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To cite this article: Francine Smolucha (1992) A reconstruction of Vygotsky's theory of creativity, Creativity Research Journal,
5:1, 49-67, DOI: 10.1080/10400419209534422
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Creativity Research Journal
Volume 5 (1) 49-67 (1992)
Francine Smolucha
University of Chicago
ABSTRACT: In this article, Vygotsky's wrote on that topic. The three papers are
theory of creative imagination is reconstruct- "Imagination and Creativity in Childhood"
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3. In adolescence, creative imagination material being worked on, labor repeats what had
already been done beforehand in the worker's
is characterized by the collaboration
imagination with models, as it were, of these move-
of imagination and thinking in con- ments and this material It is this repeated experi-
cepts. ence that enables man to develop forms of active
4. The collaboration between imagina- adaptation that do not exist in animals. Let us call
tion and thinking in concepts matures this new land of behavior repeated experience.
(1925/1979)1
in the artistic and scientific creativity
of adulthood.
In the last sentence, the phrase "which One of the most important questions of child
will indicate to the child" was omitted in the psychology and pedagogy is the question about
creativity in children, its development and its
translation published in Mind in Society significance for the general development of the
(1928-1929/1978). The use of the dative child. Already at an early age we find children
case in Russian "to the child" gives a nuance have creative processes, which are expressed in
of meaning that suggests that someone else children's play. The child who straddles a stick
is indicating to the child that the stick can be imagining that he is riding a horse, or the girl who
plays with a doll imagining herself the mother, or
used as a horse in play. There is a personal the child who in play changes into a highwayman,
pronoun in Russian (cebya) that could have a Red Army soldier, or a sailor—all these playing
been used if the intention was to state that children represent examples of early forms of
the child indicates this "to himself." creativity. Of course, in this play they reproduce a
great deal of what they have seen. Everyone knows
I interpret this passage as meaning that what a major role imitation has in children's play.
the child learns to do such gestural depic- Children's play very often serves only to echo what
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tions through play interactions with care- it sees and hears from adults, but these elements of
givers, similar to the way that the indicatory previous experience are not always reproduced in
pointing gesture is learned through social play exactly as they occurred in reality. The child's
play activity is not simply a recollection of past
interaction during infancy and used to assist
experience but a creative reworking that combines
speech activities. This interpretation is impressions and constructs from them new realities
supported by another passage from the same addressing the needs of the child. (1930/1967, p. 7)
paper, in which Vygotsky referred to play as
"a very complex system of speech with the Besides stating that creative imagination
help of gestures, communicating and indicat- develops from symbolic play, Vygotsky
ing the meaning of different playthings" made several other statements in "Imagina-
(1928-1929/1935, p. 77). These passages tion and Creativity in Childhood" (1930/
suggest that Vygotsky's theory proposes that 1967) that are of interest for the current
creative imagination develops from discussion. First, he distinguished between
children's symbolic play interactions with reproductive imagination, which figures
caregivers. prominently in memory, and combinatory
imagination which characterizes creative
thinking.
Imagination and Creativity During In Vygotsky's words, reproductive imagi-
Childhood (1930/1967) nation "is closely connected with our memo-
ry, its essence consisting in this that the
In "Imagination and Creativity During Child- individual reproduces an earlier behavior or
hood" (1930/1967)2, Vygotsky specifically resurrects traces from previous impressions"
stated that creative imagination originates in (1930/1967, p. 3). Combinatory imagination,
children's play. Here again he used the on the other hand, is
example of the child's use of a stick as a
Any such human activity, the result of which is not
horse during play. In his own words,
reproduction of what happened in experience but
the creation of new forms or activities, belongs to
this second class of creative or combinatory behav-
2
An abridged translation of this article was published in Soviet Psychology, ior. The brain is not only an organ maintaining and
1990, 28, 84-96.
