Imagery and Human Development Series – serie

One cause of the behavioral, emotional and mental torment in a person's life is the psychological trauma that results from the actions and words of parents and others. This volume, "Grendel and His Mother: Healing the Traumas of Childhood Through Dreams, Imagery and Hypnosis" by Nicholas E. Brink examines the effect of such trauma on a child's development and how the resulting torment eventually brings this child as an adult to psychotherapy. This trauma may be as subtle as a parental sigh of disappointment or as direct as physical or sexual abuse. Six clients are then led on a journeying through the unconscious mind using dream work, hypnosis and imagery in the course of therapy to uncover and heal these traumas to free the client of torment.

Sages of various traditions and ages have reiterated that we must incorporate the inevitability of death into the fabric of life to experience life's breadth and beauty. Imagery is an important tool in dealing with death, and this book is devoted to exploring many facets of this fascinating issue. It begins with an overview of ancient and modern approaches to the use of death imagery for therapeutic purposes, including a discussion of its possible benefits. Chapter 2, specifically exploring Stephen Levine's contributions in this area, shows that only by opening up to the reality of death can one make living a conscious process of growth. A number of excellent imagery-based experiential exercises are discussed in detail. Chapter 3 demonstrates the significance of confronting death through mental and artistic images; it discusses six examples of death-related religious and existential works of art.Recently there has been an upsurge of interest in near-death experiences and their salutary effects on attitudes, beliefs, and values. Of particular interest here are increases in spirituality, concern for others, an appreciation of life, and an enhanced sense of meaning and purpose in life. Chapter 4 presents a detailed critical overview of this field of investigation, with special emphasis on the transformatory after-effects of near-death experiences. Of all the major religions in the world, Buddhism is at the forefront of exploring the topic of death and dying and developing specific meditative exercises for confronting death.Chapter 5 presents an in-depth treatment of death imagery in Buddhist thought. Exploring the use of hypnosis for death rehearsal, Chapter 6 continues the theme that confrontation with death can lead to healthful consequences. A variation of this technique, hypnotic suicidal rehearsal, is also discussed: it seems to be effective for use with clients who are contemplating suicide. Case examples clarify the details of the process.Over the years, several clinicians have proposed the use of imagery for reconstructing death-related events and thereby facilitating the grieving process for individuals who are experiencing symptoms rooted in unfinished grieving. Chapter 7 gives an exhaustive account of the use of imagery for unresolved grieving, including a number of case histories. Researchers have perhaps devoted more time and energy to the investigation of death anxiety than any other death-related topic. Chapter 8 reviews the literature on death anxiety and death imagery, and demonstrates a core connection between the two phenomena. The authors claim that death imagery has the potential not only to ameliorate death anxiety but also to lead to a more authentic existence.In Chapter 9, the authors explain how death imagery can be used constructively in death education; they present several practical suggestions and specific guided imagery exercises. The volume closes with a presentation of a detailed death-imagery experiential exercise aimed at encountering death to enhance our appreciation of life. The reader will notice this thread running steadily throughout the book. This comprehensive book devoted to the role of death imagery in health and growth, perhaps the first of its kind, will be helpful in changing the rather sinister view of death, prevalent in our culture, to a deeper appreciation for its enhancing potential.

The book's first three chapters-by Sheehan and Robertson; Wagstaff; Council, Kirsch, and Grant - conclude that three different factors turn imagination into hypnosis. The next three chapters-by Lynn, Neufeld, Green, Rhue, and Sandberg; Rader, Kunzendorf, and Carrabino; and Barrett-explore the hypnotic and the clinical significance of absorption in imagination. Three subsequent chapters-by Coe; Gwynn and Spanos; and Gorassini-examine the role of compliance and imagination in various hypnotic phenomena. Pursuing the possibility that some hypnotic hallucinations are experienced differently from normal images, the following two chapters-by Perlini, Spanos, and Jones; and Kunzendorf and Boisvert-focus on negative hallucinating, which reportedly "blocks out" perceptual reality. The remaining three chapters-by Wallace and Turosky; Crawford; and Persinger-pursue other physiological differences, and possible physiological connections, between hypnosis and imagination.

The volume explores in depth the vast healing potential of a fundamental human gift. In addition to providing a historical perspective of the importance accorded to imagination in the disease and healing processes, the book furnishes theoretical, empirical, and clinical evidence of the efficacy of imagery in the healing of a wide variety of health problems including stress, pain, cancer, depression, phobias, skin disorders, and sexual dysfunctions.

Serving to bridge the gap between differing approaches to psychology, this new text provides some of the most compelling evidence yet for the subjective presence and objective efficacy of the mental image. In this day and age of "dissociation" between physiological psychologists and other psychologists, between cognitive scientist and mentalist, between researchers and practitioners, mental imagery and its psychophysiology pose some intellectually "sticky" problems - and some promising resolutions - that should bind together differing disciplines within psychology.

Individual Differences in Imaging contains several suggestions for research and how it can be conducted. This book is useful for people with an interest in the nature and functions of mental imagery.

