International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies

Int. J. Appl. Psychoanal. Studies 9(4): 372–375 (2012)

Published online in Wiley Online Library
([Link]) DOI: 10.1002/aps.1334

Contemporary Media Forum

The Decisive Moment

In my research on photographic psychology and online photo-sharing communi-

ties (Suler, 2012), I have recently focused on one of the most fascinating
and highly debated concepts in the history of photography: “the decisive
moment.” This concept was first proposed by Henri Cartier-Bresson, who is
considered by many to be the founder of modern photo-journalism. He believed
this moment occurs when the visual and psychological elements of people in a
real life scene spontaneously and briefly come together in perfect resonance to
express the essence of that human situation. Some people believe that the unique
artistic purpose of photography, as compared to other visual arts, is to capture this
fleeting, quintessential, and holistic instant in the flow of life. In the introduction
to his book The Decisive Moment (1952, pp. 1–14), Cartier-Bresson said:

I kept walking the streets, high-strung, and eager to snap scenes of convincing reality,
but mainly I wanted to capture the quintessence of the phenomenon in a single image.
Photographing, for me, is instant drawing, and the secret is to forget you are carrying a cam-
era . . . There are those who take photographs arranged beforehand and those who go out to
discover the image and seize it. For me the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intui-
tion and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides
simultaneously. In order to ‘give a meaning’ to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in
what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of
mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry . . . It is putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s
heart on the same axis. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting
one’s originality. It is a way of life.

Some contemporary photographers dismiss the decisive moment as an

outdated idea because fast burst digital cameras in our contemporary age make
it much easier to capture such fleeting moments. By taking many shots rapidly,
without worrying about wasting film, you stand a much greater chance of
securing that transitory instant – or, at the very least, you can look over your
large batch of shots to find one that qualifies as a decisive moment.
While pondering these ideas, I found myself thinking about clinicians
who offer many varied or lengthy interpretations to their clients, hoping that
something will stick in their attempt to generate an important insight – what
Freud would most probably consider “wild analysis.” Such a strategy differs
significantly than the traditional idea that the clinician offers one succinct,
precise, and perfectly timed but intuitively spontaneous interpretation

Int. J. Appl. Psychoanal. Studies 9: 372–375 (2012)

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/aps
 The decisive moment 373

that quickly hits the intrapsychic mark. Such a powerful interpretation in

psychoanalytic treatment is the equivalent of Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment
in photography. In fact, in the introduction to The Decisive Moment (1952),
Cartier-Bresson cited the seventeenth century Cardinal de Retz who said,
“Il n’y a rien dans ce monde qui n’ait un moment decisive” [“There is nothing
in this world that does not have a decisive moment”].
No doubt that idea applies to any pursuit of psychotherapeutic change, includ-
ing what has become a very popular endeavor in this age of digital photography and
online photo-sharing: therapeutic photography (Weiser, 1993). Millions of people
are now using their cameras as a tool for personal expression and insight. When
people set out to do therapeutic photography, are they best off taking lots of photo-
graphs of almost anything that strikes them as interesting, hoping one of them will
prove to be a personally therapeutic gem; or should they wait patiently as they look
around their environment, relying on their intuition to spot a few decisive
moments when everything inside and outside of them seems to “come together?”

FEATURES OF THE DECISIVE MOMENT

Consistent with Cartier-Bresson, my research into what people are saying online
about decisive moments and therapeutic photography confirms the former point
of view. In fact, what I discovered in these online discussions resonates with
traditional psychoanalytic ideas about insight and change in psychotherapy:

1. Prior to the shot as well as in the resulting photograph, there is an intuitive

sense of anticipation that something important is about to happen, similar
to the experience of the client and the therapist just prior to the moment of
therapeutic insight.
2. The photographer plays an inconspicuous role while capturing the meaning
of the candid human scene unfolding before him, much as the clinician
appears unobtrusive to the client during the intervention that leads to insight.
3. The emotional and psychological meaning of the decisive moment springs from
the dynamic interaction of the experiences of subject and photographer, just as
the dynamics of transference and countertransference – the “intersubjective field”
between clinician and client – provides the springboard for effective insight.
4. For the photographer and clinician, there is the sense that the opportunity
for the shot and therapeutic intervention is unique and fleeting, therefore
requiring a precisely timed action.
5. The composition of the decisive moment photograph creates a feeling of
balance, harmony, unity, and closure similar to the effect of the moment
of insight in psychotherapy.
6. The decisive moment shot, as well as effective therapeutic interventions, do
not simply happen by luck or chance; they are the product of a unique set
of technical, cognitive, and emotional skills developed from extensive
training, experience, and psychological knowledge of people.

