A Narrative Review of Eidetic Imagery and the Early Architecture of Mental Imagery Research: Revisiting Akhter Ahsen’s Foundational Contributions
Main Article Content
Abstract
Akhter Ahsen’s eidetic theory, particularly his Image-Somatic-Meaning (ISM) model remains one of the most comprehensive phenomenological frameworks for understanding mental imagery developed in the 20th century. Despite its conceptual depth and clinical sophistication, Ahsen’s work has been largely overlooked within mainstream cognitive psychology. Over the past four decades, however, cognitive scientists such as Stephen Kosslyn, Emily Holmes, Andrew Mathews, and Joel Pearson have advanced empirical models that converge strikingly with Ahsen’s earlier formulations.
This paper offers a systematic analysis of the conceptual intersections between Ahsen’s eidetic theory and contemporary cognitive imagery research. It argues that many of the “discoveries” now regarded as foundational, such as the depictive nature of imagery, its somatic and affective correlates, its causal influence on cognition, and its therapeutic potential were theoretically formulated and operationally structured by Ahsen decades earlier. Moreover, Ahsen developed a rigorous method for tracing psychopathology through experiential imagery and articulated systematic psychotherapeutic techniques grounded in these principles.
This paper is based on an extensive narrative review of the literature, drawing on primary texts by Akhter Ahsen alongside contemporary cognitive, neuroscientific, and clinical research. Relevant sources were identified through structured searches of major academic works, supplemented by targeted cross referencing with historical and theoretical works on imagery science. This approach enabled the identification and synthesis of conceptual convergences, divergences, and overlooked continuities across epistemological, methodological, and clinical domains. The paper concludes by calling for the acknowledgement and reintegration of Ahsen’s contributions into the contemporary scientific narrative and proposes a unified framework that bridges phenomenology, clinical science, and cognitive neuroscience.
Keywords:
Akhter Ahsen, eidetic imagery, eidetic psychotherapy, mental imagery.
Article Details
How to Cite
SYED, Akhtar Ali; NEELOFUR, Shazia.
A Narrative Review of Eidetic Imagery and the Early Architecture of Mental Imagery Research: Revisiting Akhter Ahsen’s Foundational Contributions.
Medical Research Archives, [S.l.], v. 14, n. 4, apr. 2026.
ISSN 2375-1924.
Available at: <https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/7364>. Date accessed: 01 may 2026.
doi: https://doi.org/10.18103/mra.v14i4.7364.
Section
Review Articles
The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.
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3. Nanay B. Mental imagery. In: Zalta EN, Nodelman U, eds. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2026 ed. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/mental-imagery/.
4. Gregorić P, Grgić F. Aristotle’s notion of experience. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie. 2006;88(1):1 30.
5. Roeckelein JE. Imagery in Psychology: A Reference Guide. Westport, CT: Praeger; 2004.
6. Kind A, ed. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination. London, UK: Routledge; 2020.
7. Hobbes T. Leviathan. Tuck R, editor. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1996.
8. Thomas NJT. Mental imagery. In: Zalta EN, ed. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall 2013 ed. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/mental-imagery/.
9. Zeman A, Dewar M, Della Sala S. Lives without imagery: Congenital aphantasia. Cortex. 2015;73:378 380. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.019
10. Milton F, Fulford J, Dance C, et al. Behavioral and neural signatures of visual imagery vividness extremes: Aphantasia versus hyperphantasia. Cereb Cortex Commun. 2021;2(2):tgab035. doi:10.1093/texcom/tgab035
11. Tye M. The Imagery Debate. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 1991.
12. Pearson J. The human imagination: The cognitive neuroscience of visual mental imagery. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2019; 20(10):624 634. doi:10.1038/s41583 019 0202 9
13. Nyíri K. Wittgenstein's philosophy of pictures. Presented at: Wittgenstein Research Revisited Conference; 2001. Available at: http://www.hunfi.hu/nyiri/nyiri_bergen_tlk.htm.
