A Preliminary Report on Multi-Image Immediate Impact Video Self-Confrontation
MILTON M. BERGER M.D.1
1 Director of Education and Training, New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, South Beach Psychiatric Center, 777 Seaview Ave., Staten Island, N.Y. 10305, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. and Chairman of the Video Task Force of the APA Program Committee
A multi-image closed-circuit video self-confrontation with deliberate distortion of some of the images is presented to patients for immediate impact during psychotherapy. Seeing the distorted images alongside the clear image serves to elicit free associations about past or present self-concepts and introjections, which may then lead to significant clarification and insight into the self in the here and now. The technique is not proposed as a form of therapy by itself or as a substitute for analytic psychotherapy, but rather as an adjunct to be used in appropriate contexts.
