Clinical uses of mental imagery: Experimental foundations, theoretical misconceptions, and research issues.

Abstract

The growing use of mental imagery in clinical settings has been hampered by major theoretical deficits, notably the virtual absence of interdisciplinary models not constrained by a specific therapeutic orientation. Information-processing data pertaining to the functional and structural properties of imagery are reviewed to illustrate that images may be but incomplete pictures that also convey nonpictorial, abstract information. It is proposed that the imagery and verbal/symbolic processing systems are functionally discrete but comparably influential in image generation, elaboration, and appraisal, a property suggesting that clinical images comprise multiple representational events of a visual, verbal, and affective nature. The popular notion of the image as a mental photograph is reviewed in the context of present knowledge and is argued to have only limited applicability. Methodological concerns associated with the study of clinical imagery are examined, pertinent literature is reviewed for each issue, and data are presented to demonstrate the significance of the problems confronting contemporary imagery researchers.

Imagery and Visual Expression in Therapy

“…Images also have a futuristic dimension as motivators to action, and a predictive dimension presenting ideas and actions that manifest themselves only later in verbal cognition and behavior. Strosahl and Ascough (1981) point out that imagery also serves abstraction.…”

“…In the clinical setting the deficiency in imagery ability is presumed to be minimized through increased verbal elaborations. It appears that this dichotomy is one of degree, with most individuals having both visual and auditory imagery (Strosahl & Ascough, 1981).…”

Guided Health Imagery for Smoking Cessation and Long‐Term Abstinence

“…Theoretical underpinnings for the current study were adapted from several theorists who have defined imagery as a highly focused form of concentration that creates an alteration of sensations, awareness, and perceptions with the same biopsychosocial, integrative properties that allow people to process sensory information (Ahsen, 1984, 2001; Hochman, 2003; Strosahl & Ascough, 1981). During the early sensory and perceptive phase of imagery, representations of reality, or images, are introduced (molecular imagery).…”

“…Images appear real and they create the same behavioral and mental sensations as would an image from reality. The focus of therapeutic work with imagery is the molar imaging operations that help to move people toward behavioral change (Heinkel, Rosenfeld, & Sheikh, 2003; Strosahl & Ascough, 1981). New and unfamiliar experiences or situations can be practiced through imagery rehearsal with a future response programmed toward the real and actual situation.…”

Lang's theory of emotional imagery

“…Although clinical uses of imagery have been extensive (Singer, 1974), scientific understanding of them has been limited ( Strosahl & Ascough, 1981). Extrapolating from his general position, Lang has argued that successful treatment depends on the full activation of the relevant emotion prototype, and in particular on the presence of response aspects in the imagery generated during treatment.…”