ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the importance of developing a methodology that allows visual imagery to emerge as a research tool in the field of psycho-social research. For Descartes, in the seventeenth century, the thinking process itself was reduced to the action of the brain as a disembodied organ. Key to Spinoza’s ideas was his concept of “affectus”, or “affect”, which has been given a special relevance today in the work of Gilles Deleuze. The alternative to Cartesian thought was incarnated in the figure of his contemporary rival, Baruch Spinoza. “Affect” is a term that has acquired a sense of complexity largely due to a conceptual difficulty in translation. In Deleuze’s words: Affects are no longer feelings or affections; they go beyond the strength of those who undergo them. Psycho-social research in today’s complex world needs to interpret communication on many different levels and with ever increasing sophistication.
