Image Creation and Career Choice An Interview with Luc Duval

This interview with Luc Duval, a guidance counsellor and accredited psychotherapist was conducted by Anne-Marie Blanchet and Nathalie Perreault of OrientAction in winter 2006. A summary of this interview has been published in the winter 2006-07 Contact Point Bulletin. 

Note to the readers:

In this article, please note that the expression « guidance counselling » or « guidance counsellor » is applied to a larger context than only the school sector. Since it was too difficult to find an appropriate translation for the French word « orientation » or « conseiller d’orientation », we thought it would be better to write this note instead of finding a weak compromise. In French and in the specific context of our field, the word « orientation » refers to the life long lasting process of career and vocational maturation, career choice and development. In Quebec, the counsellor who assists a person on any aspects of the professional life could be considered a « guidance counsellor ». This definition is wider than what you may associate with « guidance counselling » and please take that in to consideration while you’ll read that interview with Luc Duval.

NP: Monsieur Duval, how did you become interested in image creation and what has been your course of experience within this field?

LD:  I have provided consultation services for 25 years at the Institut de réadaptation en déficience physique de Québec (www.irdpq.qc.ca), a Quebec City rehabilitation centre and training institute. I work among an adult clientele whose life situation has been seriously altered following a traumatic event such as a road or work accident, or the manifestation of an illness or a disease. In order to tie this experience into the title of this interview, we could say that my clients were projected full force into their inner representations and images of their personal and professional lives. I decided to undertake the process of psychotherapy training around 1984. With regards to image psychology in particular, I became committed and was trained in the approach of Dr Akhter Ahsen, Ph. D., who is considered to be the father of eidetic psychotherapy.

NP: What do you mean by eidetic image?

LD:  To understand the meaning of the term “eidetic”, one must refer to etymology and its historical origins. Among the Greek philosophers of Antiquity, “Eidos” referred to an essence and existence, a suprasensible reality. In modern language, this term also means the word “form”. Its other root is “idein”, which means “to see”. The combination of these two terms thus leads to the meaning of the expression “eidetic” – “to see a form or an essence”.

Now, what is the eidetic image? The eidetic image refers to the experience of having inner mental images. It is a process of impressions of experiences throughout development. The eidetic image is presented in consciousness as a shape of an animated, clear and specific image that emerges when remembering what was experienced. It is a sort of inner film comprised of images, sensorial and emotional reactions, and meaning. We create images from all of our senses. As such, the image experience is not limited to its visuality, as it is auditory, kinesthetic, tactile or olfactory at the same time. The eidetic image occupies a space between perception and memory. It possesses a dynamic function of liaison and staging of the elements that constitute the experience.

Ahsen’s image psychology has made me realize that imagery is much more than an accessory psychological phenomenon or a product derived from repression. The image process does not depend upon language. It refers above all to an experiential process of what is perceived by our senses and what is felt within us. The synthesizing nature of the image confirms the popular saying that an image is worth a thousand words. Words and language are essential to our development, but they can also be unfaithful witnesses and reducers of the image experience.

Ahsen postulates that the main advantages to individuals consists of reestablishing contact with their experience. Within the eidetic approach, one could speak of restoring one’s “ISM“: that is, “I” for “image”, seeing the image, examining it, describing what is seen with the least distortion possible; “S” for “soma”, meaning welcoming sensorial and emotional reactions in the presence of the image seen; finally “M” for “meaning”, which refers to recognition of what is seen, felt and recognized, as well as the meaning emerging from this experience.

NP: What links have you made with guidance counselling?

LD: For example, imagine an unmotivated student who tells you: “They told me to come and see you. Listen, try to convince me that studying   will get me something. Going to school – it’ll give me nothing at all. Blaghh! Blaghh! Blaghh! I only see myself unemployed with that.”

Now, apply the “ISM” theory to this situation in counseling and decode this short paragraph. From the start, this student throws you a value judgment and a static meaning regarding the usefulness of studies. We are faced with a static “M”. The “Blaghh! Blaghh! Blaghh!” communicates a strong somatic reaction of disgust “S”. Finally, he ends with the image of seeing himself unemployed “I”. We thus find ourselves with an “ISM” arrangement that has been inversed into “MSI”, which is one of six fundamental variations of experience.

This theory invites us to pay attention to the client’s process and to come into contact with his or her experience. The formation of image refers to a system of inner visual representations that support a series of cognitive and emotional processes that are much called upon during a career decision making process. Think about all that could be involved in the elaboration of a project in terms of reflection, imagination and decision-making.

NP: Within this perspective, how do you define the career decision making process?

LD: I see the career decision making process as a process of “metaphorization” of a non actualized state of self and a representation of the future and future self within the world. Why metaphoric? Because metaphor is a procedure by which one transposes the meaning of one word to another – a meaning that does not belong to that word, except through an implied comparison. The client essentially does the same thing in career decision making when working with the information he or she has perceived regarding a training program or career. More often than note, he or she processes perceived information from impressions that are strongly “imagistic”. It is the metaphor’s role to synthesize and capture the main idea or the essence of a more complex reality. I am interested in the metaphor because it is an open window onto image. Careers and professions reflect images. Career stereotypes are good examples. In sum, the person attempts to transpose certain personal attributes to characteristics of the career and profession through comparison and global approximation. At the same time, the person says to him/herself who he or she is and how they intend to leave their mark in this world.