reproducing our own previous experience but it is In "Imagination and Creativity in Child-
also an organ that creatively combines elements of hood," Vygotsky did not specify what mech-
previous experience into new situations and new
behaviors. (1930/1967* p. 5)
anism brings creative imagination up to a
higher level. However, if one places the
Vygotsky went on to say that com- preceding statements within the context of
binatory imagination is part of all cultural the rest of Vygotsky's writings at that time,
life, including artistic, scientific, and techni- the conclusion follows that inner speech is
cal creativity. In Vygotsky's words, the mechanism that raises imagination, like
the other higher mental functions, to a higher
If human activity were limited to reproductions of level. This interpretation is consistent with
the old, a person would, in essence, be attending Vygotsky's description of the role of inner
only to the past and would be able to adapt to the speech in the regulation of higher mental
future only to the extent that it reproduces the past functions as presented in the The History of
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with it, it is best to begin with the relation between tion that imagination is originally non-
fantasy and reality in human behavior. We already realistic thinking.
said that the common view that distinguishes
between fantasy and reality is incorrect Now we
In regard to the second connection be-
will attempt to show the characteristics of the basic tween fantasy and reality, the role of fantasy
forms which connect the activity of imagination in creative adaptations to reality, Vygotsky
with reality. This explanation will show that stated that imagination is a necessary condi-
imagination is not an idle mental game, building tion for survival (1930/1967, p. 6). In this
castles in the air, but a vitally necessary function.
regard, he quoted Ribot as saying that al-
(1930/1967, pp. 8-9)
though creativity has often been viewed as
the product of an individual's labor, any
Vygotsky identified two ways in which
individual creative "genius" is actually build-
imagination is directly related to reality.
ing on the collective labor of other people
First, imagination relies on elements taken
throughout history.
from reality. Second, imagination is a nec-
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essary component of any creative activity The entire passage is reproduced below
thus enabling the individual to adapt to because it is a good example of how Vy-
reality. gotsky integrated concepts from non-Marxist
writers that were compatible with Marxist
The first connection between imagination and theory but not necessarily a derivative from
reality consists in this that any creation of imagi- Marxism. In Vygotsky's words,
nation always comes from elements taken from
reality and maintained in the previous experience of "Any invention,** Ribot said, "large or small, prior
the individual. It would be a miracle if imagination to its development, was an association in imagina-
could create from nothing or if it had another tion—a construction occurring in the mind by
history for its creation besides previous experience. means of new combinations. The vast majority of
(Vygotsky, 1930/1967. p. 9) inventions are done by unknown people, only a few
great inventors are known by name. Imagination
In a later paper, "Imagination and its always appears as if solitary and does not reveal
Development in Childhood" (1932/1960b, the influence of different personalities or the collec-
tive. For example, the plough happened at first as
pp. 334-347), Vygotsky elaborated on the a simple piece of wood and changed from this
relationship between imagination and reality. unsophisticated crude tool to what it has become
He criticized Freud's concept of primary now after a long series of changes in form, de-
process thought for perpetuating the concept scribed in who knows how many different com-
binations in imagination. Similarly the match, at
of imagination as exclusively an elementary, first, a crude wooden torch leads us along a series
unconscious thought process serving only the of inventions to electricity. All objects in common
pleasure principle. He also criticized Piaget life appear, as they say, as crystallizing imagina-
for assuming that the psychoanalytic concept tion."
of autistic thinking, which is based on pri-
mary process thought, was the original form Still it is easy to see that our representation of
of thinking. Piaget's concept of egocentric creativity does not fully coordinate with the scien-
tific concept of this word. The usual representation
thought as the transitional form between of creativity is that it is found in several given
autistic and realistic thinking derives from people, of genius, of talent, who create great artistic
Freud's concept of primary process thought; works, reach great scientific conclusions or make a
and it is heir to the same erroneous assump- technical invention. We willingly recognize and
easily see creativity in the activity of Tolstoy,
of course, the child has more imagination in the it is accommodated to rational conditions, no longer
worldly, vulgar sense of the word than the adult being pure imagination but a mixture.** This does
However, the child not only has less material than not happen in everyone. In many people develop-
the adult from which imagination is constructed, but ment takes on another variation, which is symbol-
also lacks the combinatory ability that joins together
this material; the quality and variety of these are
significantly inferior to the combinations of the
U N
adult From all the forms connected with reality
that we previously noted, the imagination of the
child only shares the first step with that of the
adult, namely the elements of reality from which it
> \f yx \
is constructed. Perhaps the pronounced and real
emotional roots of the child's imagination are as
strong as in the adult (1930/1967, p. 29) / R
function converge but do not fuse together. changes which happen to them. (1932/1960b, p.
