A photograph as a therapeutic experience

Abstract

In this paper I will study the psychotherapeutic significance of the photograph. The role of photographs in psychotherapy is functional: the actual therapy is based on the professional skills of the psychotherapist, acquired within his/her specific frame of reference. The background for the observation of the theoretical basis of phototherapy is the classification of the methods of phototherapy into three categories: looking at biographical photographs, taking new photographs, and looking at both symbolic and associative photographs. This classification is the one used in Finland, and it is closely related to the semiotician Roland Barthes’ thoughts on the special nature of photographs. He has made himself the measure of photographic ‘knowledge’. I have tried to find some basic views concerning human mind and psychotherapy and to find the points where watching is important and why it is useful and efficient to watch and use photos in psychotherapy. The most recent brain studies using functional imaging techniques have given many inspiring insights into this question of the importance of visual sense and watching. I believe that both internal and external pictures give richness to therapy process and also to the development of phototherapy.