ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use of photographs in therapy. Therapists can learn much from the study of the essential paradoxical truths to be found in a photographic statement. Understanding the concept of paradox is highly relevant to both therapy and the photograph, because each in its own way reflects the ambivalence and confusions of life. An important additional paradox connected with the photograph and meaning resides in the fact that it can be public and personal, general and specific. There are important links to and reflections of the photographic paradox in the therapy situation. Many people have boxes of family and personal photographs that contain clues about their history, relationship patterns and generational problems. The photograph may camouflage the truth, masking the considerable energy used in the struggle to exercise control over the unconscious. The photographic pose may be seen as reflecting aspects of the presentation of the one-sided self in therapy.
