This book explores the potential of specific photographic images for reflecting on experiences of mental disorders. Instead of looking at photographs of (people suffering from) mental disorders, this volume aspires to comprehend the complexities of such conditions through photographic lexicons, metaphors, and practices. For this book, a mental disorder is not to be seen as a dysfunction or impairment, but a state in which the sustaining balance of stable and unstable mind is unsettled, which may induce mental/bodily disturbances. The term “psychosomatic” refers to the interaction of the mind (psyche) with the body (soma); it refers to their co-dependence. By the term “Psychosomatic Imagery” this volume refers to a distinctive trope of photographic images that deal with the body-mind interaction during the states of mental disorders. This novel theoretical framework in photography theory instigates critical discussions about the experiences of mental disorders visualized as disturbed corporeal and mental perceptions of the world. While the introduction of the volume unpacks and assesses the applications of photography in mental disorder studies from theoretical and historical perspectives, the chapters focus on specific cases of Psychosomatic Imagery in contemporary photography. Those cases include, but are not limited to: PTSD, hysteria, paranoia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and Hikikomori.

Using the techniques of imagery, total body wellness can be achieved without prescriptive medicine. With this comprehensive, user-friendly primer, readers will learn just what guided sensory imagery is and how to create powerful images in the mind that direct the body to heal--both emotionally and physically.

Contains 22 chapters that discuss theory, research, and clinical applications. This work presents 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 bodily changes.

This influential book shows how the systematic use of mental imagery can have a positive influence on the course of disease and can help patients to cope with pain. In Imagery in Healing, Jeanne Achterberg brings together modern scientific research and the practices of the earliest healers to support her claim that imagery is the world's oldest and most powerful healing resource. The book has become a classic in the field of alternative medicine and continues to be read by new generations of health care professionals and lay people. In Imagery in Healing, Achterberg explores in detail the role of the imagination in the healing process. She begins with an exploration of the tradition of shamanism, "the medicine of the imagination," surveying this time-honored way of touching the nexus of the mind, body, and soul. She then traces the history of the use of imagery within Western medicine, including a look at contemporary examples of how health care professionals have drawn on the power of the imagination through such methods as hypnosis, biofeedback, and the placebo effect. Ultimately, Achterberg looks to the science of immunology to uncover the most effective ground for visualization, and she presents data demonstrating how imagery can have a direct and profound impact on the workings of the immune system. Drawing on art, science, history, anthropology, and medicine, Imagery in Healing offers a highly readable overview of the profound and complex relationship between the imagination and the body.

The author shows how ancient and modern uses of imagery, backed by contemporary research and experience, can be applied to psychotherapy and bio medicine, including the field of psychoneuroimmunology. This introductory text traces the development of imaginative approaches and provides a guide to: the applications of imagery; indications and contraindications of its use; and guided imagery exercises directed to specific health issues.

Just as there are no diseases that are purely mental, there are no disease that are purely physical. The mental process can change physical aspects of disease and therefore, the use of visualization, or imagery, is now finding increasing use in all branches of medicine and psychotherapy. This book supplies methods, practical techniques and applications to increase the effectiveness of any health care. Scientific evidence and theories to support the uses of visualization are outlined as well as its practical applications in the fields of psychotherapy and health care. The uses of visualization in stress related and other diseases are emphasized along with the specific uses of imagery in specific health care disciplines. The information is directed to all fields of the health care profession including nursing, physical therapy, counseling, occupational therapy and rehabilitation. -- from Book Jacket.

Men born to distinction do not always develop it in their homeland. Sometimes trans plantation taps routes to hidden sources of concern for the embracing of novel con cepts or the clarification of man's behavior, illuminating this understanding in the lan guage of their adopted tongue. Such a one was Joseph Conrad, the Polish sailor whose new vision graced our literature long after his death in 1924. Such a one also is the author this book, who was born in that same year to carryon his country's vigor and resourcefulness in our time. He is numbered among those distinguished emigres whose contributions to our culture and progress emanated from the trials and tribulations of the political upheavals, persecutions, and wars of Europe. Like many others, he has brought sound traditions and learning from his native land to enhance the new and less developed of what was only recently a frontier land. Watersheds in world events impose themselves willy-nilly on our lives. One such time was 1946, when the author of this book left his native land and set out for the West. He spent six months in London learning English and then moved to Ireland, where he trained in medicine and also absorbed novel ways and a new culture, includ ing the writings of Swift and Joyce. This young medical graduate's potential was soon recognized by his teacher in neurology at Belfast, who with foresight predicted great accomplishment.