Roles and Image

Introduction

Image is used here to mean the total impression of a person or object.

Person-to-person imagery has two parts- the actual image projected (consciously or unconsciously) by the person transmitting the image, and the received image, interpreted (consciously or unconsciously) by the person receiving the image.

The actual value of images are not constant, but vary over geographical and historical distance. Positive image in one place may be negative image in another. Similarly for time. Image is culture dependent.[PJ1]

At its most basic level, image may be seen as the collection of signs and symbols voluntarily or involuntarily placed around a person or object. Examples of such signs and symbols are- immediate bodily shape, clothing, belongings, physical environment, other people present, behaviours engaged in. The physical existence of these signs has no meaning in itself. They only gain meaning from the interpretations put on these signs by people who observe them. These interpretations are influenced by the interpreters beliefs and experiences (especially by their value system.)

So image is a complex transfer of information (often unconscious) between what is actually there (the person or object and all the people and things around it) to the person observing the image. This transfer of information is heavily influenced by the value system and expectations of that person.

Why Image Is Important

Image is important because we use it as a shorthand for understanding what is going on around us. If we had to make conscious decisions about what was happening in every new situation, we would suffer from continual information overload. We use image as a method of coping with the world.

Because we are so used to this method of making decisions, we have become unaware of it. Usually this unconscious reaction is useful or just neutral. However, it can heavily influence how we react to devalued groups. It may give us permission to do bad things to them.

How Images Are Conveyed

Images are not only visual, they may involve any sense. For instance, the perception of the stale urine or faeces or body odour would add to image. How peaceful or noisy the environment is will add to overall image. How comfortable furniture feels will do the same. All senses may be involved.

Images may be transmitted voluntarily or unconsciously by individuals or groups.

Images may be transferred by mere proximity to other people or things.

How People May Be Given A Negative Image

· Placing services to people in poorly valued areas.

· Placing together people with differing negative images.

· Use of lower value methods, activities or structures.

· Using comical or bizarre names and labels.

· Giving services comical or bizarre names.

· Neglecting people’s personal appearance.

· Using low-value funds to provide services.

· ‘Marking’ people with clothing, body marks etc..

How Images May Determine Roles

Image is a very important factor in promoting and defending roles. The actual appearance of someone may determine whether you are able to easily let that person perform a given role.

People are more likely to trust and believe a doctor in their surgery if they are wearing sensible clothing and behaving in a professional manner. If a doctor saw you in a clinic dressed in gardening clothes and intermittently singing snatches from old musicals, their image would be severely impaired and they would have difficulty filling the role of doctor.

Similarly if a person with a mental health problem dresses and acts bizarrely, it may make it difficult, or impossible, for them to attain the valued roles of neighbour, friend, tenant, customer etc.

Names Found In Human Services

The following names may not give the best images to the people concerned:

· Rehab Unit sited on old Laburnum Farm (Laburnum is a tree with deadly seed pods used by people attempting suicide). Laburnum Unit for LD Challenging behaviour at Teignmouth, Devon.

· Barrow Hospital, Bristol (Barrow means a burial mound)

· Eventide Rest-home, Liskeard (Abide with me)

· Babbling Brook- speech therapy centre

· Hope Haven (a custodial facility)

· Madden Zone Center (Service for People with Mental Disorder). Madden Street as only approach to LD Service in Stonehouse, Plymouth.

· Battery State Hospital (for the mentally disordered and learning disabled)

· Battery Street Flats, Plymouth (For homeless women who may have suffered domestic violence)

· Whipper Home for abused children

· Toomey-Abbott Towers (High Rise Residence for the Elderly)

· Freezer’s Personal Care Home (Nursing Home for the Elderly)

· Golden Opportunity Convalescent Home (for the dying)

· St Judes Hospital (for the handicapped- St Jude is the patron saint of Lost Causes)

· Units/wards named after inanimate objects-flowers/trees/animals

· Nomony (Club for disadvantaged families- No Money)

· St Francis (Nursing Home for the elderly. St Francis was connected with Animals)

· Bahr Treatment Center (for alcoholics)

· Antoine Graves Home (for the Elderly)

· Wingbat Sanitarium in Chicago

^·Seven Sorrows of Our Sorrowful Mother Infant’s Home

· Burden Center for the Aging, NYC

· Eric Burdon Community, Oxford

· Moran House, Moran Place, Westchester NY-home for the learning disabled

· Beta House for people with learning disability- Brave New World Aldous Huxley- Alpha Beta Gamma and Delta eugenically determined people. Also Bêta means beast, blockhead in French.

· GAMA (see note above) is Gloucestershire Association For Mental Health

· Group home and Special School on Clod Lane in Lancashire

· Deadend Orphanage, Chicago

· Farm Lane residential home for people with learning disability in Plymouth UK

· Bleak House, Massachusetts - community residence, Bleak House, Winnipeg, Manitoba -senior citizen day centre

· Study Group on history of mental health disorders called itself the Luna Circle- Canada

· Bittersweet Farms- residential program for autistic adults

· Bananas Child Care Referral Agency in Oakland California

· Resurrection Nursing Pavilion,

· Borman Hall,

· St Peter Villa Nursing Home

· St Peter’s Ward, Ivybridge (High Dependency rehab/terminal care)

· St Peter’s Hospice, Bristol

· Gothic Villas Nursing Home for the Elderly, Clevedon, North Somerset

· The Parapets Nursing Home, Plymouth, UK

· Willows Units in Plymouth and Torbay- for people with LD- why choose the ‘weeping’ tree- conveys sadness.

· Bethany as Christ’s last place before crucifixion.

· Chiron Day Service- Chiron was one of the guardians of the sixth level of hell in Dante’s inferno.

· LD Service in Nuttall Street in Hackney in East London.

· EMU unit- an adult acute psychiatric unit in Torbay - named after Edith Morgan but sounding like a silly bird, was renamed Haytor (Hater) unit 1999 after the most difficult Tor (mountain peak) to climb on Dartmoor.

· Folly Court is a residence for people with severe mental illness in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Folly=Foolish.

· Botchall House- halfway house at Langdon Hospital.

Summary for Image

Image is extremely important to the way the we interpret the world. Image is a major determinant of what roles a person is likely to be cast into. Image can be transferred in many ways- proximity to objects or other people, names given to people or the facilities they use, their personal image etc.
Image Exercises

Creating a Good Impression

Consider an important event in your life- a job interview, a date, a wedding, a funeral, a formal presentation etc.

How important is the image that you present as an individual?

How important is the image presented by the surroundings?

How important is the image presented by other people there?

How much effect does such image ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’ have on the totality of the event occurring?

Media and Image Exercise

1/ Think of current or historic TV or magazine advertising.

Can you think of examples where ‘everyday’ products are glamorised by being placed in close social proximity to highly valued products/people/places.

2/ Think of party political broadcasts or pamphlets or press campaigns

Can you think of examples where individuals or groups are negatively imaged by the use of words and images, or by association with low value concepts or high threat concepts?

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE SUCH USES OF IMAGERY IN TRANSFERRING INFORMATION, EMOTION AND LIKELY REACTION?

An Exercise In Advertising

A gentle approach to the importance of image and competency in social affairs.

· Think of the images and activities that you see in advertising around you.

· Who are the people that advertisers use?

· What are they seen doing?

· Why do advertisers use these images and why do they spend so much money on it?

· What happens when poor images are used?

· Make a list of these attributes

· What is the opposite of these attributes?

[PJ1]