shadow
Unconscious Self: The shadow, as described by Jung, is a place in our unconscious mind that holds rejected or unknown aspects of the personal self, as well as more general archetypes from the collective unconscious. These can hidden due to them being rejected or repressed, or simply yet to be discovered. The shadow is fearsome, because it is unknown, and we are taught to fear the unknown.
Integration: The process of integrating the shadow involves acknowledging and accepting these parts, and working with them to integrate them. Carl Jung called this process Individuation. The Theory of DNA self calls this integration, and sees it as a significant aspect of self-actualisation.
Self-Acceptance: This integration leads to a more complete and authentic sense of self, fostering self-acceptance and compassion.
It’s important to note that these concepts are complex and interconnected. The interplay between dissociation, internalized beliefs, archetypal projections, and the shadow archetype can create a dynamic and often challenging inner landscape.
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