Abstract

The phenomenon of imaginary companions has been a subject of great interest for the development psychology for a long time. This phenomenon was associated to several forms of psychopathology, in the past. However, this phenomenon has been considered part of children typical development, and has been associated to a good social and cognitive development in recent studies. In the present narrative review, we included the most important research on the phenomenon of imaginary companions, from the first study dating back to 1895, up to recent research.