PATHOLOGIC DREAMING This is a modern term used to describe phenomena which depend on abnormal imaginative activity-. The imaginative faculty is normally much more active in the child than in the adult, as any one can con vince himself by observing a child at play-. It becomes pathologic only when the things seen and the acts performed in imagination are so vivid as to produce the impression of actual occurrences; the child is under the. sway of its daydreams, which determine its actions quite as much as the real things in life- It is a peculiarity of these daydreams that they chiefly relate to the child's own personality and make it appear in a variety of fantastic characters and situations. Since the child fails to distinguish clearly in its mind between dream and reality, a pathologic change is gradually brought about in the "autopsyche." Clinically, the disorder manifests itself, as A. Pick has explained in great detail, in "conspiracies" among schoolboys, the organization of "robber bands," fantastic excursions about the country, etc. The pathologic
lie also appears to be produced by this psychic alteration, by virtue of which imagined occurrences are treated as if they were real.
In the experience of teachers there is not so much harm in the kind of imagination that keeps in touch with thy reality through the medium of books, dolls and toys, but rather in the imagination which shuts itself off from the outer world and occupies itself chiefly with the child's own personality (Pick). The importance of recognizing this fact is quite obvious from the therapeutic viewpoint. It is not neeessary to suppress every imaginative impulse and merely to foster a rational insight into things; but the child must be kept from occupying its imagination exclusively with its own personality by encouraging it to play- or by giving it some interesting and rational work to do, such as making collections of various kinds, manual work, drawing and the like, and preventing mental idleness.