Fantasy-prone personality
Fantasy prone personality (FPP) is a disposition or personality trait in which a person experiences an extensive and deep involvement in fantasy.[1] An individual with this trait (termed a fantasizer) may have difficulty differentiating between fantasy and reality and may experience hallucinations and out-of-body experiences, as well as self-suggested psychosomatic symptoms.
History
Psychologists Sheryl C. Wilson and Theodore X. Barber are credited with identifying FPP in 1981, said to apply to about 4% of the population.[2] Besides identifying this fascinating trait, Wilson and Barber reported a number of childhood antecedents that likely caused the foundation for fantasy proneness in later life, such as "a parent, grandparent, teacher, or friend who encouraged the reading of fairy tales, reinforced the child's make-[beliefs] and fantasies, and treated the child's dolls and stuffed animals in ways that encouraged the child to believe that they were alive." They suggested that this trait was almost synonymous with who responded dramatically to hypnotic induction or "high hypnotizables."[1] Later research by in the '90 by Deirdre Barrett at Harvard confirmed most of these characteristics of fantasy prone people, but she also identified another set of highly hypnotizable subjects who had had traumatic childhoods and who identified fantasy time mainly by "spacing out."[3]
Characteristic features
A fantasy prone person is reported to spend a large portion of his or her time fantasizing, have vividly intense fantasies, have paranormal experiences, and have intense religious experiences.[4] The fantasies may include dissociation and sexual fantasies. People with FPP are reported to spend over half of their time awake fantasizing or daydreaming and will often confuse or mix their fantasies with their real memories. They also report out-of-body experiences.[4] People with Fantasy Prone Personality are more likely to have had parents, or closely related family members that have made their inanimate toys as children seem real. They also encourage the child who believes they have imaginary friends, reads fairytales all through childhood and re-enacts the things they have read. Children who at a young age were involved in creative fantasy activities like piano, ballet, and drawing are more likely to obtain a fantasy prone personality. This is due to the child being emotionally involved into these activites. Acting is also a way for children to "become" different people and characters which can make the child prone to fantasy like dreams as they grow up. This creates the person to grow up thinking they have experienced certain things and they can visualize a certain occurence from the training they obtained while being involved in plays. A person who has a lonely and isolated life is also prone to this personality disorder to create a fulfilling life. Sigmund Freud also stated that "unsatisfied wishes are the driving power behind fantasies, every separate fantasy contains the fulfillment of a wish, and unproves an unsatisfactory reality." This shows that being lonely you create a fantasy world of happiness to fill the void. Young children who once were treated with abuse and had a parent leave created a world of fantasies to escape from reality.[5]
Wilson and Barber also put forth 14 characteristics in their 1981 study. They require having 6 or more of these traits to be diagnosed with "Fantasy Proneness". These are:
- excellent hypnotic subject
- having imaginary friends as child
- fantasizing often as child
- having an actual fantasy identity
- experiencing imagined sensations as real
- having vivid sensory perceptions
- reliving past experiences
- claiming psychic powers
- having out-of-body experiences
- receiving information from higher powers, spirits, intelligences
- involved in "healing"
- encountered apparitions
- hypnogogic hallucinations (waking dreams)
- seeing hypnogogic hallucinations (ghosts, aliens, etc)[6]
- claiming to have been abducted
- believes they can receive sexual satisfaction without any stimulation[7]
Research has shown that fantasizers often had a large amount of exposure to fantasy during childhood. People have reported that they believed their dolls and stuffed animals were living creatures and that their parents encouraged them to indulge in their fantasies and daydreams.[4] For example, one subject in Barrett’s study said her parents’ formula response to her requests for expensive toys was, “You could take this . . .(household object) and with a little imagination, it would look just like . . . (that $200-whatever-Susie-just-got).” And she reported, “this worked for me—although Susie couldn’t quite always see it.” Fantasy prone people generally functioned well in their adult life.[8]
See also
References
- ^ a b Lynn, Steven J., and Judith W. Rhue. "The fantasy-prone person: Hypnosis, imagination, and creativity." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1986: 404-408. 20 Apr. 2009.
- ^ Wilson, S. C. & Barber, T. X. "The fantasy-prone personality: Implications for understanding imagery, hypnosis, and parapsychological phenomena." In, A. A. Sheikh (editor), Imagery: Current Theory, Research and Application (pp. 340-390). New York: Wiley.
- ^ Barrett, D. L. The Hypnotic Dream: Its Content in Comparison to Nocturnal Dreams and Waking Fantasy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1979, Vol. 88, p. 584 591; Barrett, D. L. Fantasizers and Dissociaters: Two types of High Hypnotizables, Two Imagery Styles. in R. Kusendorf, N. Spanos, & B. Wallace (Eds.) Hypnosis and Imagination, NY: Baywood, 1996; & Barrett, D. L. Dissociaters, Fantasizers, and their Relation to Hypnotizability in Barrett, D. L. (Ed.) Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, (2 vol.): Vol. 1: History, theory and general research, Vol. 2: Psychotherapy research and applications, NY, NY: Praeger/Greenwood, 2010.
- ^ a b c Horselenberg, Robert, et al. "The Creative Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ): a brief self-report measure of fantasy proneness." Personality and Individual Differences 2001: 987-995. 20 Apr. 2009.
- ^ Rhue, Judith W., and Steven Jay Lynn. "Fantasy Proneness: Developmental Antecedents." Journal Of Personality 55.1 (1987): 121. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Dec. 2011.
- ^ Novella, Steven (2007-04-03). "The Fantasy Prone Personality". Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- ^ Rhue,Lynn, Judith,Steven. "Fantasy Proneness:developmental antecedents". Retrieved 2011-12-02.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Barrett, D. L. Dissociaters, Fantasizers, and their Relation to Hypnotizability, Chapter 2 in Barrett, D. L. (Ed.) Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, (2 vol.) NY, NY: Praeger/Greenwood, 2010, p. 62-63.