מאַסטערינג היים פּלאַץ אין אַקשאַנז און פאַנטאַסיז

Mastering the home space and mastering the space of one’s own body — the carnal home of the soul — go in parallel paths for a small child and, as a rule, simultaneously.

Firstly, both of them are subject to general laws, since they are two sides of the same process associated with the development of the child’s intellect.

Secondly, the child learns the surrounding space through active movement in it, living and literally measuring it with his body, which here becomes something like a measuring device, a scale ruler. It is not for nothing that the ancient measures of length are based on the dimensions of individual parts of the human body — the thickness of the finger, the length of the palm and foot, the distance from the hand to the elbow, the length of the step, etc. That is, by experience, the child discovers for himself that his body is a universal module, in relation to which the parameters of external space are evaluated: where I can reach, where I can jump from, where I can climb, how far I can reach. Between a year and two, the child becomes so mobile, agile and persistent in his research activities in the house that the mother, not keeping up with him, sometimes sadly recalls that blessed time when her baby lay quietly in his bed.

Interacting with objects, the child lives the distances between them, their size and shape, heaviness and density, and at the same time learns the physical parameters of his own body, feels their unity and constancy. Thanks to this, an image of his own body is formed in him — a necessary constant in the system of spatial coordinates. The lack of an idea of ​​the size of his body is immediately noticeable in the way, for example, a child tries to slip into a gap that is too narrow for him between the bed and the floor, or crawl between the legs of a small chair. If a small child tries everything on his own skin and learns by stuffing bumps, then an older man will already figure out where I can climb and where not — and based on the muscular-motor ideas about himself and his boundaries, which are stored in his memory, he will make a decision — I will climb or retreat. Therefore, it is so important for the child to gain experience in various bodily interactions with objects in the three-dimensional space of the house. Due to its constancy, this environment can be mastered by the child gradually — his body lives it in multiple repetitions. For the child, it is important not just to satisfy the desire to move, but to know oneself and the environment through movement, which becomes a means of collecting information. Not without reason, in the first two years of life, a child has an intellect, which the largest child psychologist of the XNUMXth century, Jean Piaget, called sensorimotor, that is, sensing, knowing everything through the movements of his own body and manipulating objects. It’s great if parents respond to this motor-cognitive need of the child, giving him the opportunity to satisfy it at home: crawl on the carpet and on the floor, climb under and on various objects, and also add special devices to the apartment’s terrier, such as a gymnastic corner with Swedish wall, rings, etc.

As the child “gets the gift of speech”, the space around him and the space of his own body are detailed, filled with separate objects that have their own names. When an adult tells a child the names of things and body parts of the child himself, this greatly changes the status of the existence of all named objects for him. What has a name becomes more existing. The word does not allow the current mental perception to spread and disappear, as it were, it stops the flow of impressions, fixes their existence in memory, helps the child to find and identify them again in the space of the surrounding world or in his own body: “Where is Masha’s nose? Where are the hairs? Show me where the closet is. Where is the window? Where is the car bed?

The more objects are named in the world — unique characters on the stage of life, the richer and fuller the world becomes for the child. In order for the child to quickly begin to navigate in the space of his own body, and especially its contact, capable, expressive parts — hands and head — folk pedagogy offered many games like: “Magpie-crow, cooked porridge, fed children: she gave this, this gave … ”- with fingering, etc. However, the discovery of unnoticed, unfelt, unnamed parts of the body continues for many years of the later life of a child, and sometimes an adult.

So, O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva, who in the 1960s and 70s headed the well-known St. realized that people have a neck. Of course, he knew very well about the formal existence of the neck before, but only the need to depict a neck with beads, that is, to describe it using the language of drawing, as well as a conversation about this with a teacher, led him to the discovery. It excited the boy so much that he asked to go out and, rushing to his grandmother, who was waiting for him in the corridor, joyfully said: “Grandma, it turns out I have a neck, look! Show me yours!

Do not be surprised at this episode if, it turns out, many adults, describing their faces, confuse the lower jaw with the cheekbone, do not know where the ankle is or what the genitals are called.

Therefore, it is so important that an adult enrich the child’s vocabulary all the time, naming the things around him, giving them detailed definitions, highlighting significant features and thereby filling the space of the world that opens up to the child with various and meaningful objects. Then in his own house he will no longer confuse an armchair with a chair, he will distinguish a sideboard from a chest of drawers, not because they are in different places, but because he will know their characteristic features.

