The Photography In Psychotherapy (III)

In continuation of previous articles, I will talk about the many variations that exist between what "is" in the autobiography and what "looks" in the photographs. A patient may engage in his biography, special attention to a certain time and then there is no photographic support of it. People may also be very "present" in the Photo Strip which, however, are "missing" in his biography.

It may sometimes happen that a high percentage of a Photo Throw is dedicated to his "prehistoric" (before birth) and in other cases, it may not contain any photographic record of events or persons important in anyone's life (parents , siblings). It seems very rich confront the mental image we have of the characters in the universe of patients, objectified image in the photos: the image that the patient has given us a certain person, is consonant with what I see?, What surprises me is this character? All this work focuses more on avoiding distortions greater countertransference.

The material provided allows

1 .- To correlate the reason for consultation with the photos and the inner group (as a set of images linked to relational experiences with significant people in the first years of life that create our identity) with the external group objectified, asking to what kind of internal group leads photographic history.



I assume that people, places, and in general all the contents of images that bring the patients have to do with the internal group, empathic resonance exists between the ingroup and the outgroup objectified in the picture. This is what allows the patient to "select a particular reality and not another." In this sense the title and comments, they act as codes or links between these two worlds. Titles like "my father's boring," "big house", "desired", "my paradise lost", etc.. ... Alone are discussed.

2 .- Make a confrontation between the work that "tells" the patient and what is "seen" in the Photo Strip. This allows to analyze the "distortions" between the external image objectified in the photo and its internal image. For example, we can say that he adored his father and it does not appear in any of the photographs that brings

3 .- A complementary hemispheres, because the photographic stimulus affects the right hemisphere, the understanding of the image is accomplished by the left hemisphere cognitive resources.

4 .- To study the evolution of the life cycle of the patient (vertical-historical level) while exploring the links with their "other" more meaningful (and prospective horizontal level), looking at the past to understand the present and the future.

5 .- From evolutionary psychology see discontinuities in the life cycle photo, displaying "broken" historic. Photo Throw in a can occur for example, times and other backless photo of them saturated.

6 .- A search for redundancies: Consists of once located Photographic Strip, see if there are isolated or photographic sequences photos that capture and analyze repetitive situations, and therefore redundant star of the same.

One patient showed me a picture with her sister when they were 7 and 5 years respectively. You could tell she took refuge behind his sister, with an expression of great passivity and blocking, while the sister reflected great connection with the environment. In another photo of the wedding day the sister saw the patient, with eyes closed with her wedding dress (remember that it was she who selected those photos). The patient was "inadvertently" communicate with the world, remains as passive and avoidant than 20 years.

Technical development of the image

The photographic material of our patients we must try to make the most of. To do this, because different techniques can facilitate the activation and achievement of "insights" cognitive and affective. Among the techniques used the following deserve special attention

1 .- Soliloquies: mobilization technique is that the patient "embodying" one or more characters of the photos, express aloud what they are "thinking or feeling" these characters. Has to be expressed from the role it represents and not from your current position. This technique allows us to explore what is projected in the other (role-induced) and what it identifies as its own (role assumed), along with their associated links.

2 .- The Photographic Story: Once we have the Strip Photo, we ask the patient to make a story that includes all the photographs provided, "spinning" the different images. This technique lets the patient himself who emphasizes "the times charged" and "shades" the different periods of their life cycle.

3 .- Dramatizations: It consists of selecting a photograph, which may be critical or not, specialized and turn it into a scene that dramatizes. This resource, are most effective if we have I Auxiliary (in group therapy) in order to recreate the whole scene. If we have them, you can include in the drama therapist (psychodrama).

4 .- Request for Supplemental Series: At different times the therapeutic process can be used as a tactical resource, to ask the patient to bring a particular series of photographs that explore more deeply a particular time or clarify some event: it may be monographic themes (my current family, women and me, etc..) or photos to complete a life cycle stage that we have no record chart (grandparents, wedding, adolescence, etc.).

5 .- The photographs: There are times that the dynamic psychotherapy stagnates or becomes repetitive, achieving only "cognitive insights" (the patient knows, but not feel) that only serve to strengthen their defenses, slowing the process of the cure. The technique is to ask the patient to make a photo essay about a current controversial issue area or we want to mobilize.

Once I was treating a 16 year old with very troubled family relationships. This was necessary to add that little time had moved to live in a new city with the consequent uprooting. The therapy is being developed very slowly and showed little interest in anything. I suggested the theme and title of the story "my family". He was surprised and excited between. The next day brought a series of 6 photos very significant for the "absence" of people, being the protagonist of all your dog (which I was not aware of its existence), in whom he had displaced and projected all his affection. From there, he made clear his family problems, starting to boost the therapeutic process.

6 .- Photo invisible: in essence is to ask the patient to perform an exercise in imagination, to imagine requesting a photo that does not have but would like to have. This technique allows us to explore the desires, projections and deposit of the patient. Sometimes they act like real photos concealing or keys.