Worth a thousand words: imagery and its use in self psychology
Worth a thousand words: imagery and its use in self psychology
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Issue Date
1985
Authors
Stern, Ellen M.
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Abstract
This pilot study explores imagery as a symbolic function that may be reflective of Heinz Kohut's Self Psychological concepts of Self and cohesion of Self in psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic work. This study looks at the use of imagery in therapy as it: (1) may be reflective of a sense of Self in the therapeutic process; (2) as a tool in the assessment of Self cohesion or lack of Self cohesion; and, (3) how imagery may change over time as demonstrative of a change in cohesion. For the understanding of imagery as a symbolic function and its relationship to the concepts of Self and cohesion, the use of imagery in psychoanalysis was examined, the development of the concept of Self was reviewed, and Piaget's theory of cognitive processes and the development of symbols was explicated. The questionnaire for this pilot study, though not statistically significant, was designed as an opening into a fairly new area of research: that of imagery and its relation to Self Psychology.