After the stage of naming (nomination), the next step in the symbolic development of the environment is the awareness of spatial relationships between objects: more — less, closer — farther, above — below, inside — outside, in front — behind. It proceeds as the speech masters spatial prepositions — «in», «on», «under», «above», «to», «from» — and the child establishes their connection with the motor schemes of the corresponding actions: put on the table, in front of table, under the table, etc. Between three and four years, when the scheme of the main spatial relationships is already more or less fixed in verbal form; space is structured, gradually becoming a harmonious spatial system for the child. There are already basic coordinates inside it, and it begins to fill with symbolic meanings. It was then that a picture of the world is formed in children’s drawings with Heaven and Earth, Top and Bottom, between which the events of life unfold. We already talked about this in chapter 1.

So, the process of the child’s assimilation of the spatial-objective environment of his home on the intrapsychic plane is manifested in the fact that the child forms a structural image of the space in which he is located. This is the level of psychic mechanisms, and to the inexperienced observer it may not be noticeable at all, despite its exceptional importance as a foundation for many other events.

But, of course, the relationship of the child to the house is not limited to this, because it is, first of all, emotional and personal. In the world of the native home, the child is by birthright, he was brought there by his parents. And at the same time it is a large, complex world, arranged by adults who manage it, saturate it with themselves, create a special atmosphere in it, permeate it with their relationships, fixed in the choice of objects, the way they are arranged, in the entire organization of the internal space. Therefore, mastering it, i.e., knowing, feeling, understanding, learning to be in it alone and with people, determining one’s place, acting there independently, and even more so managing it, is a long-term task for the child, which he solves gradually. Over the years, he will learn the difficult art of living at home, discovering new aspects of home life at each age.

For a one-year-old, it is important to crawl, climb, reach the intended goal. A two or three year old discovers many things, their names, their use, their accessibility and prohibition. Between the ages of two and five, the child gradually develops the ability to visualize in the mind and fantasize.

This is a qualitatively new event in the intellectual life of the child, which will revolutionize many aspects of his life.

Previously, the child was a prisoner of the specific situation where he was. He was affected only by what he directly saw, heard, felt. The dominant principle of his spiritual life was here and now, the principle of activity — stimulus-reaction.

Now he discovers that he has gained a new ability to double the world by presenting imaginary images on the inner psychic screen. This gives him the opportunity to simultaneously stay in the externally visible world (here and now) and in the imaginary world of his fantasies (there and then), arising from real events and things.

An amazing property of the child’s attitude during this period (as well as several years later) is that most of the significant objects surrounding the child in everyday life are presented in his fantasies as the heroes of many events. Dramatic situations play out around them, they become participants in strange series, created by a child every day.

Mom does not even suspect that, looking at the soup in a bowl, the child sees the underwater world with algae and sunken ships, and making grooves in the porridge with a spoon, he imagines that these are gorges among the mountains along which the heroes of his story make their way.

Sometimes in the morning parents do not know who is sitting in front of them in the form of their own child: whether it is their daughter Nastya, or Chanterelle, who neatly spreads her fluffy tail and requires for breakfast only what foxes eat. In order not to get into trouble, it is useful for poor adults to ask the child in advance who they are dealing with today.

This new capacity for imagination gives the child entirely new degrees of freedom. It allows him to be extremely active and autocratic in the amazing inner world of the psyche, which begins to form in the child. The internal psychic screen on which imaginary events unfold is somewhat similar to a computer screen. In principle, you can easily call up any image on it (it would be a skill!), change it as you like, present events that are impossible in reality, make the action unfold as quickly as it does not happen in the real world with the usual flow of time. The child masters all these skills gradually. But the emergence of such a psychic ability is of great importance for his personality. After all, all these amazing opportunities that the child eagerly begins to use give a feeling of his own strength, capacity, and mastery of imaginary situations. This is in sharp contrast to the child’s for the time being low ability to manage objects and events in the real physical world, where things obey him little.

By the way, if you do not develop the child’s contacts with real objects and people, do not encourage him to act «in the world», he can give in to the difficulties of life. In this world of physical reality that resists us, does not always obey our desires, and requires skills, it is sometimes important for a person to suppress the temptation to dive and hide in the illusory world of fantasy, where everything is easy.

