ABSTRACT
Freud recognized early that many of his patients’ communications were descriptions of visual images. In fact, at first he actively requested images, using a “concentration” technique to evoke forgotten memories:
Of one of his analysands he wrote: “It was as though she were reading through a lengthy book of pictures” (Freud & Breuer, 1893-1895/1955, p. 193). Even after he abandoned this method in favor of free association, he couched his instructions in visual terms, asking the patient to “act as though you were a traveler sitting next to the window of a railway carriage and describing to someone inside the carriage the changing views which you see outside” (Freud, 1913, p. 135).
