Meaning of Imagination

What is Imagination:

Imagination It is the mental capacity to represent images of real or ideal things. It is also an image created by fantasy. Sometimes this term is used to talk about an idea or suspicion that has no basis, especially used in the plural. It also means ease of creating, ideating or projecting new things. It comes from Latin imaginatĭo, -ōnis.

Imagination and creativity

In Psychology, the imagination and creative processes of the human mind are studied. These abilities are valued especially in the artistic field but also in other fields since imagination and creative capacity allow us to obtain new solutions, provide different points of view and relate concepts and ideas in an innovative way. These characteristics are a positive element whenever they have an adaptive element, it is not a simple invention. All human beings have imagination and creativity, since it is an innate capacity. Despite this, some people are often considered to be more imaginative and creative. This ability can be trained and improved through stimulation.

Types of imagination

Imagination can be divided into two types based on the type of images it uses. The reproductive imagination uses images perceived through the senses. Therefore, it uses memory. Depending on the stimulus, we can speak, in turn, of visual, auditory or motor imagination. The creative imagination It uses unperceived images, whether real or unreal. This type of imagination does not create or elaborate new images. Depending on the images used, in turn, the creative imagination can be plastic (more concrete) or diffluent (more abstract and subjective). When the task of creative imagination is oriented towards activities related to art, it is called artistic imagination. We speak of scientific imagination when the objective of this process has practical utility.

The sociological imagination

The sociological imagination is the title of a book by the American sociologist Charles Wright Mills published in 1959. This term used could be defined as the mental quality of the human being that helps to use information to understand biography based on knowledge of what is happening in the world. . It consists of understanding the historical scenario in a broad way in terms of its meaning for the inner life of the human being and his external trajectory. It allows you to locate yourself in your time and know your possibilities in life in relation to understanding those of individuals who find themselves in the same circumstances. With his biography, the human being contributes to shaping society and the course of its history, and he himself is formed by it and its historical impulse.