IMAGE THERAPY

psychological recommendations for choosing a carnival costume

Image therapy is an original direction in modern practical psychotherapy.

Image therapy was invented by St. Petersburg fairytale therapist and psychodramatist Andrei Vladimirovich Gnezdilov. At one time, like Jacob Moreno, he organized probably the first psychotherapeutic theater in Russia - the “Theater of Musical Pictures”.

Andrei Gnezdilov, by the way, worked with seriously ill somatic patients, so he was not joking.

What early psychotherapy came up with for patients, then modern psychotherapy released us into the world - for the widest audience - clients.

Since it helps against somatic ailments, it will also help against the neuroses of an ordinary city dweller, who has not yet had time to exhaust himself to a very extreme point... This is how I reason, this is how the vast majority of psychotherapists reason.

What is the essence of image therapy?

In life we are given many roles (the whole world is a stage).

But gradually we choose one role (like a person who is not very happy in his current moment chooses one “comfortable” sweater and wears it until they start serving him on the subway).

We choose one role, one image of ourselves and gradually become... his slave...

In the theater this is called becoming a “slave to the stage cliche.”

Psychology calls this bad phenomenon “conforming to the image.”

In general, conformity to an image can be good or bad. A good image fit is a flexible fit.

Poor image fit is inflexible fit. What's wrong with inflexible conformity to your favorite image? (In other words, what is bad about rigidity in a person?)

Rigidity and inflexibility deprive a person of SPONTANEOUSNESS, and with it CREATIVITY and the ability to make POSITIVE CHANGES.

And a rigid person, a slave to the stage cliche of his worn-out image, closes the Doors to positive changes that can come to him from OUTSIDE.

A bearded joke tells about this: “You should at least buy a lottery ticket.”

But in the old image (of which the person is a slave) there is no such line - go and buy a lottery ticket... so the joke is in vain...

In order for a person to go and buy a lottery ticket, he needs to rewrite the script, add new scenes, lines, exits to the script... Ah! How to work hard...

But everything can be arranged much more simply – with the help of image therapy.

The effect of image therapy is based on the famous effect

Instant transformation.

In the psychotherapeutic theater, Andrei Gnezdilov had a whole wardrobe of ancient costumes and... a mirror

His mini-performances (psychodramatic sessions) arose ONLY SPONTANEOUSLY.

The suit told the person his further behavior. Having changed clothes, people began to live the life of a new image. They approached a large mirror and, looking at themselves, created the picture that was suggested to them by the music sounding at that moment and the image they saw.

The goal was this: the participant in the psychodrama was to see instant transformation effect.

Psychologists have long noticed that for the vast majority of people, deep positive personal changes begin with a change in their appearance.

An OLD COSTUME is not suitable for a new sense of self (and then for a new life).

This axiom was not discovered by psychologists; it has been understood for a long time. But only recently - with the help of this truth they began to heal a large number of people and make them happier - purposefully.

Imagine that you have decided to go to a monastery.

Its walls, daily routine, interior decoration, the cell itself, your new clothes, your new name and the act of tonsure (which is the act of funeral service for a person with an old name!) all this sets you up in a new way...

imagine a monastery where monks and novices wear jeans and T-shirts, with a player, and the cells are furnished with furniture from Ikea...

Hardly an image such monastery will set you up for some CHANGES... Such a unfortunate monastery will need urgent restyling so that it does not close...

The process of transformation of the human personality is holistic, holistic.

Therefore, it is a mistake to neglect some details out of your special love for other details.

The process that calls for Change is holistic, it affects every cell of a person’s body, and, of course, concerns his appearance...

But that’s not all in image therapy...

A new image at the SYMBOLIC level gives a person (attention!)

• new present,
• new future,
• and a new PAST!

And you probably guess that there is nothing more “real” in the world of people, in the world of culture, than the SYMBOLIC...

We think and live in symbols. Cynics and postmodernists call this habit of homo sapiens living in the world of symbols “show-off”...

Yes, if you want, that's how it is.

A person differs from an animal in that he constantly “shows off”, or, to put it differently, thinks and lives in a system of symbols, in a sign system...

Tell me offhand: with equal zero costs on your part (a gift), where would you prefer to go for a week: Turkey or Italy?

To Italy? What's worse about Türkiye?

This is a typical feature of Homo sapiens - showing off. In terms of nature, you can equally enjoy any corner of the planet that suits your climate, but we will be more comfortable where the SYMBOLS are more beautiful and bold.

Italy is a symbol of big money (good self-image).

Türkiye is a symbol of small money (dimmer self-image).

But vitamins and sun have almost no effect on humans...

This is the feature that image therapy noticed for you and me...

Image therapy formulated: all real positive changes in a person’s life begin with a “change of show-off” - with a change in the symbols with which we are accustomed to operating - to other symbols.

Just like we unconsciously rely on our ROD. In the same way, we can rely on a new (more interesting to us) CULTURAL CODE, CULTURAL SYMBOL.

A practical step for this is changing the image.

Here's what a practitioner writes about it:

“A fragile, shy girl with a stooped back and an uncertain look is transformed, thanks to the costume, into a Fairytale Queen.

In the image of the Queen, she begins to apparently display a style of behavior that was previously unusual for her. Her posture improves, her chin rises proudly, and chesty notes appear in her voice. Movements become confident and soft.

Coming out of the image, the girl admits: she has never felt such a surge of strength from somewhere deep within herself.

We watch the girl come out of character and notice: “royal” show-off slips into her dialogues with others, her shoulders are straightened. The look stopped being frightened and prickly and became warmer.”

Is the new image a lie?

The stupidest mistake is to think that a new image is some kind of bank with an overpriced price tag. Nonsense! Nonsense and ignorance of the basics of psychology.

The new image is actually not new. Image therapy “pulls out” from a person what is in him, but is deeply hidden.

If you like, image therapy is one of the catalysts that helps open the “Unknown Zone” of the Johari Window.

Let me remind you: something that neither a person nor his environment knows about himself.

During an image therapy session, a person (and those around him) begin to understand how little they knew about themselves.

You just need to choose the right suit...

But it’s not for nothing that Andrei Gnezdilov had a huge and constantly expanding wardrobe with old and simply vintage suits... Everyone, approaching this wardrobe, selected exactly what he liked, what was asking for freedom.

The time for carnival costumes is coming. Why not play image therapy yourself?