Toys are a psychologically special class of things for a child. By their very nature, they are designed to embody, «objectify» children’s fantasies. In general, children’s thinking is characterized by animism — a tendency to endow inanimate objects with a soul, inner strength and the ability for an independent hidden life. We will encounter this phenomenon in one of the following chapters, where we will talk about children’s paganism in relations with the outside world.

It is this string of the child’s psyche that is always touched by self-propelled toys: mechanical chickens that can peck, dolls that close their eyes and say “mother”, walking cubs, etc. In an enchanted child (and sometimes even an adult), such toys always resonate, because in his soul he knows inwardly that this is how it should be — they are alive, but they hide it. During the day, toys dutifully fulfill the will of their owners, but at some special moments, in particular at night, the secret becomes clear. The toys left to themselves begin to live their own, full of passions and desires, an active life. This exciting topic, connected with the secrets of the existence of the objective world, is so significant that it has become one of the traditional motifs of children’s literature. The toy nightlife is at the heart of E.-T.-A.’s The Nutcracker. Hoffmann, «Black Hen» by A. Pogorelsky and many other books, and from the works of modern authors — the famous «Journey of the Blue Arrow» by J. Rodari. The Russian artist Alexander Benois, in his famous ABC of 1904, chose this very theme to illustrate the letter «I», which depicts the tensely mysterious animation of the nocturnal community of Toys.

עס טורנס אויס אַז כּמעט אַלע קינדער טענד צו פאַנטאַסייז וועגן זייער היים און כּמעט יעדער קינד האט באַליבסטע "אַבדזשעקץ פון קלערן", פאָוקיסינג אויף וואָס ער פּלאַנדזשיז אין זיין חלומות. גײן שלאָפֿן, קוקט עמעצער אַף אַ אָרט אױפֿן סטעליע, װאָס קוקט אױס װי דער קאָפּ פֿון אַ בערדיקן פעטער, עמעצן ― אַ מוסטער אױפֿן טאַפּעטן, װאָס דערמאָנט מיט מאָדנע חיות, און טראַכט עפּעס װעגן זײ. אײן מײדל האט געזאגט, אז איבער איר בעט איז געהאנגען א הירש־הויט, און יעדן אװנט, ליגנדיק אין בעט, האט זי געשלאגן איר הירש און פארפאםט נאך א מעשה װעגן זײנע אװאנטן.

Inside a room, apartment or house, the child identifies for himself his favorite places where he plays, dreams, where he retires. If you are in a bad mood, you can hide under a hanger with a whole bunch of coats, hide there from the whole world and sit like in a house. Or crawl under a table with a long tablecloth and press your back against a warm radiator.

איר קענען קוקן פֿאַר אינטערעס אין אַ קליין פֿענצטער פון די קאָרידאָר פון אַן אַלט וווינונג, אָוווערלוקינג די הינטער טרעפּ - וואָס קענען זיין געזען דאָרט? - און ימאַדזשאַן וואָס קען זיין געזען דאָרט אויב פּלוצלינג ...

There are frightening places in the apartment that the child tries to avoid. Here, for example, is a small brown door in a wall niche in the kitchen, adults put food there, in a cool place, but for a five-year-old child this can be the most terrible place: blackness gapes behind the door, it seems that there is a failure into some other world where something terrible might come from. On his own initiative, the child will not approach such a door and will not open it for anything.

One of the biggest problems of children’s fantasizing is related to the underdevelopment of self-awareness in a child. Because of this, he often cannot distinguish what is reality and what is his own experiences and fantasies that have enveloped this object, stuck to it. In general, this problem is also in adults. But in children, such a fusion of the real and the fantasy can be very strong and gives the child many difficulties.

אין שטוב, אַ קינד קענען סיימאַלטייניאַסלי קאָויגזיסטירן אין צוויי פאַרשידענע ריאַלאַטיז - אין דער באַקאַנט וועלט פון אַרומיק אַבדזשעקץ, ווו אַדאַלץ קאָנטראָלירן און באַשיצן דעם קינד, און אין אַ ויסגעטראַכט אייגענע וועלט סופּעראַמפּאָוזד אויף שפּיץ פון וואָכעדיק לעבן. ער איז אויך פאַקטיש פֿאַר דעם קינד, אָבער ומזעיק פֿאַר אנדערע מענטשן. אַקקאָרדינגלי, עס איז נישט בנימצא פֿאַר אַדאַלץ. כאָטש די זעלבע אַבדזשעקץ קענען זיין אין ביידע וועלטן אין אַמאָל, ווייל, אָבער, פאַרשידענע עסאַנסאַז דאָרט. עס מיינט צו זיין נאָר אַ שוואַרץ מאַנטל כאַנגגינג, אָבער איר קוק - ווי אויב עמעצער איז סקערי.

