Term for associations made by a reader between fictional characters and people they know

Question

Is there is a term for the mechanism where a reader consciously or unconsciously associates a fictional character with someone they know? *

A conceivable example might be a parent reading about a child character (who is described in general terms) who has an accident or similar and the parent reader may feel grief in excess of a reader who isn't a parent. Specifically because they have placed their son or daughter in the scene.

That's just one example, the mechanism I'm interested in isn't particular to parent/child empathy, but more general.

It would happen in narrative drama - TV, film, theatre - also...

It's not just 'association' is it? I'm finding it a hard thing to search for online.

_{* The veracity of the association is irrelevant.}

Answer 1

• "Term for associations made by a reader between fictional characters and people they know"

— We may call such characters 'LIFELIKE'

— Term for such associations 'IDENTIFICATION ' and the situation 'VERISIMILITUDE'

— The characters represent our 'ALTER-EGO'

and when we lose our identify in the identity of the fictional characters and love, like, pity, hate or laugh or cry as the characters do in their make-believe world, the situation may be termed "EXPERIENCE -TAKING" , a new coinage by a group of researchers of Ohio State University.

IDENTIFICATION is the proper term in the present perspective.

Answer 2

oneirataxia - (n. The inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality) is a vague word to say the very least.

It is the second result on Words that mean "association between reality and fantasy" - Writers’ Reverse Dictionary. The other fourteen results at the beginning make even less sense:

1. twilight zone
2. earth
3. lose
4. ego
5. phantasm
6. loses
7. antibiosis
8. relation
9. metaphysics
10. correlation
11. barth
12. connection
13. relationship
14. communion