WHEN IMAGES START TALKING: TEXT AND IMAGE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
WHEN IMAGES START TALKING: TEXT AND IMAGE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

Summary/Abstract: In psychotherapeutic methods that use imagery, particularly where imagery is the focus, a close link between the imaginative and the verbal is not only self-evident but also indispensable. Imagery is closely linked to the internal world and the experiences of the imagining person. At the same time the imagery can be both represented and further processed and elaborated verbally. The imagery enables us to access both the contents of the declarative (explicit) memory but also, and especially, the contents of the (implicit) procedural and emotional memory, which are unconscious (but not repressed) and represent “internal images” of our early experiences. The contents, as a record of the early experiences of an individual, are very important in shaping an individual’s personality. They are crucial for the character of perception and the way in which the external world is processed. Again, it is the verbal processing and elaboration of the imagined content that participates in this stabilization and the creative process during which the patterns of relating and understanding the surrounding world alter. We shall look at the problems outlined above from the perspective of the neurobiological findings that cast light on the importance of the procedural and chiefly emotional memory for the formation of our wishes, motives for actions, as well as for the final decision-making and its implementation.

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