(1931/1984, p. 208) 346)
in adolescence at one point and go further closely tive fantasy focuses on elements of the
interlaced, as T. Ribot says. But namely because of external world, and subjective fantasy uses
this meeting, this convergence takes place at first emotional experience as its subject matter.
only in adolescence and does not carry straight In Vygotsky's words:
away to a complete merger, to a complete collabo-
ration of both functions. (1931/1984, p. 215)
We know that adolescence is characterized by a
whole series of related antitheses, oppositions, and
In his third paper on creativity, "Imagina- polarities. Specifically this is because this age is
tion and its Development in Childhood" critical or transitional. At this age there is a dis-
(1932/1960b), Vygotsky described the rela- turbance of the child's equilibrium, but the balance
tionship between imagination and thinking in of the adult organism is not yet discovered. Here
also imagination in this period is characterized by
concepts as a psychological system. Accord- crisis, havoc, and the search for a new equilibrium.
ing to Vygotsky, a psychological system In this view, the activity of imagination, as it was
arises when two or more higher mental manifested in childhood, is curtailed in the adoles-
functions collaborate together on a given cent
task. Thus, during adolescence, imagination
It is very easy to note the fact that hi the child of
has become a higher mental function as a
this age, like a mass phenomenon or rule, the predi-
result of the influence of inner speech, and lection for drawing disappears. Only the exception
collaborates with thinking in concepts to continues to draw, for the most part specially
form a psychological system that organizes talented in this regard, or motivated by external
creative thinking. In Vygotsky's words: conditions such as special occupations involving
drawing, and so on. The child begins to critically
relate to his drawings and the child's sketches fail
For such complex forms of activity, which are to satisfy; they appear to him too subjective. He
beyond the boundaries of these processes, which we comes to the conviction that he does not have to
have gotten used to calling "functions," the name draw and he stops drawing. Such curtailing of
PSYCHOLOGICAL SYSTEMS could truly be ap- children's fantasy we also see in the loss of interest
plied, having in view their complex interfunctional in the naive play of earlier childhood, and in fairy
connections and relations....Analysis of the activity tales and narratives. The duality of the new forms
of imagination in its numerous forms and the anal- of imagination that are generated now, can be seen
ysis of the activity of thought shows that only by easily in the fact that the most widespread and
approaching these forms of activity as systems do massive form of imaginative activity at this age is
we find it possible to describe the most important literary creativity. It is stimulated by the strong
Later in "Imagination and Creativity in The passages from "Imagination and Cre-
Childhood," Vygotsky elaborated on the ativity in Childhood" (1930/1967) were
relationship between children's play and the selected because they provide an overview of
development of artistic, literary, and dramat- Vygotsky's theory of creativity, as of that
ic creativity. In his words: time. In his next paper on creativity, "Imag-
ination and Creativity in the Adolescent"
We said earlier that the first form of children's
(1931/1984), Vygotsky resumed his discus-
creativity is syncretic creativity, i.e., separate forms
of art are not yet differentiated and specialized. sion of themes introduced in the 1930 paper.
Thus, we spoke about the literary syncretism of
children, which is not yet divided into poetry and
prose, narrative and drama. But in children there
exists a still more keen syncretism, namely the Imagination and Creativity in the
unification of different forms of art in one whole Adolescent
activity. Tolstoy described how children compose
and depict what they are recounting.
"Imagination and Creativity in the Adoles-
A child also simultaneously talks about what he cent" (1931/1984) is Chapter 12 of Vy-
draws. The child dramatizes and composes the gotsky's book The Pedology of the Ado-
verbal text of his role. This syncretism points to lescent. The general theme of this book is
the general root from which all the different forms the development of the higher mental func-
of children's art differentiate. This general root is
tions, which include imagination, and the
children's play, which serves as a preparatory stage
of his artistic creativity. However when different, differentiation between world view and sense
more or less, independent forms of children's of self during adolescence. Imagination is
creativity (such as drawing and dramatic composi- important in this process because it is during
tion) are separated from this general syncretic play, adolescence that imagination differentiates
each form is not completely separate from the
others and readily absorbs into itself elements of the
into objective and subjective fantasy. Ac-
other forms. (1930/1967, p. 61) cording to Vygotsky, objective fantasy is
necessary for the construction of a world process of abstract thinking characterized the
view which constitutes a conceptual model maturation of imagination.
