Imaginationen in der psychodynamischen Psychotherapie

Imaginations establish a direct access to central relational and emotional schemes. Thereby, they have considerable therapeutic potential, apt to enrich psychodynamic treatment to a high degree. In the experiential space of imaginations central wishes, anxieties and conflicts come to the fore, thus the earlier ones can be worked through and new ones may be tried. The continuous therapeutic support allows for a reasonable focussing of the imaginations by applying regression, progression, support, confrontation and stimulation. After an introduction into the therapeutic applications of imaginations the actual clinical work with imaginations as developed by the katathym-imaginative psychotherapy (KIP, guided affective imagery) is presented, exemplified by a case study. Finally, this example is discussed in the light of new theoretical and empirical findings.