In the career decision making process, the need to choose confronts the person with a visionary future. One must construct a more or less elaborate fiction that tells the story of one’s future life. The eidetic image is at the core of this process as it is part of the client’s inner movement and reveals his or her intention to create and realize his or her life plan. From this perspective, career choice is based on a configuration of inner representations of images revealing a staging of one type of connection with life that is comprised of aspirations and imagined activities related to work, pleasure and love.

NP: How would you address the phenomenon of indecision in guidance counselling using the Eidetic Image Approach?

LD:  To start with, I generally consider indecision to be a healthy, normal and developmental phenomenon. The opposite of healthy indecision would be seen as a symptom attesting to a conflict among inner images and representation. In eidetic psychotherapy, I would attempt to determine whether the client is stuck in a problematic “ISM” variation. Generally, by working with the image, I would focus on the client’s experience to favor the emergence of new images and putting the process back into motion. I would also say that indecision is sometimes the lack of self presence and a loss of contact with images of one’s desire. The subject may be overwhelmed by one’s fears and expectation of adversity to the point of no longer being in contact with the original intentionality. Being in contact with clear and tonic images makes one more resistant and resilient throughout their personal and professional life.

NP: Before ending this interview, could you inform us of other possible applications of Doctor Ahsen’s image psychology to career orientation?
LD:  I will summarily present two themes that I favor in my current reflections, that of the experience of appropriating one’s choice and relying on one’s imagination.

• • Appropriation. The choice envisioned takes place in the future, but the images contacted and projected, as well as the energy spent, are part of the present. By encouraging clients to imagine their future life and by supporting the creation of images, we can help them make their career choice a complete “I.S.M.” experience. Depending on the context, experiencing images possesses a high level of anticipation and futurism, which will favor the development of new eidetic impressions that will nourish a fertile hope of them being accomplished.
  • Imagination. The idea is to invest in one’s choice so that it becomes an integrated and vibrant emotional experience. In order to feel this futuristic fiction, one needs to imagine it. The act of imagining is expressive and creative. Essentially, the image is connected to the body and to imagine makes it possible to materialize a mental activity within the body. With the support of imagination, the fiction developed regarding my future life is transformed to become a career choice that is embodied in reality.

NP: How would you like to conclude this interview?

LD:  I would conclude with a fundamental notion of Akhter Ahsen’s work, that of “Presence”. I believe this notion of presence should be re-centered and placed at the core of human nature in order to favor the development of an open awareness of all our expressions and potentials. This form of presence enables us to objectively understand our dilemmas and our conflicts and problems, without being subjected to them.

To end the interview, I would like to say that choosing a career is imagining one’s life and staging it with the assistance of an image creation process. It is an act of creation, to the same extent as a writer’s invented text within a work of literature. The act of creation becomes meaningful when it enables the individual’s essence to express its existence.

Bibliography

Ahsen, A. (1965). Basic Concepts in Eidetic Psychotherapy. New York: Brandom House, Inc.

Ahsen, A. (1977). Psycheye. Self Analytic Consciousness. New York: Brandom House, Inc.

Allport, G.W. (1924). Eidetic Imagery. British Journal of Psychology, 15, 99-120.

Hamel, O (2006). Exploration des images du TPE : s’adresser au coconscient pour retrouver les racines de son être et enrichir la conscience. Document en voie de publication par l’Institut canadien de l’image eidétique.

Hochman, J. (1994). Ahsen Image Psychology. Journal of Mental Imagery, 3 et 4 (18), 1-118.

Holland, J.L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments ( 3ième éd.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

For More Information:

To learn more about the field of eidetic imagery, the reader can visit three website addresses: First, that of Mr. Oscar Hamel, teaching psychologist who introduced eidetic psychology to French speakers here and in Europe. He has carried out the colossal work of translating Doctor Ahsen’s principal documents. Next, the website for the Journal of Mental Imagery will provide you with an overall view of the themes and publications over the past years.

The addresses are:

• • www.oscarhamel.com
  • www.journalofmentalimagery.com
  • www.imagepsychology.com

Luc Duval is a guidance counselor and psychotherapist of the Institut de réadaptation en déficience physique de Québec since 1981. He provides counseling and psychotherapeutic services to an adult clientele with disabilities that wishes to be integrated or re-integrated into the work force. Mr. Duval works within an interdisciplinary team specializing in chronic pain.

This rehabilitation center is accredited as a university institute affiliated with Laval University. Mr. Duval holds the status of clinical professor for Laval University’s Department of education foundations and practices. He also possesses university teaching experience as a course instructor. Moreover, he conducts workshops during colloquiums and offers training and supervision activities. Luc Duval can be reached by email at lucduval@videotron.ca..