14. Wittgenstein L. Philosophical Investigations. Anscombe GEM, translator. Oxford, UK: Blackwell; 2005.
15. Galton F. Inquiries into Human Faculty. London, UK: Dent; 1883.
16. Palmiero M, Piccardi L, Nori R, et al. Editorial: Creativity and mental imagery. Front Psychol. 2016;7:1280. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01280
17. Betts GH. The Distribution and Functions of Mental Imagery. New York, NY: AMS Press; 1990.
18. Ahsen A. Eidetic Psychotherapy: A Short Introduction. New York, NY: Brandon House; 1965.
19. Ahsen A. Basic Concepts in Eidetic Psychotherapy. New York, NY: Brandon House; 1968.
20. Richardson A. Mental Imagery. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company; 1969.
21. Berntsen D. Involuntary autobiographical memories and their relation to other forms of spontaneous thoughts. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021; 376(1817):20190693.
22. Poulos C, Zamani A, Pillemer D, Leichtman M, Christoff K, Mills C. Investigating the appraisal structure of spontaneous thoughts: evidence for differences among unexpected thought, involuntary autobiographical memories, and ruminative thought. Psychol Res. 2023;87:2345 2364.
23. Paivio A. Mental imagery in associative learning and memory. Psychol Rev. 1969;76(3):241 263.
24. Paivio A. Imagery and Verbal Processes. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston; 1971.
25. Schacter DL, Benoit RG, Szpunar KK. Episodic future thinking: Mechanisms and functions. Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2017;17:41 50. doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.06.002
26. Yuile JC, Marschark M. Imagery effects on memory: Theoretical interpretations. In: Sheikh A, ed. Current Theory, Research, and Application. New York, NY: Wiley; 1983:131 154.
27. Nanay B. Mental Imagery: Philosophy, Psychology, Neuroscience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 2023.
28. Syed AA, Neelofur S, Moran A, O’Reilly G. Investigating the potential clinical utility of therapeutic techniques based on eidetic imagery... Heliyon. 2020;6(10):e05115. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05115
29. Syed AA, Neelofur S. The theory and practice of the Eidetic Model of Growth... Med Res Arch. 2025;13(9). doi:10.18103/mra.v13i9.6836
30. Dijkstra N, Bosch SE, van Gerven MAJ. Shared neural mechanisms of visual perception and imagery. Trends Cogn Sci. 2019; 23(5):423 434. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2019.02.004
31. Wilson Mendenhall CD, Henriques A, Barsalou LW, Barrett LF. Primary interoceptive cortex activity during simulated experiences of the body. J Cogn Neurosci. 2019;31(2):221 235. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_01346
32. Sambuco N, Bradley MM, Lang PJ. Narrative imagery: Emotional modulation in the default mode network. Neuropsychologia. 2022;164:108087. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108087
33. Shepard RN, Metzler J. Mental rotation of three dimensional objects. Science. 1971;171(3972):701 703.
34. Kosslyn SM. Image and Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1980.
35. Kosslyn SM. Image and Brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 1996.
36. Ganis G, Thompson WL, Kosslyn SM. Brain areas underlying visual mental imagery... Cogn Brain Res. 2004;20(2):226 241. doi:10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.02.012
37. Ganis G, Schendan HE. Visual mental imagery and perception... NeuroImage. 2008;42(4):1714 1727. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.07.004
38. Slotnick SD, Thompson WL, Kosslyn SM. Visual mental imagery induces retinotopically organized activation... Cereb Cortex. 2005;15(10):1570 1583. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhi035
39. Keogh R, Bergmann J, Pearson J. Cortical excitability controls the strength of mental imagery. eLife. 2020;9:e50232. doi:10.7554/eLife.50232
40. Pearson J, Clifford CWG, Tong F. The functional impact of mental imagery... Curr Biol. 2008;18(13):982 986.
41. Pearson J, Naselaris T, Holmes EA, Kosslyn SM. Mental imagery... Trends Cogn Sci. 2015; 19(10):590 602. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.003
42. Keogh R, Pearson J. The blind mind: No sensory visual imagery in aphantasia. Cortex. 2018;105:53 60. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.012
43. Zeman A, Dewar M, Della Sala S. Reflections on aphantasia. Cortex. 2020;130:1 4. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.04.003
44. Holmes EA, Mathews A. Mental imagery in emotion and emotional disorders. Clin Psychol Rev. 2010; 30(3):349 362. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.01.001
45. Holmes EA, Arntz A, Smucker MR. Imagery rescripting... J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2007; 38(4):297 305. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.10.007
46. Boccaccio FM, Pennisi A, Guerrera CS, et al. Mental imagery between cognition and emotion: A narrative review. Psychiatry Int. 2024;5(4):697 717.
