Die Kraft der inneren Bilder

Imagining something - having inner images - is a primordial and spontaneous behavioral pattern of coping with life and conflict.

In the history of philosophy, which goes back more than 2000 years, renowned philosophers have repeatedly dealt with this phenomenon, and they have gained insights that are relevant and indisputable for today.

For a few decades now, researchers in the field of psychology and social sciences, developmental psychologists and psychotherapists have been dealing with inner images, asking about the emergence of mental images, their usefulness for personality development, for identity formation and problem solving in everyday life and in times of crisis, and drafting guidelines for therapeutic action.

This book takes up these questions. They are discussed with a view to the philosophical background, with inclusion of the results of modern infant research and with reference to the psychological concepts significant for image processes - such as the mirror concept and the concept of the intermediary space according to Winnicott. Imagery resonance is based on humanistic psychology - imagery resonance is understood as a pictorial, interactional event, which can take place within a supporting, therapeutic relationship.

Adolescence as one of the most important, if not the prototypical transitional phase in human life is used to exemplify the usefulness of inner images, their targeted, therapeutic use and image resonance. Three case studies round off the explanations.

'Images are the language of the imagination and the stuff of fantasy. They are the starting point of artistic creation and scientific knowledge. There is healing power in visible, audible or felt images, in those that arise within us and in those that are brought to us. They serve to process what we have experienced and to build new ones.