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IT IS INCREASINGLY evident that imagery is becoming widely utilized in a variety of therapy procedures that are based on very different conceptual orientations. Is there some common model that permits us to integrate this diverse material within a system more closely tied to operational definition and the possibilities of formal hypothesis-testing research? The purpose of the present paper is to map out one avenue that might lead to such a common vantage point. The major assumptions or relevant research literature underlying the suggestions offered here are available elsewhere (Richardson, 1969) ; (Singer, 1966) ; (Tomkins, 1962).
One problem presented in the use of imagery by the Europeans and to a lesser extent by psychoanalytic groups is the tendency to regard the imagination as a realm through which one travels with a "guide" (Désoille, 1961), (1938). Recently, however, there has been increasing emphasis among behavioral scientists upon the important information-processing characteristic of man. In this frame of reference, the organism is seen as a set of interrelated systems built around the effective organization of experience and the production of plans and images that facilitate the screening and utilization of the multi-various cues and overall input from the external world. However, to stress man's cognitive functions