47. Arntz A. Imagery rescripting... J Exp Psychopathol. 2012; 3(2):189 208. doi:10.5127/jep.024211
48. Brewin CR, Wheatley J, Patel T, et al. Imagery rescripting as a brief stand alone treatment... Behav Res Ther. 2009;47(7):565 570.
49. Ahsen A. Eidetics: An overview. J Ment Imagery. 1977;1(Spring):5 38.
50. Ahsen A. Psyceye: Self Analytic Consciousness. New York, NY: Brandon House; 1977.
51. Ahsen A. The New Structuralism: Images in Dramatic Interlock. New York, NY: Brandon House; 1986.
52. Curtis R. The use of imagery in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Psychoanal Inq. 2016;36(7): 593 602. doi:10.1080/07351690.2016.1226033.
53. Thomas V. Using Mental Imagery in Counselling and Psychotherapy. New York, NY: Routledge; 2016.
54. Jaensch ER. Eidetic Imagery. Oeser O, translator. London, UK: Routledge; 1930. Reprinted 1999.
55. Allport GW. Eidetic imagery: A critical review. Psychol Bull. 1924;21(6):359 372.
56. Syed AA. A way to grow: Eidetic model of growth in people with intellectual disability. J Ment Imagery. 2012;36(3 4):1 32.
57. Syed AA, Neelofur S, Moran A, O’Reilly G. Exploring the vividness of mental imagery and eidetic imagery in people with intellectual disability (ID) in comparison with typically developing (TD) individuals. Heliyon. 2020;6(11):e05429. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05429
58. Hochman J. The Image Psychology of Akhter Ahsen. Lahore, Pakistan: Dastavez; 1995. Originally published in: J Ment Imagery. 1994;18:1 118.
59. Kosslyn SM, Thompson WL, Ganis G. The Case for Mental Imagery. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2006.
60. Pearson J. The human imagination: The cognitive neuroscience of visual mental imagery. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2019;20(10):624 634. doi:10.1038/s41583 019 0202 9.
61. Holmes EA, Geddes JR, Colom F, Goodwin GM. Mental imagery as an emotional amplifier: Application to bipolar disorder. Behav Res Ther. 2008; 46(12):1251 1258. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2008.09.005.
62. Ji JL, Burnett Heyes S, MacLeod C, Holmes EA. Emotional mental imagery as simulation of reality: Fear and beyond. Behav Ther. 2016;47(5):702 719. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2015.11.000
63. Kosslyn SM, Ganis G, Thompson WL. Neural foundations of imagery. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2001; 2(9):635 642. doi:10.1038/35090055.
64. Dijkstra N, Fleming SM. Subjective signal strength distinguishes reality from imagination. Nat Commun. 2023; 14:37322. doi:10.1038/s41467 023 37322 1
65. Clark A. Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 2015.
66. van der Kolk B. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York, NY: Viking; 2014.
67. Lane RD, Ryan L, Nadel L, Greenberg L. Memory reconsolidation, emotional arousal, and the process of change in psychotherapy: New insights from brain science. Behav Brain Sci. 2015; 38:e1. doi:10.1017/S0140525X14000041
68. Varela FJ, Thompson E, Rosch E. The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 1991.
69. Dalal F. CBT: The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami—Managerialism, Politics and the Corruptions of Science. Abingdon, UK: Routledge; 2018.
70. Harrer M, Cuijpers P, Schuurmans LKJ, et al. Evaluation of randomized controlled trials: a primer and tutorial for mental health researchers. Trials. 2023; 24:562
71. Zaur AJ. Revisiting randomized controlled trials: reassessing their role as the gold standard for evidence based treatments. Psychodynamic Psychiatry. 2025;53(2):157 161. doi:10.1521/pdps.2025.53.2.157.
72. Ahsen, A. Ahsen’s trauma model; Case history section with case history vignettes. Journal of Mental Imagery. 1980; 4(2), 149-189
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