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  • © 1978

The Power of Human Imagination

New Methods in Psychotherapy

Part of the book series: Emotions, Personality, and Psychotherapy (EPPS)

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
  2. Introduction and Overview

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. The Use of Imagery and Fantasy Techniques in Psychotherapy

      • Jerome L. Singer, Kenneth S. Pope
      Pages 3-34
  3. Psychoanalytically Oriented Uses of Imagery

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 35-35
  4. Mental Imagery Therapies

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-123
    2. Active Imagining

      • Eric Greenleaf
      Pages 167-196
    3. Eidetic Psychotherapy

      • Anees A. Sheikh
      Pages 197-224
  5. Behavior-Therapy Uses of Imagery

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 225-226
    2. Covert Conditioning: A Learning-Theory Perspective on Imagery

      • Joseph R. Cautela, Leigh McCullough
      Pages 227-254
  6. Broader Applications of Imagery

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 279-279
    2. Imagery and the Control of Depression

      • K. David Schultz
      Pages 281-307
  7. Conclusion

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 379-380

About this book

For at least half of the twentieth century, psychology and the other mental health professions all but ignored the significant adaptive pos­ sibilities of the human gift of imagery. Our capacity seemingly to duplicate sights, sounds, and other sensory experiences through some form of central brain process continues to remain a mysterious, alma st miraculous skill. Because imagery is so much a private experience, experimental psychologists found it hard to measure and turned their attentian to observable behaviors that could easily be studied in ani­ maIs as well as in humans. Psychoanalysts and others working with the emotionally disturbed continued to take imagery informatian se­ riously in the form of dream reports, transferenee fantasies, and as indications of hallucinations or delusions. On the whole, however, they emphasized the maladaptive aspects of the phenomena, the dis­ tortions and defensiveness or the "regressive" qualities of daydreams and sequences of images. The present volume grows out of a long series of investigations by the senior author that have suggested that daydreaming and the stream of consciousness are not simply manifestations in adult life of persist­ ing phenomena of childhood. Rather, the data suggest that imagery sequences represent a major system of encoding and transforming information, a basic human capacity that is inevitably part of the brain's storage process and one that has enormous potential for adap­ tive utility. A companian volume, The Stream of Consciousness, edited by Kenneth S. Pope and Jerome L.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Yale University, USA

    Jerome L. Singer

  • Brentwood Veterans Administration Hospital, Los Angeles, USA

    Kenneth S. Pope

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Power of Human Imagination

  • Book Subtitle: New Methods in Psychotherapy

  • Editors: Jerome L. Singer, Kenneth S. Pope

  • Series Title: Emotions, Personality, and Psychotherapy

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3941-0

  • Publisher: Springer New York, NY

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Plenum Press, New York 1978

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4613-3943-4Published: 15 November 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4613-3941-0Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: 426

  • Topics: Clinical Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access