Imagination Over Medication:
How Eidetic Imagery heals Learning Disabilities
By Jaqueline Lapa Sussman
Total Health Magazine - Volume 27 #3 October, 2005

urrently, Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (abbreviated ADD or ADHD) are the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. ADD/ADHD affects millions of children. Each affected person exhibits a unique set of distinctive symptoms that manifests in the way visual, auditory, motor, and spatial information is processed. Typical behaviors exhibited by those who have learning disabilities are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. These behaviors create real handicaps in a person's social, academic, professional and family life.

The exact cause of ADD is unknown. It has been speculated that the disorder may be caused by genetics, an imbalance of chemicals that affect neurotransmitter functions in the brain, or environmental factors. Without knowing its true cause, it has been impossible to cure.

Drugs or Imagination

Today, we are in the Dark Ages regarding treatments for ADHD. Medications that affect the central nervous system are sold under trade names such as Ritalin, Concerta, Matadata CD, and Adderall, and are prescribed to millions of children in an attempt to help them to focus. These medications do not address the root cause of the problems and treat the symptom only in a hit or miss fashion.

Moreover, there is no well-established data available on the safety and efficacy of long-term use. The side effects of these drugs include nervousness, insomnia, hypersensitivity (including skin rashes), anorexia, nausea, dizziness, palpitations, headaches, drowsiness, blood pressure and pulse changes (both up and down), tachycardia, angina, abdominal pain, weight loss and, according to the latest research, an increased risk of cancer.

In a small but alarming study conducted in 2005 at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Center in Houston, researchers found that the Ritalin may increase the risk of cancer. These investigators studied the white blood cells of 12 children before and after administration of Ritalin for three months and reported that there was a two to three percent increase in the level of chromosomal abnormalities at the end of treatment. These abnormalities manifested in chromosomal breaks, that are associated with an increased risk of cancer.

However, through the innovative work of Dr. Akhter Ahsen, the founder of Eidetic Image Psychology, the root cause of learning disorders has been uncovered. Eidetic Image Psychology treats the causes and manifestation of each person's symptoms.

Social interactions affect learning:

There are two principles that affect all learning:  first, learning is a
deeply pleasurable experience; and second, nurturing relationships are the key to learning. All learning comes out of nourishing social interactions where a  child is allowed to explore and learn in his natural manner, utilizing the child's unique perceptual and intuitive processes as he interacts with nature or with helpful adults.  It is through active play, imagination, and enjoyable absorption while interacting with objects or concepts that learning occurs.

Whether early learning experiences are affirming or fraught with tension affects the child's confidence. The very first lessons begin early in life as a mother interacts with her child. For example, while feeding her child, the mother refers to a 'banana'. The child learns that it is a banana she is eating. While throwing pebbles into a pond with his father, a child may learn that the pebbles create concentric rings in the water. This lesson occurs spontaneously, is fun, and the child feels enriched by the presence of his dad. If the father is critical about how the child throws the pebble, the child will feel critical towards himself.  He will internalize the negative evaluation of himself.

Dr. Ahsen's research confirms that learning problems and their associated neurological dysfunctions originate from the individual's social interactions with parents, teachers, school and society. Learning problems freeze the learning potential of people whose natural ability to absorb and process information has been injured early in their education. He found that those who develop learning disabilities are deeply sensitive and imaginative, and therefore more strongly affected by social interaction than the ordinary person. Once a young and sensitive mind is traumatized by external circumstances, a neurological pattern of response to the trauma forms in the brain and ADD/ADHD symptoms manifest. This trauma patterns the brain's encoded neural responses to learning.

