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 Imagination-Focused Therapy: What Type of An Imaginator Are You? 

Mardoche Sidor, MD and Karen Dubin, PhD, LCSW

An imaginator is someone who imagines, especially someone who creates[1]. One way or another we all create since we all have access to the cognitive function of imagination. We saw that in the previous article, Imagination-Focused Therapy (IFT): What is Imagination?  Indeed, imagination is the fuel of our creativity. It will pick out a bit of what we know and will fill in the rest of the picture for us. It is our brain’s ability to form concepts and ideas and sensations internally of what’s happening externally or independently of what’s happening externally.[2] It is, therefore, like a canvas for testing our ideas, and it’s the only freedom we truly have. As such, freedom, safety, and happiness start in our imagination and end right there, too.

In other words, as the Cognitive Neuroscientist Lera Broditsky explained, “The human mind is ingenious -,”[3] and we all have our cognitive function of imagination to thank for that. Our brains, indeed, are creativity engines with unlimited potential output. And the only obstacle is that our cognitive function of imagination is limited by our current frame of reference[4]. How do we overcome such an obstacle?

It starts with knowing what type of imaginator we are. We will then be able to take steps to boost our cognitive function of imagination, or to optimally use it. Let us then look at the four categories of imaginators, which are equivalent to the four personality profiles based on how we use our cognitive function of imagination.

Personality Profile Based on the Use of the Cognitive Function of Imagination: Self-Assessment: What type of an imaginator are you?

What type of an imaginator would you say you are? What would you say is your personality profile? Would you say you are: 1. An idealist? 2. A Body? 3. An Administrator? Or, 4. A Master? Let’s look:

I. If you are An Idealist, it means:

    1. You are aware of your cognitive function of imagination.
    2. You make active use of your cognitive function of imagination
    3. You have some awareness of the workings of your cognitive function of imagination
    4. You lack awareness in how to optimally make use of your cognitive function of imagination to reap its benefits
    5. You may fail to make use of the Process of Inquiry; and if you do, you fail to make optimal use of it
    6. You fail to direct your cognitive function of imagination to a specific aim
    7. You fail to make use of the Imagination Assignment Approach (IAA)
    8. You fail to act upon your cognitive function of imagination

Let us elaborate:

As an Idealist, contrary to most people, you are aware of your cognitive function of imagination. You are aware of its capacity, of its infinite power, and of its inherent nature and quality. You also make use of your cognitive function of your imagination, and you may even have some awareness of how your cognitive function of imagination works. But you are not aware of how to make optimal use of it. You then fail to direct it, and you fail to efficiently act upon it.

What to do:

  1. Learn the proper and optimal use of the cognitive function of imagination
  2. Learn how to direct your cognitive function of imagination to a specific aim
  3. Learn how to efficiently act upon your cognitive function of imagination

II. Are you a Body? If you are a Body, it means:

  1. You have no consciously active use of the cognitive function of imagination
  2. You fail to use the Process of Inquiry
  3. You fail to use the Imagination Assignment Approach (IAA)
  4. You likely do not know how your cognitive function of imagination works
  5. You likely do not know how to use your cognitive function of imagination
  6. You may not know of the existence of your cognitive function of imagination
  7. You do not know that your cognitive function of imagination is who you are

Let us elaborate:

If you know anyone who fits this profile, “They are dead.” They are simply a walking body. They do not know who they are, why things happen, what they have to do with any of these things that happen to them. what to do about them, how to change them; or they don’t think whether they can even change any of these things. Those with this profile are not living. They are dead, as far as evolution is concerned.

What to do: 

They can start by:

  1. Learning about the existence of their cognitive function of imagination
  2. Learning how to make use of their cognitive function of imagination
  3. Learning how their cognitive function of imagination works

III. Are you an Administrator? If you are an Administrator, it means: 

  1. You are aware of the existence of your cognitive function of imagination
  2. You unconsciously make use of your cognitive function of imagination and direct it to a specific aim
  3. You have limited awareness of your cognitive function of imagination and of its inner workings
  4. You fail to make conscious use of the Process of Inquiry
  5. You fail to make conscious use of the Imagination Assignment Approach (IAA)
  6. You are unaware that your cognitive function of imagination is who you are
  7. You have little awareness about the patterns of your unconscious mind

Let us elaborate:

If this is your profile, it explains why you have been getting a lot done. However, it also explains why, despite how much you’ve been trying, you always come up short of being a visionary, and of having innovative, or revolutionary ideas. It also explains why your strategic thinking ability is not fully developed. You do not know how to leverage the cognitive function of imagination.

