Understanding, Comprehending, Changing: Depth Psychology Oriented Value Imagination in Psychotherapy and Counseling
by Clemens Brandt
ISBN: 978-3647992655
Pub Date: May 12, 2025.
Imprint: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Bio: Dr Clemens Brandt is a specialist in psychotherapeutic medicine and psychiatry/psychotherapy. He has been practicing as a medical psychotherapist since 2004 and has training in logotherapy and existential analysis, value imagination,psychoanalytical-interactional group therapy, trauma therapy and systematic couple’s therapy. He is also a teaching therapist in depth psychology-oriented value imagination therapy and is authorized to provide further training in psychotherapeutic medicine. He is also a member of the BVVP (German Association for Psychotherapy and Psychotherapy Training).
Note: this book is published in German. I hope I have avoided creating any misunderstandings due to my limited German. But thanks to the blessing of modern translation tools within electronic books, I believe I have been to accurately read and understand this book. Nevertheless, it is important to state that any misunderstandings are solely my responsibility and should not reflect negatively on the author of the book or its publisher.
Synopsis
Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination), Value-oriented Personality Development (Wertorientierte Persönlichkeitsbildung), Value-oriented Logotherapy (Wertimaginative Logotherapie) and other methods were pioneered and further developed by Uwe Böschemeyer, a student of Viktor Frankl. The word “imagination” here refers to a technique of bringing a conscious client into his or her subconscious and waiting for the images that the subconscious produces to appear. The client does not produce the images, rather, the images appear on their own because the subconscious communicates in images. Böschemeyer’s approach is referred to by some as the Hamburg Model of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis.
These methods are practiced widely in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but I am not certain how widely they are known outside of the German speaking world or outside the practice of Logotherapy. What I can say is that practically all of the published materials and websites I have discovered are in German and seem to indicate that those who practice Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination) are either credentialed Logotherapists or people with at least some training in it.
Clemens Brandt, the author of Verstehen, Begreifen, Verändern: Tiefenpsychologisch orientierte Wertimagination in Psychotherapie und Beratung, presents here a book based on his years of work as a psychiatrist with a broad palette of training that includes Logotherapy and Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination), but not exclusively. For instance, there are about three times as many references to C.G. Jung in the book as to Viktor Frankl. And only one of Frankl’s books is listed in the bibliography, Ärztliche Seelsorge: Grundlagen der Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse (in English, The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy), whereas four works by C.G. Jung appear there. Jungian language also figures prominently in this book. This raises a concern for me because Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination) as developed by Böschemeyer is based in Logotherapy’s recognition of the spiritual unconscious and not depth psychology. According to Frankl’s argument via dimensional ontology, the spiritual (noëtic) dimension is higher than the dimension of the psyche. While Brandt convincingly writes about the implementation of value-oriented imagination in his work, he seems to have disconnected it from its Logotherapeutic basis by relegating it to use in depth-psychology.
Brandt’s “broad palette” is also discernible in his choice of Gunter Schmidt, Director of the Milton Erikson Institute in Heidelberg, to write the foreword of the book. Schmidt developed the hypnosystemic approach which integrates systemic-constructivist models and the approach of Milton Erikson which, as he writes in the forward, might be seen as incompatible with a depth psychology-oriented model, but he disagrees. Not only does Schmidt highly recommend Brandt’s book, but he also speaks admiringly of Viktor Frankl.
Whether this book should be treated as a manual or simply an introduction to Value-oriented Imagination is better answered by someone else, but I see it more as an introduction, since I doubt a person can learn this technique without an experienced teacher. The Introduction, chapters 1 and 2 introduce the general concepts and history of its development, beginning with Uwe Böschemeyer, and the framework for conducting sessions. Chapters 3 and 4 constitute the bulk of the book (126 pages out of 213 total). Chapter 3, “Value Imagination from Practice for Practice,” details the beginnings of Value-Imagination sessions with a client and presents a structured plan setting goals and conducting the therapy from beginning to end. With each step in the process, he includes insights and lessons learned for a more effective practice.
Chapter 4 addresses “Value-Imagination for Certain Disorders.” Again, with the same detail and insight as shown in chapter 3, Dr. Brandt demonstrates how to address depression, anxiety and compulsion disorders, and so on. Chapter 5 focuses on Value-oriented Personality Development (Wertorientierte Persönlichkeitsbildung), while chapter 6 briefly touches on other forms of value imaginations, and chapter 7 rounds out the book with advice for practitioners of Value-oriented Imagination.
This book has several things to recommend itself. First, as already mentioned, the collegiality Dr. Brandt has with his peers in related therapeutic practices makes this book a kind of “crossover” book, equally accessible to Logotherapists, Analytical psychologists, and anyone interested in depth-psychology and imagination-oriented therapies. Second, it is not academically dry, nor is it lightweight. I think Dr. Brandt has achieved a good balance between scholarship and readability. But perhaps the highlight of this book for me was getting a taste of Dr. Brandt’s own approach to and practice of Value-Imaginations. This is seen in the many examples from sessions in chapters 3 and 4 and the bonus content from the publisher’s website. Curious, however, is the absence of any reference to the Enneagram, which features prominently in Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination), and especially Value-oriented Personality Development (Wertorientierte Persönlichkeitsbildung).
As one who has undergone Value-imaginations, I read this book with great awareness but constantly wondered how anyone who has never undergone Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination) could really grasp what he or she is reading? I would caution anyone reading this book to not practice it without any training. It is something that has to be experienced in order to be practiced and cannot be learned from simply reading a book. Most important, Brandt’s application of value-oriented imagination is limited to depth-psychology one, which is—apparently—possible, but not how it was originally developed.