In this world, adults will protect the child, in that world they cannot help, since they do not enter there. Therefore, if it becomes scary in that world, you need to quickly run to this one, and even shout loudly: “Mom!” Sometimes the child himself does not know at what moment the scenery will change and he will fall into the imaginary space of another world — this happens unexpectedly and instantly. Of course, this happens more often when adults are not around, when they do not keep the child in everyday reality with their presence, conversation.

פֿאַר רובֿ קינדער, דער אַוועק פון עלטערן אין שטוב איז אַ שווער מאָמענט. זיי פילן פֿאַרלאָזן, פאַרטיידיקונג, און די געוויינטלעך צימערן און זאכן אָן דערוואַקסענער, ווי עס איז געווען, אָנהייבן צו לעבן זייער אייגן ספּעציעל לעבן, ווערן אַנדערש. דאס פאסירט ביינאכט, אין דער פינצטער, ווען מען אנטפלעקט די פינצטערע, באהאלטענע זייטן פונעם לעבן פון פארהאנגן און גאַרדעראָבן, קליידער אויף אַ הענגער און מאָדנע, אומדערקענען זאַכן, וואָס דאָס קינד האָט פריער נישט באמערקט.

If mom has gone to the store, then some children are afraid to move in the chair even during the day until she comes. Other children are especially afraid of portraits and posters of people. One eleven-year-old girl told her friends how afraid she was of the Michael Jackson poster hanging on the inside of her room door. If the mother left the house, and the girl did not have time to leave this room, then she could only sit huddled on the sofa until her mother arrived. It seemed to the girl that Michael Jackson was about to step down from the poster and strangle her. Her friends nodded sympathetically — her anxiety was understandable and close. The girl did not dare to remove the poster or open her fears to her parents — it was they who hung it. They really liked Michael Jackson, and the girl was “big and should not be afraid.”

דער קינד פילט זיך פאַרטיידיקונג אויב, ווי עס מיינט צו אים, ער איז נישט ליב גענוג, אָפט פארמשפט און פארווארפן, לינקס אַליין פֿאַר אַ לאַנג צייַט, מיט טראַפ אָדער פּריקרע מענטשן, לינקס אַליין אין אַ וווינונג ווו עס זענען עפּעס געפערלעך שכנים.

אפילו אַ דערוואַקסן מיט פּערסיסטענט קינדשאַפט מורא פון דעם מין איז מאל מער דערשראָקן פון זיין אַליין אין שטוב ווי גיין אַליין אויף אַ טונקל גאַס.

Any weakening of the parental protective field, which should reliably envelop the child, causes anxiety in him and a feeling that the impending danger will easily break through the thin shell of the physical house and reach him. It turns out that for a child, the presence of loving parents seems to be a stronger shelter than all the doors with locks.

Since the topic of home security and scary fantasies are relevant for almost all children of a certain age, they are reflected in children’s folklore, in traditional scary stories that are passed down orally from generation to generation of children.

One of the most widespread stories throughout Russia tells how a certain family with children lives in a room where there is a suspicious spot on the ceiling, wall or floor — red, black or yellow. Sometimes it is discovered when moving to a new apartment, sometimes one of the family members accidentally puts it on — for example, a teacher mom dripped red ink on the floor. Usually the heroes of the horror story try to scrub or wash this stain, but they fail. At night, when all family members fall asleep, the stain reveals its sinister essence. At midnight, it begins to slowly grow, becoming large, like a hatch. Then the stain opens, from there a huge red, black or yellow (according to the color of the stain) hand protrudes, which, one after another, from night to night, takes all family members into the stain. But one of them, more often a child, still manages to “follow” the hand and then he runs and declares to the police. On the last night, the policemen ambush, hide under the beds, and put a doll instead of a child. He also sits under the bed. When a hand grabs this doll at midnight, the police jump out, take it away and run to the attic, where they discover a witch, a bandit or a spy. It was she who pulled the magic hand or he pulled his mechanical hand with a motor to drag family members to the attic, where they were killed or even eaten by her (him). In some cases, the police immediately shoot the villain, and family members immediately come to life.