of reality. In Vygotsky's words:
As we see further, one of the essential changes that
The false interpretation of fantasy consists in this, fantasy actually undergoes in adolescence is the
that it is regarded as one-sided, as a function release from concrete imagistic features and along
connected with emotional life, with the life of with this, the penetration of elements of abstract
impulse and mood. Its other side connected with thinking in fantasy....We already said that in the
intellectual life remains in shadow. As A. S. convergence of fantasy and thinking the imagination
Pushkin so accurately said, imagination is as neces- of the adolescent begins to operate in concepts, and
sary in geometry as in poetry. Anything that that this constitutes an essential part of adolescence.
requires the creative reconstruction of reality, But this convergence does not mean a complete
anything that is connected with invention and the absorption of fantasy by thinking. Fantasy and the
construction of the new, needs indispensable por- other function converge but do not fuse together.
(1931/1984, p. 208)
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visual representation begin to play the same role hi What is the essential difference between
imagination that a doll representing a child, or a the fantasy of the adolescent and the fantasy
stool representing a locomotive, fulfill hi children's
play. From here the efforts of adolescent fantasy
of the child? What new features arise?
are limited by concrete sensory material, thus the
tendency toward imagery and visualization. It is We already showed the essential difference when
significant that visualization and imagery have com- we noted that children's play develops into the
pletely changed their function. They have ceased to fantasy of the adolescent In this way, in spite of
be supports of memory and thinking, and have its concreteness and realism, the imagination of the
crossed over into the sphere of fantasy. (1931/ adolescent differs from children's play in this, that
1984, pp. 208-209) imagination is connected with realistic subjects. At
the same time it remains concrete but less visual
than hi the child. We should also note the progres-
Vygotsky's statement that the child's de- sive abstraction of the fantasy of the adolescent.
pendence on the tangible objects of play is
replaced by the adolescent's dependence on There exists a widespread opinion that the child
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visual images, suggests that sensorimotor possesses a great fantasy and that the time of early
manipulations of objects have been internal- childhood is the blossoming of fantasy. In spite of
its prevalence this opinion is wrong. As W. Wundt
ized as mental manipulations on images of correctly said, the fantasy of the child is not at all
objects. Thus, imagination is the internaliza- as extensive as people like to think; the whole day
tion of children's play. is filled up with thinking about the horse that pulls
According to Vygotsky, during the devel- the cart With the imagining of this scene very
opment of imagination as a higher mental little diverges from reality.
function, visual thinking is partly changed In the adult a similar activity would signify the
through the influence of abstract thinking. absolute lack of fantasy. The lively fantasy of the
child depends on the richness of representations but
There is still a close connection of the fantasy of has its roots hi the greater intensity and excitability
the adolescent to the concrete support that it finds of his feelings. Wundt concluded that the child
in sensory representation. In this sense the develop- doesn't have a systematic fantasy at all. It can be
mental fate of visual or concrete thinking is espe- contended that die child's fantasy is significantly
cially interesting. Visual thinking does not disap- poorer than that of the adolescent The child's
pear from the intellectual life of the adolescent in fantasy seems to us to be richer and stronger
proportion to the appearance of abstract thinking. because of the greater excitability of feeling, the
It only moves aside to another place, going to the intensiveness of experience, and uncritical
sphere of fantasy, partly changing under the influ- judgement We see that the more abstract fantasy
ence of abstract thinking and rising up like any of the adolescent does not become poorer but
other function top a higher level. (1931/1984, p. becomes richer than children's fantasy.
210)
Wundt is right when he points out the extraordinary
poverty of creative features in children's fantasy.
Thus, although imagination becomes
The fantasy of the adolescent is more creative than
more abstract and more objective during the fantasy of the child. Buhler is also right when
adolescence, it is not yet fully matured. It is she asserts that the fantasy of the adolescent is not
not until adulthood that one becomes profi- productive hi the sense hi which we use this word
cient at coordinating the iconic and concep- applied to the imagination of adults. One fact of
tual, and subjective and objective, aspects of later origins, artistic creativity, demonstrates this.
(1931/1984, p. 214)
thinking in the production of creative works.