Tom Edmondson for meaninginministry.com
Date Of Review: December 2025
Hinweis: Dieses Buch ist auf Deutsch erschienen. Ich hoffe, dass ich trotz meiner begrenzten Deutschkenntnisse keine Missverständnisse verursacht habe. Dank der modernen Übersetzungstools in E-Books bin ich jedoch überzeugt, dass ich dieses Buch korrekt gelesen und verstanden habe. Dennoch möchte ich darauf hinweisen, dass etwaige Missverständnisse ausschließlich in meiner Verantwortung liegen und sich nicht negativ auf den Autor des Buches oder dessen Verlag auswirken sollten.
Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination), Value-oriented Personality Development (Wertorientierte Persönlichkeitsbildung), Value-oriented Logotherapy (Wertimaginative Logotherapie) and other methods were pioneered and further developed by Uwe Böschemeyer, a student of Viktor Frankl. The word “imagination” here refers to a technique of bringing a conscious client into his or her subconscious and waiting for the images that the subconscious produces to appear. The client does not produce the images, rather, the images appear on their own because the subconscious communicates in images. Böschemeyer’s approach is referred to by some as the Hamburg Model of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis.
These methods are practiced widely in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but I am not certain how widely they are known outside of the German speaking world or outside the practice of Logotherapy. What I can say is that practically all of the published materials and websites I have discovered are in German and seem to indicate that those who practice Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination) are either credentialed Logotherapists or people with at least some training in it.
Clemens Brandt, the author of Verstehen, Begreifen, Verändern: Tiefenpsychologisch orientierte Wertimagination in Psychotherapie und Beratung, presents here a book based on his years of work as a psychiatrist with a broad palette of training that includes Logotherapy and Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination), but not exclusively. For instance, there are about three times as many references to C.G. Jung in the book as to Viktor Frankl. And only one of Frankl’s books is listed in the bibliography, Ärztliche Seelsorge: Grundlagen der Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse (in English, The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy), whereas four works by C.G. Jung appear there. Jungian language also figures prominently in this book. This raises a concern for me because Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination) as developed by Böschemeyer is based in Logotherapy’s recognition of the spiritual unconscious and not depth psychology. According to Frankl’s argument via dimensional ontology, the spiritual (noëtic) dimension is higher than the dimension of the psyche. While Brandt convincingly writes about the implementation of value-oriented imagination in his work, he seems to have disconnected it from its Logotherapeutic basis by relegating it to use in depth-psychology.
Brandt’s “broad palette” is also discernible in his choice of Gunter Schmidt, Director of the Milton Erikson Institute in Heidelberg, to write the foreword of the book. Schmidt developed the hypnosystemic approach which integrates systemic-constructivist models and the approach of Milton Erikson which, as he writes in the forward, might be seen as incompatible with a depth psychology-oriented model, but he disagrees. Not only does Schmidt highly recommend Brandt’s book, but he also speaks admiringly of Viktor Frankl.
Whether this book should be treated as a manual or simply an introduction to Value-oriented Imagination is better answered by someone else, but I see it more as an introduction, since I doubt a person can learn this technique without an experienced teacher. The Introduction, chapters 1 and 2 introduce the general concepts and history of its development, beginning with Uwe Böschemeyer, and the framework for conducting sessions. Chapters 3 and 4 constitute the bulk of the book (126 pages out of 213 total). Chapter 3, “Value Imagination from Practice for Practice,” details the beginnings of Value-Imagination sessions with a client and presents a structured plan setting goals and conducting the therapy from beginning to end. With each step in the process, he includes insights and lessons learned for a more effective practice.
Chapter 4 addresses “Value-Imagination for Certain Disorders.” Again, with the same detail and insight as shown in chapter 3, Dr. Brandt demonstrates how to address depression, anxiety and compulsion disorders, and so on. Chapter 5 focuses on Value-oriented Personality Development (Wertorientierte Persönlichkeitsbildung), while chapter 6 briefly touches on other forms of value imaginations, and chapter 7 rounds out the book with advice for practitioners of Value-oriented Imagination.
This book has several things to recommend itself. First, as already mentioned, the collegiality Dr. Brandt has with his peers in related therapeutic practices makes this book a kind of “crossover” book, equally accessible to Logotherapists, Analytical psychologists, and anyone interested in depth-psychology and imagination-oriented therapies. Second, it is not academically dry, nor is it lightweight. I think Dr. Brandt has achieved a good balance between scholarship and readability. But perhaps the highlight of this book for me was getting a taste of Dr. Brandt’s own approach to and practice of Value-Imaginations. This is seen in the many examples from sessions in chapters 3 and 4 and the bonus content from the publisher’s website. Curious, however, is the absence of any reference to the Enneagram, which features prominently in Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination), and especially Value-oriented Personality Development (Wertorientierte Persönlichkeitsbildung).
As one who has undergone Value-imaginations, I read this book with great awareness but constantly wondered how anyone who has never undergone Value-oriented Imagination (wertorientierte imagination) could really grasp what he or she is reading? I would caution anyone reading this book to not practice it without any training. It is something that has to be experienced in order to be practiced and cannot be learned from simply reading a book. Most important, Brandt’s application of value-oriented imagination is limited to depth-psychology one, which is—apparently—possible, but not how it was originally developed.