It is dangerous not to close doors and windows, making the house accessible to evil forces, for example in the form of a black sheet flying through the city. This is the case with forgetful or rebellious children who leave doors and windows open in defiance of an order from their mother or a voice on the radio warning them of impending danger.

A child, the hero of a scary story, can feel safe only if there are no holes in his house — even potential ones, in the form of a stain — that could open as a passage to the outside world, full of dangers.

עס מיינט געפערלעך פֿאַר קינדער צו ברענגען אין די הויז פון די אַרויס פרעמד אַבדזשעקץ וואָס זענען פרעמד צו דער היים וועלט. די אומגליק פון די העלדן פון אן אנדער באקאנט פּלאַנעווען פון גרויל דערציילונגען הייבט זיך ווען איינער פון די משפּחה מיטגלידער קויפן און ברענגען אין די הויז אַ נייַ זאַך: שוואַרץ קערטאַנז, אַ ווייַס פּיאַנע, אַ פּאָרטרעט פון אַ פרוי מיט אַ רויט רויז, אָדער אַ פיגיערין פון אַ ווייַס באַללערינאַ. בײנאכט , װע ן אלעמע ן שלאפ ן , װע ט דע ר באלערינע ר האנ ט זי ך אויסשטרעק ן או ן שטעכ ן מי ט א פארגיפטע ר נאד ל אויפ ן ענד ן פינגער , ד י פרו י פו ן פארטראט ן װע ט דא ם זעלב ן װעל ן טאן , ד י שװארצ ע פארהאנג ן װעל ן דערשטיק ן או ן ד י מכשפה ע קריכ ט זי ך אוים . אַרױס פֿון דער װײַסן פּיאַנע.

True, these horrors occur in horror stories only if the parents are gone — to the cinema, to visit, to work the night shift or fall asleep, which equally deprives their children of protection and opens access to evil.

וואָס אין פרי קינדשאַפט איז אַ פּערזענלעך דערפאַרונג פון דעם קינד ביסלעכווייַז ווערט דער מאַטעריאַל פון די קאָלעקטיוו באוווסטזיין פון דעם קינד. דער מאַטעריאַל איז אויסגעארבעט דורך קינדער אין גרופּע סיטואַטיאָנס פון דערציילן סקערי מעשיות, פאַרפעסטיקט אין די טעקסטן פון קינדער 'ס פאָלקלאָר און איבערגעגעבן צו די ווייַטער דורות פון קינדער, און ווערן אַ פאַרשטעלן פֿאַר זייער נייַע פערזענלעכע פּראַדזשעקשאַנז.

Russian children usually tell such traditional scary stories to each other between the ages of 6-7 and 11-12, although the fears metaphorically reflected in them arise much earlier. In these stories, the early childhood ideal of a home-protection continues to be preserved — a space closed on all sides without openings to the outside dangerous world, a house that looks like a bag or a mother’s womb.

In the drawings of three or four-year-old children, one can often find such simple images of the house. One of them can be seen in Fig. 3-2.

In it, the kitten sits like in the uterus. From above — that is, so that it is clear that this is a house. The main function of the house is to protect the Kitten, who was left alone, and his mother left. Therefore, there are no windows or doors in the house — dangerous holes through which something alien can penetrate inside. Just in case, the Kitten has a protector: next to it is the same, but a very tiny house with the same one — this is the kennel where the Dog belongs to the Kitten lives. The image of the Dog did not fit in such a small space, so the girl marked it with a dark lump. A realistic detail — the circles near the houses are the bowls of the Kitten and the Dog. Now we can easily recognize the Mouse’s house on the right, pointed, with round ears and a long tail. The mouse is the object of interest of the Cat. Since there will be a hunt for the Mouse, a large house has been made for her, closed on all sides, with the one where she is safe. On the left there is another interesting character — Teenage Kitten. He is already big, and he can be alone on the street.

Well, the last hero of the picture is the author himself, the girl Sasha. She chose the best place for herself — between heaven and earth, above all events, and settled down there freely, taking up a lot of space, on which the letters of her Name were placed. The letters are turned in different directions, the person is still four years old! But the child is already able to materialize his presence in the space of the world he has created, to establish his special position as a master there. The method of presenting one’s «I» — writing the Name — is in the mind of the child at this moment the highest form of cultural achievement.