Vygotsky continued:
We are not in opposition to the two assertions that The internal dependence of imagination on thinking
were just cited. The fantasy of the adolescent is in concepts was illustrated in the examples of the
more creative in comparison with the child's fanta- behavior of aphasics in the first part of this chapter.
sy but it is not productive in comparison with the Together with the loss of speech as a means of
fantasy of the adult This happens because the forming concepts, imagination also disappears.
creative feature only becomes a characteristic of Particularly interesting is the following: we observe
fantasy in adolescence. From this it is understand- very often that aphasics have an inability to use and
able that this creativity has a rudimentary form and interpret metaphors, words with figurative meaning.
still is not an extensive creativity. The fantasy of The school age child still has great difficulty
the adolescent is closely connected, as Buhler said, matching a proverb with a phrase having the same
with the new needs arising in adolescence due to meaning. It is extraordinary that in the aphasic
which the images are limited and acquire emotional there begins a similar confusion. An older aphasic
tone. Thus the adolescent creates fantasy. (1931/ from our studies could not perceive any kind of
1984, pp. 214-215) symbolic expression at all. When they asked him
what it means when it is said about a person "He
has a golden hand," he answered "This means that
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tions and the possibility of the creative reworking Lindvorsky who sees the distinction between
and changing of its elements. (1931/1984, p. 216) fantasy and thinking as being the absence of a
defining problem in the activity of fantasy. He
correctly makes a reservation that the absence of
In the next passage, we can see Vy- defining task should not be confused with invol-
gotsky's use of the concepts of internaliza- untariness in fantasy. He shows that the activity of
tion and externalization in his description of fantasy takes part in the influence of will at signifi-
the movement of creative imagination from cant steps in the development of representation.
the concrete through the abstract and then Namely, we think adolescence is characterized by a
move from the passive and imitative character of
back to the reconstructed concrete. the child's fantasy to the active and volitional
fantasy distinctive of the adolescent, as Meuman
Imagination does not stop its development with and other researchers have noted.
these features. Abstraction is for it only an inter-
mediate link, only an episode on the path of devel-
We think an essential characteristic of fantasy in
opment, only a turning point in its movement
adolescence is its separation into subjective and
toward the concrete. Imagination, in our perspec-
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a similar way, an adult by perceiving artistic works, tive creativity. In regard to the converging of the
let us say lyrical verse, overcomes personal feelings two lines of the development of fantasy we can
just like the adolescent who with the help of fantasy show that in fantasy the adolescent first discovers
clarifies and explains his emotions and impulses to his experiential life. His achievements and efforts
himself by embodying them in creative images. are distinguished in the form of defining images. In
fantasy he anticipates his future and moves nearer
In this way we can say that creative imagery, the to its construction and realization. (1931/1984, pp.
creative fantasies of the adolescent, comprise for 218-219)
him the same function that artistic works have for
adults. This is art for one's self. This is compos-
ing in the mind for one's self poems and novels;
being carried away by drama and tragedy; putting Vygotsky concluded "Imagination and
down eulogies and sonnets. In this Spranger is Creativity in the Adolescent" with the fol-
correct when he contrasts the fantasy of the adoles- lowing statement.
cent with the fantasy of the child. He says that
though the adolescent is still half a child, his fan-
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development of imagination. Such a role is played However, he argued that this is not a charac-
by school, where the child is able to think labori- teristic unique to imagination, for even
ously in imaginary forms prior to making some-
thing. This undoubtedly lies at the basis of the fact
realistic thought can be accompanied by
that the first forms of day-dreaming, in the strict strong emotions. Vygotsky wrote:
sense of the word, emerge during school age; i.e.,
the ability to more or less consciously produce I would like to address the question of the emotion-
mental constructions independently from the func- al side of imagination...the combination with emo-
tions which connect them with realistic thinking. tional features is not the exclusive basis of imagina-
Finally, the formation of concepts which signifies tion, and imagination does not exhaust this
the approach of adolescence, is a particularly form....The realistic thought of an individual, when
important factor in the development of these early it is connected with an important task for an indi-
forms of complex composition, unifications, and vidual, calls to life a whole series of emotional
connections which are positioned between the experiences by far of a more significant and genu-
elements of experience in the conceptual thought of ine character than imagination and dreaming. If we
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the adolescent Sometimes it is said we see that, take the realistic thought of the revolutionary,
not only the appearance of speech, but also the thinking about or studying some kind of complex
most important stages in the development of speech political situation, we see that emotions connected
are at the same time the stages in the development with realistic thought are very often immeasurably
of children's imagination. (1932/1960b, pp. deeper, stronger, and more significant than emotions
342-343) which are connected with dreams....If we take the
form of imagination which is connected with
invention and the influencing of reality, then we see
Vygotsky then reiterated his earlier state- that here the activity of imagination does not serve
ment (1930/1967, p. 5) that imagination is the subjective caprice of emotion. (1932/1960b, pp.
