Relation  of  Daydreaming  to  the  Creative  Imagination

There  are  a  few  adults  who  say  that  they  never  daydream,
but  their  papers  show  that  they  have  restricted  the  meaning  of
the  word  to  an  exercise  of  the  imagination  which  has  no  foun-
dation in  fact  and  which  has  been  set  aside  as  a  childish  mode
of  mental  action.  In  the  broader  sense  of  the  term  it  is  proba-
ble that  every  normal  mind  exhibits  certain  automatisms  in  its
reproductive  activities,  whether  these  be  unaltered  memory
images  or  imaginative  transformations  and  combinations  which
are  a  true  creative  activity.  The  richer  the  content  of  the
mind,  the  greater  the  variety  and  spontaneity  of  the  daydream
and  the  greater  the  possibility  that  from  its  automatic  working
new  and  original  combinations  may  arise.    A  psychological


74  CHILD  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION

study  of  inventors  would  probably  reveal  the  fact  that  many
of  the  great  inventions,  though  sought  and  worked  over  for
years,  have  come  at  last  in  a  flash  of  insight  through  the
automatic  workings  of  a  mind  filled  with  all  the  possibilities
of  the  subject.  Indeed  we  know  this  to  have  been  the  case  with
many  scientific  discoveries  ;  and  the  biographies  of  artists,  au-
thors, and  scientists  emphasize  the  fact  that  many  of  them  have
been  daydreamers  in  boyhood,  but  always  along  with  this  has
coexisted  the  fact  of  special  interest  and  activity  along  some
particular  line,  even  though  there  were  deficiencies  in  other
directions.  Herbert  Spencer  (13)  has  recorded  in  his  autobiog-
raphy the  fact  that  he  was,  during  his  boyhood,  "extremely  prone
to  castle  building,"  and  that  the  habit  continued  even  into  mature
life.  This  habit,  while  usually  indulged  in  at  bedtime,  was  fre-
quently a  cause  of  annoying  absent-mindedness.  In  later  years
he  wrote  :  **  I  believe  that  it  is  a  general  belief  that  castle  build-
ing is  detrimental ;  but  I  am  by  no  means  sure  that  this  is  so.