If we compare the perception of the border of the house in the cultural and psychological tradition of children and in the folk culture of adults, then we can notice an undoubted similarity in the understanding of windows and doors as places of communication with the outside world that are especially dangerous for a resident of the house. Indeed, in the folk tradition it was believed that it was on the border of the two worlds that dark forces were concentrated — dark, formidable, alien to man. Therefore, traditional culture paid special attention to the magical protection of windows and doors — openings to the outer space. The role of such protection, embodied in architectural forms, was played, in particular, by patterns of platbands, lions at the gate, etc.

But for children’s consciousness, there are other places of potential breakthroughs of a rather thin protective shell of the house into the space of another world. Such existential «holes» for the child arise where there are local violations of the homogeneity of surfaces that attract his attention: spots, unexpected doors, which the child perceives as hidden passages to other spaces. As our surveys have shown, most often children are afraid of closets, pantries, fireplaces, mezzanines, various doors in the walls, unusual small windows, pictures, stains and cracks at home. Children are frightened by the holes in the toilet bowl, and even more so by the wooden “glasses” of village latrines. The child reacts in the same way to some closed objects that have a capacity inside and can become a container for another world and its dark forces: cabinets, from where coffins on wheels leave in horror stories; suitcases where gnomes live; the space under the bed where dying parents sometimes ask their children to put them after death, or the inside of a white piano where a witch lives under a lid. In children’s scary stories, it even happens that a bandit jumps out of a new box and takes the poor heroine there too. The real disproportion of the spaces of these objects is of no importance here, since the events of the children’s story take place in the world of mental phenomena, where, as in a dream, the physical laws of the material world do not operate. In psychic space, for example, as is commonly seen in children’s horror stories, something grows or shrinks in size according to the amount of attention directed to that object.

So, for individual children’s terrible fantasies, the motif of the child’s removal or falling out of the world of the House into the Other Space through a certain magical opening is characteristic. This motif is reflected in various ways in the products of the collective creativity of children — the texts of children’s folklore. But it is also widely found in children’s literature. For example, as a story about a child leaving inside a picture hanging on the wall of his room (the analogue is inside a mirror; let’s remember Alice in the Looking Glass). As you know, whoever hurts, he talks about it. Add to this — and listens to it with interest.

The fear of falling into another world, which is metaphorically presented in these literary texts, has real grounds in the psychology of children. We remember that this is an early childhood problem of the merging of two worlds in the child’s perception: the visible world and the world of mental events projected onto it as a screen. The age-related cause of this problem (we do not consider pathology) is a lack of mental self-regulation, the unformed mechanisms of self-awareness, removal, in the old way — sobriety, which make it possible to distinguish one from the other and cope with the situation. Therefore, a healthy and somewhat mundane being that returns the child to reality is usually adult.

In this sense, as a literary example, we will be interested in the chapter «A Hard Day» from the famous book by the Englishwoman P. L. Travers «Mary Poppins».

On that bad day, Jane — the little heroine of the book — did not go well at all. She spat so much with everyone at home that her brother, who also became her victim, advised Jane to leave home so that someone would adopt her. Jane was left home alone for her sins. And as she burned with indignation against her family, she was easily lured into their company by three boys, painted on an old dish that hung on the wall of the room. Note that Jane’s departure to the green lawn to the boys was facilitated by two important points: Jane’s unwillingness to be in the home world and a crack in the middle of the dish, formed from an accidental blow inflicted by a girl. That is, her home world cracked and the food world cracked, as a result of which a gap was formed through which Jane got into another space. The boys invited Jane to leave the lawn through the forest to the old castle where their great-grandfather lived. And the longer it went on, the worse it got. Finally, it dawned on her that she was lured, they would not let her go back, and there was nowhere to return, since there was another, ancient time. In relation to him, in the real world, her parents had not yet been born, and her House Number Seventeen in Cherry Lane had not yet been built.

דזשיין האט געשריגן אין די שפּיץ פון איר לונגען: "מרים פּאָפּפּינס! הילף! מרים פּאָפּפּינס! » או ן טראץ דע ר װידערשטאנ ד פו ן ד י אײנװוינע ר פו ן דע ר מאכל , האב ן ד י שטארק ע הענט , גליקלע ך ארויסגעװיזן , ד י הענ ט פו ן מרי ם פאפפינס , אי ר ארויסגעצויג ן פו ן דארט .