The book's first three chapters-by Sheehan and Robertson; Wagstaff; Council, Kirsch, and Grant - conclude that three different factors turn imagination into hypnosis. The next three chapters-by Lynn, Neufeld, Green, Rhue, and Sandberg; Rader, Kunzendorf, and Carrabino; and Barrett-explore the hypnotic and the clinical significance of absorption in imagination. Three subsequent chapters-by Coe; Gwynn and Spanos; and Gorassini-examine the role of compliance and imagination in various hypnotic phenomena. Pursuing the possibility that some hypnotic hallucinations are experienced differently from normal images, the following two chapters-by Perlini, Spanos, and Jones; and Kunzendorf and Boisvert-focus on negative hallucinating, which reportedly "blocks out" perceptual reality. The remaining three chapters-by Wallace and Turosky; Crawford; and Persinger-pursue other physiological differences, and possible physiological connections, between hypnosis and imagination.

"Healing Images: The Role of Imagination in Health" details the function and capacity of imagination in health. This work consists of 22 chapters and discusses theory, research, and clinical applications. Presented is a brief history of the use of imagery for healing in both Eastern and Western traditions, a review of research that deals with the physiological consequences of imagery and related approaches, and an explanation of how images lead to such bodily changes. "Healing Images" covers the latest theory and research on the relationship between imagery, cerebral laterality, and healing. An attempt is also made to integrate modern systems theory with concepts of information and energy, which disclose the role of imagery and love in health. Imagery and music in health are also discussed.

Consists of a description of a multitude of imagery techniques that have been grouped into four categories: hypno-behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic/humanistic and humanistic/transpersonal.

"Healing Images: The Role of Imagination in Health" details the function and capacity of imagination in health. This work consists of 22 chapters and discusses theory, research, and clinical applications. Presented is a brief history of the use of imagery for healing in both Eastern and Western traditions, a review of research that deals with the physiological consequences of imagery and related approaches, and an explanation of how images lead to such bodily changes. "Healing Images" covers the latest theory and research on the relationship between imagery, cerebral laterality, and healing. An attempt is also made to integrate modern systems theory with concepts of information and energy, which disclose the role of imagery and love in health. Imagery and music in health are also discussed.

Sages of various traditions and ages have reiterated that we must incorporate the inevitability of death into the fabric of life to experience life's breadth and beauty. Imagery is an important tool in dealing with death, and this book is devoted to exploring many facets of this fascinating issue. It begins with an overview of ancient and modern approaches to the use of death imagery for therapeutic purposes, including a discussion of its possible benefits. Chapter 2, specifically exploring Stephen Levine's contributions in this area, shows that only by opening up to the reality of death can one make living a conscious process of growth. A number of excellent imagery-based experiential exercises are discussed in detail. Chapter 3 demonstrates the significance of confronting death through mental and artistic images; it discusses six examples of death-related religious and existential works of art.Recently there has been an upsurge of interest in near-death experiences and their salutary effects on attitudes, beliefs, and values. Of particular interest here are increases in spirituality, concern for others, an appreciation of life, and an enhanced sense of meaning and purpose in life. Chapter 4 presents a detailed critical overview of this field of investigation, with special emphasis on the transformatory after-effects of near-death experiences. Of all the major religions in the world, Buddhism is at the forefront of exploring the topic of death and dying and developing specific meditative exercises for confronting death.Chapter 5 presents an in-depth treatment of death imagery in Buddhist thought. Exploring the use of hypnosis for death rehearsal, Chapter 6 continues the theme that confrontation with death can lead to healthful consequences. A variation of this technique, hypnotic suicidal rehearsal, is also discussed: it seems to be effective for use with clients who are contemplating suicide. Case examples clarify the details of the process.Over the years, several clinicians have proposed the use of imagery for reconstructing death-related events and thereby facilitating the grieving process for individuals who are experiencing symptoms rooted in unfinished grieving. Chapter 7 gives an exhaustive account of the use of imagery for unresolved grieving, including a number of case histories. Researchers have perhaps devoted more time and energy to the investigation of death anxiety than any other death-related topic. Chapter 8 reviews the literature on death anxiety and death imagery, and demonstrates a core connection between the two phenomena. The authors claim that death imagery has the potential not only to ameliorate death anxiety but also to lead to a more authentic existence.In Chapter 9, the authors explain how death imagery can be used constructively in death education; they present several practical suggestions and specific guided imagery exercises. The volume closes with a presentation of a detailed death-imagery experiential exercise aimed at encountering death to enhance our appreciation of life. The reader will notice this thread running steadily throughout the book. This comprehensive book devoted to the role of death imagery in health and growth, perhaps the first of its kind, will be helpful in changing the rather sinister view of death, prevalent in our culture, to a deeper appreciation for its enhancing potential.

