We live in the age of the screen. Almost overnight, from the moment the light of the first movie projector began washing over the silver screen, cinema has nearly totally eclipsed literature, philosophy, poetry, and theater.
In the years that followed, screens have come to dominate every corner of our lives. From the TV sets that strategically positioned themselves in the center of our living rooms to the smartphones we all hold in our palms, the screens have become the technological equivalent of the ancient tribal fires around which our forefathers listened to the stories that shaped their understanding of the world.
How should we understand the sharp turn our culture has taken from text to image?
THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE SOUL
Screens trade in images. What place does imagery play in our psyche?
As always, our best starting point is the Hebrew word for image, dimuy (דִּמּוּי). This word, alongside its siblings demut (figure) and dimayon (imagination), all derive from the two-letter Hebrew root d-m (דם). This root has a meaning in and of itself: “blood.”
What does this mean? Simply put, it seems to suggest that the role images play in our psyches is somehow akin to that of blood. Just as the blood’s circulatory system underlies our entire biological existence, supplying each organ with the substances essential for its function, so too our mental images serve as the psychological infrastructure of our soul.
Beneath all our lofty ideas, abstract thoughts, and moral deliberations lies the rich, silent ground of our psychic images, nourishing everything that is planted in it. It is through the lens of the images we are soaked in that we evaluate our lives and choose our next steps. Where would we be without an image of the ideal future we’re striving for, an image of who we want to become, an image of what success looks like, etc.
And yet, something strange has happened. Though no sane person would dare let a stranger with dubious intentions inject unknown substances into their bloodstream, this is precisely what the vast majority of the modern world does when it comes to the soul.
