ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the various methods of photo-therapy, and provides a detailed discussion of the use of photographs in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. A multiplicity of methods may be applied; it is important to differentiate between the various approaches. They will reflect the contrasting styles of different therapists, the many schools of therapy, and also the various ways in which patients themselves choose to use photographs. Therapists who have the skills and equipment help people to take and develop their own photographs inside the therapy, or indeed as a therapy in it. Patients may bring along to the therapy their own albums of personally selected photographs, showing aspects of their life-history and that of their family. Therapy aims to help unblock difficult feelings so that fuller exploration of past traumas is facilitated – within the context of the transference relationship.