one of the basic functions in the creative 345-346)
activity of consciousness, including all artis-
tic, scientific, and technical works. According to Vygotsky, the particular
interaction of imagination, thinking, and
If at last, we turn to the so-called constructive emotions during creative thought is best
imagination of the child, to all the creative activities
of consciousness which are connected with realistic
regarded as a psychological system (1932/
formulations, let us say, with technical constructive 1960b, p. 346). Consider again the quota-
or building activities, we see here and everywhere tion (on page 56 of this article) from
how the inventor's imagination is one of the basic Vygotsky (1932/1960b).
functions with the help of which he works; and also
Vygotsky finished by stating:
that in all cases the activity of fantasy is directed
from the beginning to the end toward a specific
goal, which the individual pursucs....Based upon In conclusion, please let me dwell on several
proven facts it is necessary for us to consider that deductions from what we have considered up to this
all the basic features, which are advanced in the time. First of all, it appears to me, that they touch
definition of the originality of children's imagina- on this, whether there really exists such an irrec-
tion and its primacy, after rigorous checking, do not oncilable antagonism between the direction of
stand up to criticism and are demonstrated as realistic thought and dreaming, fantasy, and autistic
incorrect (1932/1960b, pp. 343-344) thought If we consider the verbal character of
thought we see that it is possible for it to be equally
inherent in both imagination and realistic thought
Even though Vygotsky viewed imagina- If we take so- called directive or conscious thought,
tion as developing into a higher mental i.e., motives or goals, we see that autistic as well as
function, he still acknowledged that imagina- realistic thought can be equally directed processes.
tion can be accompanied by strong emotions. It should be possible to show the reverse, that in the
process of realistic thought an individual may not
recognize until the very end his true motive, goal, tary acts of our consciousness. Let us take for
or task. Finally, if we take the connection of both example the problem of invention, the problem of
processes—imagination and thought—with affective artistic creativity; here you see that the solution of
features, the role of emotional processes in thought, a problem in large measure demands the participa-
we see that, like imagination, realistic thought can tion of realistic thinking in the process of imagina-
also have features of the highest emotionalism and tion, that they act in unity.
that there is not an opposition between them. On
the other hand, we see that there is a sphere of However, it would be completely wrong to identify
imagination which by itself is not at all under the one with the other or not see the real opposition
command of the logic of emotions, the logic of which exists between them. Imagination is not
feelings. Sometimes it can be said we see that all more emotional, not a lower level of consciousness,
this touches on a metaphysical opposition which and not less or more concrete; these characteristics
stands between realistic and autistic thought, which also appear in distinct stages in the development of
in fact is a fiction or error, deeper study leads to the thinking. Essential for the development of imagina-
conclusion that this matter of opposition is not by tion is the direction of consciousness, consisting in
any means absolute but has only a relative meaning. the movement from reality toward certain relatively
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These three major problems of psychology, in Freud, S. (1965). The interpretation of dreams. J.
particular of child psychology, are tied together in Strachey (Ed. & Trans.). New York: Avon Books.
one knot They are the problem of thought, the (Original work published 1900)
problem of imagination, and the problem of will. Piaget, J. (1973). The language and thought of the
The problem of will is introduced in the next child. New York: World. (Original work published
lecture. (1932/1960b, pp. 348-349) 1923)
Smolucha, F. (1992). The relevance of Vygotsky's
theory of creative imagination for contemporary
research on play. Creativity Research Journal, 5,
69-76.
Conclusion Smolucha, L., & Smolucha, F. (1986). L. S.
Vygotsky's theory of creative imagination. Siegener
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