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CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS AND THE CINEMA
with the doer of big and heroic deeds. Scenes of pursuit and conquest are the subject matter of phantasy which is again satisfied in films bearing on these themes. Not only is the aggressive motive satisfied, but enhancement of the self — or positive self-feeling is perhaps just as dominating an emotion'.1
Does the child distinguish between phantasy and reality? On the whole, it appears that after the first few years such a distinction is realised, although during the performance it is likely that a fairly complete process of self-identification does take place. However, during the early years the distinction between phantasy and reality is not always recognised and, as considerable variations in development occur, it is evident that younger children are frightened by things which would not affect an older child. It is essential, therefore, that films for younger children should be even more carefully selected than those for older children. For pointing out the importance of phantasy in child, and also in adult, life, we are indebted to earlier sociologists such as Levy-Bruhl, and most modern psychologists. The child works out his phantasies in play, and in the first years, until five or six, according to Piaget, no distinction between 'real' and 'unreal' is made. The child's world is 'plastic' — he uses objects and people to express and reflect his interests, and these change frequently. The real world of the adults soon comes into conflict with the child's make-believe world. In the former, conflicts and unpleasant things occur; in the latter, the child is master and can do as he pleases. In the case of adults, the same conflicts in the real world occur also, and where these conflicts are not satisfactorily worked out he will compensate by building up a phantasy world — in extreme cases leading to schizophrenia.
The part which the cinema plays in the life of both children and adults in this respect is a fascinating study. The magical quality of many films obviously offers great opportunities for the phantasy life of both children and adults. Situations whose outcome is always happy provide compensation for the actual world with its struggles and difficulties.
But this is a more general question which does not properly come into this preliminary survey of children and the cinema.
The question of whether children have a stronger moral conscience or not is debatable. It is possible that they have, in those cases where the child is frightened by his elders' threats of what
1 Report on the Conference on Films for Children, The British Film Institute,, London, 1937, p. 18.
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