yes and no. in its most basic psychological terms an imaginary friend is having a friendship or other interpersonal relationship that takes place in the mind\ imagination rather than in the physically external reality.

examples...

talking to yourself is considered having an imaginary conversation with yourself. this is considered to be completely normal thing to do, even non dissociative people talk to / have conversations with their self from time to time.

with talking to yourself you get to lead the conversation\ control the conversation. with dissociative alters one of the distinctions here in my location is that the alters ..,..take ...control to do what their job, purpose, reason for being created and other things that fall into the diagnostic criteria called sense of agency.

another reason playing \ spending time with your alters in my location, falls under fantasy play is because that alter is not physically there like my wife, my best friend, my children. they are in my mind\ internally not externally.

one ways a person can tell if they are having a conversation that falls under the imaginary\fantasy play vs having a conversation with an alter is notice who is in control of the conversation and what is being shared. if you are the one in control of the conversation then it falls under imaginary\fantasy but if your alter is controlling the conversation, doing what their sense of agency is, sharing what they know about their sense of agency then its having an internal conversation with an alter. Im not saying alters cant play just that they have their own sense of agency and thats what and who they are. if their sense of agency is to play with dolls thats what they do, if their sense of agency is to tell jokes thats what they do, if their sense of agency is to cry and be sad thats what they do, if their sense of agency is to hold the memory of what happened on this night with that person then thats what they do...

thats the simplest definition going according to .....my own locations.... way of distinguishing alters from fantasy play\ imaginary play.

your treatment provider can tell you what your location goes by on what does and doesnt fall under the fantasy umbrella where you are.