This monograph is the product of an interdisciplinary experiment--an artistic experiment and a psychological experiment--focused on dreams. Inspired by the prevalence of dream imagery and "dream logic" in surrealist art, the authors asked 100 art students to create digital images representing critical scenes from one of their dreams, then to create a surrealist collage from the digital images. The resulting collages tend to capture the surreality envisioned in actual works of surrealist art, as two collages included in the book illustrate. Inspired also by the psychological problem of studying other minds, the authors asked the 100 art students to describe their dream in writing, to interpret their dream, and to complete two personality measures: the Short Form of the Boundary Questionnaire and the Brief Symptom Inventory. The art students' scores on particular personality scales were found to be statistically associated with particular dream aspects, many of which are visually observable in the digitized dream images created by art students with particular personalities but are not verbally discernible in the dream descriptions written by those same students. The appendix contains, for each art student, the digitally imaged dream, the written description and written interpretation of the dream, and scores on the Boundary Questionnaire and on the depression, anxiety, hostility, and somatization scales of the Brief Symptom Inventory. The book concludes with a bibliography and an index to some of the visual elements in the 100 digitized dream images.

Philosophical 'thought experiments' invoking inverted spectra, zombies, et cetera suggest that conscious sensations have no function, and psychological studies finding no correlation between vivid visual imaging and visual problem solving suggest that conscious images have no function. Furthermore, both philosophical and psychological theories suggest that self-consciousness has no function. Countering such suggestions, the post-Darwinian double-aspect theory which Professor Robert Kunzendorf's introduces in the first chapter of his monograph On the Evolution of Conscious Sensation, Conscious Imagination, and Consciousness of Self points to evolutionary functions of certain sensations, youngling vivid images, and self-consciousness. Kunzendorf's second chapter presents evidence that the most primitive sensation-pain, the subjective aspect of free nerve endings or nociceptors-has a survival-promoting function. But as the pressure nociceptor mutates into a touch receptor, the heat nociceptor into temperature receptor, and the chemical nociceptor into a taste receptor, the painful qualia of these nociceptors evolve respectively into touch sensation, temperature sensation, or taste sensation-painless sensations that add no survival benefit to their receptor's physical aspect. Building on evidence that retinal receptors embodying visual qualia evolved from primitive eyespots responsive to injurious 'heat at a distance' or painful light, the third chapter presents evidence that visually imagined sensations are the subjective qualities of retinal receptors that are corticofugally innervated in warm-blooded animals-for the developmental purpose of testing cortically hypothesized sensory-motor rules that have greater survival value than cold-blooded stimulus-response associations. The fourth and final chapter focuses on self-conscious reality-testing and on visuo-spatial self-conceptualization, and presents evidence that such manifestations of self-awareness evolve only in those warm-blooded animals whose rule-developing youth lasts two years or longer-that is, those mammals and birds whose survival during the imaginal testing of rules is subjected to prolonged risk if self-consciousness that one is imaging sensations (rather than perceiving sensations) is absent.

Philosophical 'thought experiments' invoking inverted spectra, zombies, et cetera suggest that conscious sensations have no function, and psychological studies finding no correlation between vivid visual imaging and visual problem solving suggest that conscious images have no function. Furthermore, both philosophical and psychological theories suggest that self-consciousness has no function. Countering such suggestions, the post-Darwinian double-aspect theory which Professor Robert Kunzendorf's introduces in the first chapter of his monograph On the Evolution of Conscious Sensation, Conscious Imagination, and Consciousness of Self points to evolutionary functions of certain sensations, youngling vivid images, and self-consciousness. Kunzendorf's second chapter presents evidence that the most primitive sensation-pain, the subjective aspect of free nerve endings or nociceptors-has a survival-promoting function. But as the pressure nociceptor mutates into a touch receptor, the heat nociceptor into temperature receptor, and the chemical nociceptor into a taste receptor, the painful qualia of these nociceptors evolve respectively into touch sensation, temperature sensation, or taste sensation-painless sensations that add no survival benefit to their receptor's physical aspect. Building on evidence that retinal receptors embodying visual qualia evolved from primitive eyespots responsive to injurious 'heat at a distance' or painful light, the third chapter presents evidence that visually imagined sensations are the subjective qualities of retinal receptors that are corticofugally innervated in warm-blooded animals-for the developmental purpose of testing cortically hypothesized sensory-motor rules that have greater survival value than cold-blooded stimulus-response associations. The fourth and final chapter focuses on self-conscious reality-testing and on visuo-spatial self-conceptualization, and presents evidence that such manifestations of self-awareness evolve only in those warm-blooded animals whose rule-developing youth lasts two years or longer-that is, those mammals and birds whose survival during the imaginal testing of rules is subjected to prolonged risk if self-consciousness that one is imaging sensations (rather than perceiving sensations) is absent.

This new text is a state-of-the-art collection of essays representing varying points of view about dreams and the major research conducted in dream therapy today. Renewed interest into serious dream investigation in recent years has supplied a variety of conceptual and research applications into dream study. At long last, "Dream Images: A Call to Mental Arms", brings these current works together, in one complete, comprehensive volume.

This new text is a state-of-the-art collection of essays representing varying points of view about dreams and the major research conducted in dream therapy today. Renewed interest into serious dream investigation in recent years has supplied a variety of conceptual and research applications into dream study. At long last, "Dream Images: A Call to Mental Arms", brings these current works together, in one complete, comprehensive volume.

Consists of a description of a multitude of imagery techniques that have been grouped into four categories: hypno-behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic/humanistic and humanistic/transpersonal.