Animism

Animism, the view that ascribes anthropomorphic behaviour to objects and natural phenomena (such as the attribution to inanimate objects of such conditions of human activity as life, thought, and free decision) by projecting them outward from the human state, may interfere with a person's psychological growth.

Animism today is regarded to occur with the native inhabitants of Africa, South America, Oceania, but can also be seen in the woman who calls her car 'she', the man who throws his golf club to the ground because he missed a shot, and the child who kicks the chair from which he just fell.