A Narrative Review of Eidetic Imagery and the Early Architecture of Mental Imagery Research: Revisiting Akhter Ahsen’s Foundational Contributions

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.

Authors

• Akhtar Syed1
• Shazia Neelofur1

A Narrative Review of Eidetic Imagery and the Early Architecture of Mental Imagery Research: Revisiting Akhter Ahsen’s Foundational Contributions

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.

Authors

• Akhtar Syed1
• Shazia Neelofur1