Int. J. Appl. Psychoanal. Studies 9: 372–375 (2012)

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/aps
374 Suler

THE GOOD HOUR

The decisive moment photograph does not occur as an isolated shot. There are no
photographers, even the great ones, who go out with their cameras, take one
spectacular shot, and then return home. The decisive moment emerges in the
context of an entire shoot of some kind. Some photography sessions lead to a great
decisive moments shot, and some do not. Is there a difference between the two?
Here I am reminded of ideas about the “Good Hour” in psychoanalytic
therapy – the term originally proposed by Kris in his classic article “On some
vicissitudes of insight in psychoanalysis” (1956). The Good Hour starts off with
a negative tinge. The person feels frustrated, angry, or disappointed. However,
these feelings are then neutralized and transformed into a more productive
energy that pushes one’s mind towards personally meaningful insights. Dreams
or memories begin to break through defenses into conscious awareness. New
elements of one’s experience begin to fit into the context of previous experi-
ences as if they had always been familiar. Associations suddenly converge. What
was at first flat and intellectual becomes real and concrete. There is the feeling
that what one is thinking, feeling, and perceiving comes from an unconscious
realm where they have already been prepared, formulated, and integrated – a
kind of subconscious incubation. It is a reaction to and a synthesis of previous
psychotherapeutic work. The Good Hour, in which people feel autonomous
and independent in their search for meaning, differs from the “Pseudo-Good
Hour” in which they might seem to be perceiving life in a new, more fruitful
way, when actually their perception is motivated by a conscious or unconscious
goal to please someone, gain praise, or defy an authority.
These ideas echo what Cartier-Bresson said about the spontaneous resonance
of the visual and psychological elements of the decisive moment shot, as well as
suddenly realizing and capturing the underlying meaning and emotion of human
life. He in fact compared photography to the psychoanalytic couch, while Kris
believed the psychological processes occurring during the Good Hour resemble
those in artistic endeavors. Integrating the factual elements of the situation
being photographed with one’s subjective reaction to and interpretation of
that scenario, the decisive moment shot is the therapeutic “Aha!” moment of
realizing oneself within the human condition. It is the moment of clarity and
insight, of making concrete and real the meaning that was previously intellec-
tual and flat. It is not about getting that great shot to please authority figures
or to prove one is better than others. It is about oneself in the world of human
experience. Some subconsciously formed insight is lying in wait, anticipating the
opportunity to express itself. The decisive moment shot catalyzes its emergence.
For people who pursue therapeutic photography, any particular shoot can
become a kind of psychoanalytic therapy session leading to the experiential
release of some insight that was previously unconscious. Clearly, Cartier-Bresson
saw it the same way when he said that photography “is a way of shouting, of
freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one’s originality. It is a way of life.”

Int. J. Appl. Psychoanal. Studies 9: 372–375 (2012)

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/aps
 The decisive moment 375

Like psychotherapy, photography expresses life itself in the merging of the

subjective and objective worlds.
Despite these striking parallels between the Good Hour and the shoot
leading to the decisive moment photograph, some photographers might object
to the idea that the shoot starts off with a negative tinge, including feelings of
tension and aggression. However, Cartier-Bresson himself hinted at this idea
when he made such statements as: “I kept walking the streets, high-strung,
and eager to snap scenes of convincing reality . . . ” and “ . . . The creative act lasts
but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you
to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.” Susan Sontag
(1977) similarly described how photography entails the aggressive aspects of the
hunt. Kris’ insights simply clarify how this form of psychological tension and
aggression is controlled, neutralized, and redirected – in the case of photography,
redirected into the decisive moment of capture. As any artist knows: doubt,
frustration, anger, grief, or any other emotion of a negative tinge provides more
fuel for creative expression and capture than “feeling kinda good.”
Updating the idea of the Good Hour, we might add that it is one that
stimulates what both photographers (Karr, 2011) and psychoanalysts (Epstein,
1995) would call “mindfulness.” It is the ability to see things clearly, freely, as
they truly are in and of themselves. It involves the full awareness of oneself,
but also the ability to transcend the self in order to experience the moment
for what it is, rather than for just how one’s mind shapes it. As Bion (1967) said
about the psychotherapy session, the clinician must enter into it without
memory, desire, or understanding. As Cartier-Bresson said about photography
leading to the decisive moment, “It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself,
not of proving or asserting one’s originality. It is a way of life.”

REFERENCES

Bion, W. R. (1967). Notes on memory and desire. Psychoanalytic Forum, 3, 271–280.

Cartier-Bresson, H. (1952). The decisive moment. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Epstein, M. (1995). Thoughts without a thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist perspective. New York:
Basic Books.
Karr, A. (2011). The practice of contemplative photography. Boston, MA: Shambhala Press.
Kris, E. (1956). On some vicissitudes of insight in psycho-analysis. The International Journal of
Psycho-Analysis, 37, 445–455.
Sontag, S. (1977). On photography. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Suler, J. (2012). Photographic psychology: Image and psyche. [Link]
article_index.htm
Weiser, J. (1993). Phototherapy techniques. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

John Suler, PhD

Rider University,
Lawrenceville, NJ, USA
suler@[Link]

Int. J. Appl. Psychoanal. Studies 9: 372–375 (2012)

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/aps