An illustration of how ADD forms in a sensitive mind is the story of Sam. Sam's symptoms began at age 5, as he learned math from his controlling father. Sam could not absorb the math concepts in the aura of his father's rigid teaching style. Sam needed to learn at his own natural pace and manner.  Each lesson became a frightening experience where he felt criticized. Thus, he responded with anxiety and distraction. Seeing his son 'not paying attention,' Sam's father would explode in anger. The math lessons inevitably ended in tears. Is it any wonder that Sam's natural mathematical abilities shut down? The distress Sam experienced during the math lessons spread to all other learning situations.

Similarly, Mary, an eight-year-old girl got nervous sitting in her classroom every day with what she perceived as a 'mean' teacher. After four months in the classroom, she was so tense that she could not follow three directions given by the teacher at one time, such as 'open to page 11, read the second paragraph, and answer the questions at the end of the chapter”.  She was finally labeled as having ADD and was prescribed medication.

Most children with ADD/ADHD feel isolated in a mechanistic environment that does not touch their imagination or their spirit. Imaginative and creative children do not adapt well to the set and often inflexible learning style of the classroom.  When these children are allowed to function freely, learn in their own style, and are not criticized nor controlled by those around them, their learning abilities naturally flow. Once each person's individualized style of learning is uncovered within a nourishing environment, he or she will develop the confidence needed to perform well.

The injured social nucleus of critical early learning experiences is healed through warm and sensitive interactions designed to enhance the child's innate abilities. Children treated in this manner rejoin standard classroom activities and succeed.  For example, after treatment, Mary, the girl who could not follow three directions at once said, “The teacher got so much nicer. It is now easy to follow her directions.” In reality, of course, the teacher had not changed. It was the child's perception that had shifted as she developed self-reliance, strength, and confidence in her own abilities.

Learning and Imagination:

There is a critical link between learning and imagination. Eidetic images are key in learning as they are an experiential nucleus that involves thoughts, perceptions, and sensation. Knowledge comes from processing ideas through the medium of visual images. While reading the words on a page, one forms pictures in the mind of what is being read. Reading a history lesson about England during World War II, one may visualize Nazi airplanes dropping bombs onto London buildings, or see frightened people hiding in dark cellars. Reading instructions on how to assemble a tent, one must visualize which part goes into which other to put the tent up. The reader must convert the two-dimensional diagram into a three-dimensional mental image. All learning utilizes mental images to concretize ideas, which then ignite the mind with their various possibilities. Without seeing images, comprehension cannot occur.  Traumatizing experiences early in the learning process can block a child's ability to visualize images, causing the child to demonstrate symptoms and behavior that lead to them being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.

Eidetic Imagery utilizes a course of treatment in which an educator and a person with learning problems engage in a nurturing and pleasurable learning dialogue about a series of photographs of the natural world. During the process, the specific blocks to visualization of learning material emerge. For example, does the student lack confidence in his perceptions as he engages with the
photo? Does he get distracted? Does he space out as he focuses on the picture? Does he exhibit confused or impaired spatial orientation? Is his auditory discrimination poor? Does he fidget or become hyperactive? Commonly seen as symptoms of ADD/ADHD.

Once the conflict is brought to light,  re-learning can be initiated. The responses are analyzed and turned into a structured treatment through specifically designed therapeutic interventions that address each problem. Through a 30-step process of interacting with the pictures, one's ability to fully see images is restored. The teacher becomes the igniter for learning. Once fixed perspectives are opened and repressions broken, the individual's original capacity to learn is restored. In a warm and engaging manner, the injured social nucleus is healed and the person's innate abilities emerge.

As parents we are out child's best advocate and even when feeling powerless the tool of imagery can be used to support our child in succeeding. The following is an example of an imagery exercise that can help one be more sensitive to a child's situation.

Imaging your child learning:

To gain deeper knowledge of your child, allow the following image to form in your mind's eye. Let the image unfold naturally and become aware of your feelings as you see the image. (You can open and close your eyes as you alternately read and visualize the instruction).

The choice is clearly in our hands. Do we want to heal our children by supporting their gifted imaginations and brilliance, or do we want to drug them to conform to classroom standards?