This book delves into the psychological and cultural significance of dolls. G. Stanley Hall examines why dolls are universally cherished by children and adults alike and what this reveals about human nature. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in psychology, child development, or cultural studies. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

For use in schools and libraries only. This clever blend of fantasy, mystery, and adventure revolves around a family of porcelain dolls that have lived in the same house for 100 years and another family of new plastic dolls that moves into the house with them. With striking illustrations from

This critical account of the American Girl brand explores what its books and dolls communicate to girls about femininity, racial identity, ethnicity, and what it means to be an American. Emilie Zaslow begins by tracing the development of American Girl and situates the company’s growth and popularity in a social history of girl power media culture. She then weaves analyses of the collection’s narrative and material representations with qualitative research on mothers and girls. Examining the dolls with both a critical eye and a fan’s curiosity, Zaslow raises questions about the values espoused by this iconic American brand.

In this second volume, following Dolls & Clowns & Things, the author once again explores the symbolic relationship between the self and the object. This time, however, the possible fundamental role of cognitive consonance, characterized here as the ability of the mind to integrate opposing ideas into a single expanded understanding of Self, is studied in terms of how it might relate to the following three categories of intuitive experience. One, my physical object, in which consonance or “wholeness” expands one’s understanding of Self when ideas about “youngness” and “oldness” become integrated as part of episodic memories that involve an actual physical (toy) doll. Two, my objectified being, in which consonance takes place when, again, ideas about “youngness” and “oldness” become integrated through the metaphoric objectification of certain points located on the human female body. And three, in which consonance develops as “youngness” and “oldness” ideas become integrated through a doll as a work of art. Within the theoretical framework of each of these three categories, various psychological dynamics which encompass memory, metaphor, and neuroplasticity, are understood to be essential to the molding and shaping of one’s subjective experience of “doll”.