What to do: 

Start by:

  1. Learning how to make conscious use of your cognitive function of imagination
  2. Learning about the inner workings of your cognitive function of imagination
  3. Learning how to make optimal use of the Process of Inquiry and of the Imagination Assignment Approach (IAA)

IV. Are you a Master? If you are a Master, it means:

  1. You are aware of your cognitive function of imagination and its inner workings
  2. You are aware of the patterns of your unconscious mind
  3. You write down your ideas, and you are very aware of why you do that
  4. You consciously make optimal use of the Imagination Assignment Approach
  5. You consciously make optimal use of the Process of Inquiry
  6. You consciously have natural access to insightful thinking, experiential thinking, and strategic thinking, upon which you act efficiently.
  7. You consciously and successfully make use of your cognitive function of imagination for a specific aim

Let us elaborate:

As a Master, you have been able to:

  1. Realize where you are
  2. Decide, be willing, and commit to consciously evolve
  3. Identify how to do it in the most efficient way and with the most leverage possible
  4. Learn how to make optimal use of your cognitive function of imagination; and
  5. Start working on helping others do the same

Summary of the Profiles: 

  1. If you have an Elevated Awareness of your cognitive function of imagination along with an Elevated Aim, then you are a Master (You know well and you do efficiently)
  2. If you have Little Awareness of your cognitive function of imagination along with an Elevated Aim, then you are an Administrator (You get a lot done, but it is limited. You compensate a lot and do not work efficiently)
  3. If you have an Elevated Awareness of your cognitive function of imagination along with Little Aim, then you are an Idealist (You know a lot, but you fail to deliver. You have a lot of ideas but fail to act. When you act, you fail to act efficiently. When you act efficiently, you fail to focus for long enough)
  4. If you know anyone with Little Awareness of their cognitive function of imagination along with Little Aim, then they are a Body (They neither know well nor do efficiently. They are dead. But no need for despair. There is something we all can do about that.)

What’s next? 

  1. If you are a Master: We congratulate you. We welcome you to the Imagination-Focused Therapy Certificate Course, so you learn with us how to make these powerful principles available for your clients and your colleagues. Click here now to enroll! 
  2. If you are an Administrator: We congratulate you on your ability to use your cognitive function of imagination for a specific aim. However, you’ve been doing so unconsciously, and it is time for you to start making use of your cognitive function of imagination for a specific aim at a conscious level. Further, the reason why this is currently the case for you stems from a lack of awareness around your cognitive function of imagination. Whether it is about the inner makings of your cognitive function of imagination, or about the optimal use of the Process of Inquiry; or the optimal use of the Imagination Assignment Approach, your awareness is rather limited. But you can act now. Enroll now for this upcoming Imagination-Focused Therapy Certificate Course, and shift that around so you then start helping your clients do the same. Click here now to enroll!
  3. If you are an Idealist: We congratulate you on your awareness of your cognitive function of imagination. However, you are failing to make use of your cognitive function of imagination for a specific aim. You will benefit from a decisive shift. And this Imagination-Focused Therapy Certificate Course will help you do just that. Click here now to enroll!
  4. If you know anyone who is a Body, it means they will fully benefit from all four goals of this Imagination-Focused Therapy Certificate Course. Help them enroll here now and make this available for themselves and for their clients. They can click here now to enroll!

As a reminder, the Imagination-Focused Therapy Certificate Course is designed to help get you started, as a clinician, to then make this modality available to your clients. In a previous article entitled, Introducing Imagination-Focused Therapy, we mentioned that as a clinician, you can start using Imagination Focused Therapy in your practice by taking the following steps:

  1. Learn about the science of imagination
  2. Obtain the experiential understanding of how you, just like everyone else, may have been using your cognitive function of imagination
  3. Start to use your imagination with more awareness and to effect change in your own life
  4. Learn how to help your clients do the same

Join us and get yourself started with the Imagination-Focused Certificate Course. Click here now to enroll!

[1] “Imaginator Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imaginator.

[2] Tateo, Luca. “What imagination can teach us about higher mental functions.” Psychology as the science of human being. Springer, Cham, 2016. 149-164.

[3] Boroditsky, Lera. “How Language Shapes the Way We Think.” IRL @ UMSL, https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/13/.

[4] Kind, Amy. “Introduction: exploring the limits of imagination.” Synthese 200.2 (2022): 1-14.

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