As discussed in our previous blog, we will be exploring the importance of the Actual and the Imagined. For an in-depth explanation of these topics and their subdivisions, you can read the previous blog here. But for our purposes in this blog, all you have to know is that the “Imagined” describes one’s beliefs about the world, while the “Actual” describes one’s perceptions of the world.
Before we can discuss the application of this framework and its descriptive utility, we must first investigate how we develop our Imagined and Actual. Understanding the development of our Actual and Imagined will allow us to understand the extreme variance that can exist between different peoples’ Actual and Imagined.
The development of our Imagined and Actual is heavily influenced by our upbringing.
As is consistent with psychoanalytic theory, our upbringing plays a major role in the development of our Actual and Imagined. The way we behave as adults and interact with others is determined by the ways we were raised as children. Broadly, Attachment Theory is a set of concepts that explain the emotional bond between an infant and its caregiver, and how these bonds affect the child into adulthood.
There has been much discussion about why attachment occurs and its effects on our psychology, but I propose that the most meaningful impact attachment has on us, is by modifying and procuring our Actual and Imagined. This means that the way we are raised heavily influences the things we believe about ourselves, what we should expect from others, our willingness and ease of entering relationships with others, and more.
For instance, suppose your caregiver was unavailable throughout your childhood. It has been demonstrated empirically that that child will grow up and avoid close emotional relationships. Now, why does this happen? I propose that this is a byproduct of that child’s Imagined Other being altered. When that child’s attention and love is being unreciprocated from its caregivers, that child will modify its Imagined Other to believe that they shouldn’t expect reciprocation in emotional relationships.
There are a thousand and one ways that our upbringing influences the ways we grow up, but the attachment styles described by Attachment Theory give us a good guideline on how our upbringing alters our Imagined and Actual.
As an addendum, I should add that our upbringing is not the only thing that influences the development of our Actual and Imagined. There are a whole host of cultural and societal expectations that influence the way we think about the world and ourselves.
If you have any comments, criticisms, or questions, please comment them below!
I absolutely love this blog. I learned about psychanalytical theory in my college English class senior year, and I use it all the time (sometimes unnecessarily). I completely agree that our upbringing affects our Imagined and Actual. During childhood, our environment and family life helps to develop our core beliefs, and depending on what those core beliefs are, they can alter how you see the world and influence your beliefs. The way we were raised can influence how we act as adults.
I find the attachment theory extremely interesting. The graphic gives me an interesting insight into what you could feel in your relationships (tbh I am either anxious or fearful and it is not wrong). I think you have an interesting perspective on how attachment affects us. You make a good point that it modifies and procures our Imagined and Actual. In childhood, the bonds we create and people we associate with can heavily influence everything that you listed in your blog.
I think you did a great job! We can bond over our psychology-oriented blogs 🙂