[Therapeutic function of images]

The aim here searched is to explore the reasons why some systems of psychotherapy choose images as a means for attaining the cure. In one case at least (Roger Desoille's "awake dream"--the production and interpretation of images constitutes the basic procedure. The question arises: which sort of images? It is not dealt here with the oniric ones, but with the consciously created and must be called symbolic images. Almost every image that appears during a therapy session reveals a symbolic nature, but the very concept of symbol is not free from ambiguity some positions originated in different areas of investigation are mentioned, ending with a description of the traits that, according to the writer, bestow a symbolic character to images. These can be sensible ones or linguistic, as they appear in literary productions. Their importance as a factor of the psychotherapeutic change resides in the fact that symbolic images thus created are felt as not real events and at the same time containing subjective meaning. These two traits combine to lessen the anxiety before the confrontation with one's own impulses or feelings and at same time to stimulate towards new ways of behavior, until then desired -perhaps unconsciously- but too frightening to materialize in the real world.