Intrusive mental images in the form of flashbacks have long been
recognised as a hallmark of post-traumatic stress disorder.
However, clinicians have become increasingly aware that distressing
imagery is a more pervasive phenomenon. There appears to be a
powerful link between imagery and autobiographical memory. The
field of autobiographical memory needs to account for disorders of
remembering in psychopathology, including the reliving of past
experiences in the form of imagery. While the role of mental
imagery in psychopathology has been an under-researched topic,
recently, there has been a surge of interest. This Special Issue of
Memory, Mental Imagery and Memory in Psychopathology, edited by
Emily A. Holmes and Ann Hackmann, presents a novel series of papers
investigating emotional, intrusive mental imagery across a wide
range of psychological disorders. The topics include post-traumatic
stress disorder, other anxiety disorders such as agoraphobia and
social phobia, as well as psychosis, bipolar disorder, body
dysmorphic disorder, and depression. The roles of imagery in
symptom maintenance and in psychological treatment are explored.
Further studies using non-clinical samples address information
processing issues and imagery qualities. These include innovative
approaches to modelling cravings in substance misuse, and the role
of imagery in conditioning aversions. Pioneering work is presented
on vividness, emotionality, and the type of perspective taken in
imagery. This Special Issue begins and ends with theoretical papers
that provide complementary approaches: reviewing findings from a
clinical psychology perspective and an autobiographical memory
perspective. New developments in cognitive therapy require a
conceptual framework within which to understand imagery in specific
psychopathologies. Since the experience of imagery is not abnormal
per se, it is helpful to make links with accounts of 'ordinary'
processing. Conway's work on autobiographical memory may provide
such a framework. According to this model, images are thought to be
forms of autobiographical memory, referred to as sensory perceptual
knowledge that is experience-near. Indeed, although they may be
unaware at the time, patients often later report that images appear
linked to autobiographical experiences. However, despite being a
form of memory, images may be experienced as actual events
happening in the present, or as representing the imagined future,
and project meaning for the self. Images may provide particularly
potent means of carrying emotion and information about the self,
compared to other forms of processing. In this Special Issue,
Conway presents novel insights that suggest imagery is highly
associated with self goals. Imagery can both reflect and maintain
goals linked to psychopathology. An exciting consequence of this
framework is that imagery can be used to resolve dysfunctional
states in therapy. Imagery in psychopathology tends to be highly
intrusive, distressing, and repetitive. It may arise 'out of the
blue', i.e. directly triggered from autobiographical memory. Images
can hijack attention and reflect negative self goals. It may
therefore understandably provoke a variety of cognitive and
behavioural responses. For example, interpreting the image as
representing fact rather than fiction, trying to block it out of
mind, or avoiding triggers for the image. Cognitive behavioural
therapy targets such responses because they are thought to maintain
psychopathology in a vicious cycle. In contrast, responses that
update the image in memory could break that cycle. Further there is
a role for positive, alternative images. Conway suggests that
generating new images can generate new goals and thus ameliorate
distress: an insight that may further enhance therapy. This book
appeals to clinicians and experimental psychologists working in
memory and emotion. It provides a forum to forge links between
experi
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