Narcissus's new mirror: Body images and meaning

The wish to see beyond the horizon of the human biological eye is one of the major driving forces in the development of medical imaging technology. This essay discusses the implications technology has on the ability to see, and consequently know, more about the body. Further, the potential of merging art, rehabilitation engineering and medicine to develop and use images specifically designed to create meaning for the afflicted individual is proposed as a future research topic. The key question is how alternative (i.e., non-clinical) perspectives can result in different experiences of well-being, or even improve the health of the individual. There are two main aspects of this future research: one practical and technological, concerned with the tools and methods to be used, the other an epistemological venture, aimed at disseminating knowledge and understanding of visual communication in a medical context