“Oh, it’s you! Jane murmured. «I thought you didn’t hear me!» I thought I would have to stay there forever! I thought…

"עטלעכע מענטשן," האט מרים פּאָפּפּינס, דזשענטלי לאָוערינג איר צו די שטאָק, "טראַכטן צו פיל. בלי ספק. ווישן דיין פּנים, ביטע.

She handed Jane her handkerchief and began to set the dinner.

So, Mary Poppins has fulfilled her function of an adult, brought the girl back to reality, And now Jane is already enjoying the comfort, warmth and peace that emanates from familiar household items. The experience of horror goes far, far away.

But Travers’s book would never have become the favorite of many generations of children around the world if it had ended so prosaically. Telling her brother the story of her adventure that evening, Jane looked again at the dish and found there visible signs that both she and Mary Poppins had really been in that world. On the green lawn of the dish lay Mary’s dropped scarf with her initials, and the knee of one of the drawn boys remained tied with Jane’s handkerchief. That is, it is still true that two worlds coexist — That and This. You just need to be able to go back from there, while Mary Poppins helps the children — the heroes of the book. Moreover, together with her they often find themselves in very strange situations, from which it is rather difficult to recover. But Mary Poppins is strict and disciplined. She knows how to show the child where he is in an instant.

זינט די לייענער איז ריפּיטידלי ינפאָרמד אין טראַווערס ס בוך אַז מרים פּאָפּפּינס איז געווען דער בעסטער עדזשאַקייטער אין ענגלאַנד, מיר קענען אויך נוצן איר לערנען דערפאַרונג.

In the context of Travers’s book, being in that world means not only the world of fantasy, but also the child’s excessive immersion in his own mental states, from which he cannot get out on his own — in emotions, memories, etc. What needs to be done to return a child from that world into the situation of this world?

Mary Poppins’ favorite technique was to abruptly switch the child’s attention and fix it on some specific object of the surrounding reality, forcing it to do something quickly and responsibly. Most often, Mary draws the attention of the child to his own bodily «I». So she tries to return the soul of the pupil, hovering in the unknown where, to the body: “Comb your hair, please!”; “Your shoelaces are untied again!”; «Go wash up!»; «Look how your collar lies!».

This goofy technique resembles a sharp slap of a massage therapist, with which, at the end of the massage, he returns to reality a client who has fallen into a trance, softened.

It would be nice if everything was that simple! If it were possible to make the enchanted soul of a child not to “fly away” to no one knows where, with one slap or a clever trick of switching attention, teach him to live in reality, look decent and do business. Even Mary Poppins did it for a short time. And she herself was distinguished by the ability to involve children in unexpected and fantastic adventures that she knew how to create in everyday life. Therefore, it was always so interesting for children with her.

The more complex the inner life of a child, the higher his intellect, the more numerous and wider the worlds that he discovers for himself both in the environment and in his soul.

Constant, favorite childhood fantasies, especially those connected with objects of the home world that are significant for the child, can then determine his whole life. Having matured, such a person believes that they were given to him in childhood by fate itself.

One of the most subtle psychological descriptions of this theme, given in the experience of a Russian boy, we will find in V. V. Nabokov’s novel “Feat”.

“Above a small narrow bed … a watercolor painting hung on a light wall: a dense forest and a twisted path going deep into the depths. Meanwhile, in one of the English little books that his mother read with him … there was a story about just such a picture with a path in the forest right above the bed of a boy who once, as he was, in a night’s coat, moved from bed to picture, on path leading into the forest. Martyn was worried by the thought that his mother might notice a similarity between the watercolor on the wall and the picture in the book: according to his calculation, she, frightened, would prevent the night journey by removing the picture, and therefore every time he prayed in bed before going to bed … Martin prayed that she would not notice the seductive path just above him. Remembering that time in his youth, he asked himself whether it really happened that he once jumped from the head of the bed into the picture, and whether this was the beginning of that happy and painful journey that turned out to be his whole life. He seemed to remember the chill of the earth, the green twilight of the forest, the bends of the path, crossed here and there by a humpbacked root, the flashing of the trunks, past which he ran barefoot, and the strange dark air, full of fabulous possibilities.