Visual Imagery and Cognitive Organization
MARDI J. HOROWITZ M.D.1
1 Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California Medical School, and Research Psychiatrist, Mt. Zion Medical Center, 1600 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94115
Pictorial cognition is one of many forms of thinking in nonverbal representations. The author describes the kinds of visual imagery and the circumstances of their occurrence and enhancement, and considers the relevant problems of reality testing, content, purpose, and sequential organization. He suggests that pictorial cognition is a developmentally more primitive system than verbal-conceptual thinking and has special psychologic utility as a carrier of affectively charged memories, ideas, and impulses.
