Commentary on "Guided imagery and memory": Additional considerations.

Abstract

This commentary supports the main findings of the review article Guided Imagery and Memory: Implications for Psychotherapists (K. D. Arbuthnott, D. W. Arbuthnott, & L. Rossiter, 2001) but also suggests that the authors were overly cautious in their clinical recommendations and not critical enough regarding the reviewed research on imagination inflation. Another review of the imagery literature recently published by D. Brown, A. Scheflin, and C. Hammond (1998) provides an alternative interpretation to the findings of this review. D. Brown et al. concluded that memory distortion is more the result of poor interviewing rather than the use of imagery per se and recommended that clinicians carefully monitor their methods of practice and retrieval conditions especially when using imagery techniques for memory enhancement, retrieval, or emotional processing.