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adj.

1. Of or relating to the sense of sight: a visual organ; visual receptors on the retina.
2. Seen or able to be seen by the eye; visible: a visual presentation; a design with a dramatic visual effect.
3. Optical.
4. Done, maintained, or executed by sight only: visual navigation.
5. Having the nature of or producing an image in the mind: a visual memory of the scene.
6. Of or relating to a method of instruction involving sight.

n.

A picture, chart, or other presentation that appeals to the sense of sight, used in promotion or for illustration or narration. Often used in the plural: an ad campaign with striking visuals; trying to capture a poem in a cinematic visual.

[Middle English, from Late Latin vīsuālis, from Latin vīsus, sight, from past participle of vidēre, to see. See vision.]

visually vi'su·al·ly adv.
visualness vi'su·al·ness or vi'su·al'i·ty (-ăl'ĭ-tē) n.

Advertising: one of the first rough layouts for an advertisement. The visual is merely a sketch that shows the relative positions of the elements to be included in the ad.

Motion picture or television production: visible element in a motion picture or television scene.

adjective

1. Serving, resulting from, or relating to the sense of sight: optic, optical. See see/not see.
2. Capable of being seen: discernible, perceivable, perceptible, seeable, viewable, visible. See see/not see.

As an adjective, the term visual designates what is perceptible in the field that presents itself to the eye. As a noun, the visual involves the way in which the psychical apparatus organizes this perceptual data.

As early as his study on aphasia (1891b), Freud emphasized the importance of the visual in the representation of things in order to understand its complicated relationship with representation by words. In The Interpretation of Dreams (1900a), he both provided an optical model for the psychical apparatus and also noted that the dream material, as well as that of memory traces, are most often presented visually. Thus, modes of representation must fulfill requirements of visual representations. The subsequent recognition of visual component drives provided Freud with the opportunity to verify that their vicissitudes are not homologous to those of the other drives. Finally, in Moses and Monotheism (1939a), he insisted that it was necessary to set aside visual stimuli, especially those caused by the maternal body, in order to name the father. He connected this "advance in intellectuality" (1939a, p. 111) to the impact of monotheistic religion on mental life, especially when it prohibits representations.

In Freud's work, the visual shows the privileged connection between the sexual and the sensorial. Jacques Lacan discussed this in his article on the "Mirror Stage" (1949), where he expanded Freud's observations of the visual dimension of narcissism. Lacan stressed the importance of the mirror image for the infant held up to the mirror by its mother. When the baby recognizes itself in the mirror, it achieves an identity by assuming the mirror image. But this is also a trap, because once the subject is captured, he confuses himself with the mirror image and thus becomes alienated by a visual definition of self. He is caught in the succession of images.

In a study relating psychotic discourse to the mirror stage, Piera Aulagnier proposed that in the psyche's primal activity of visual representation its invested object should be called a pictogram. In doing so, she emphasized the prevalence of the visual in unconscious representations.

It is worthwhile to make another distinction between the visible image and the visual image. Vision exhausts only the empirical reality of a phenomenon, which can become a psychic representation, that is, a visual image, only by passing through the primary and secondary processes. The difference between what is visible and the visual of the image explains how dream images are never confused with things seen by the dreamer. Because it is incongruous with the desire to see, the visual image assures the perpetual thrust of the scopic drive. The impossibility of reducing the visual to the visible prevents the image from showing the object of desire and orients vision towards another image. If we grant Freud's assertion that the desire to see is related to seeing the genital organs, the notion of the visual allows us to specify what is involved in the attempt to see, namely the female genitalia that eludes sight. The only way to represent it is by the visual image, which is a fetish that only exposes its unreal opposite, the maternal penis.

Why is the visual the predominant sense? This question can be answered by considering that the visual is overdetermined because there is no penis on the female body. When the child fails to see a penis on a female body, his single sex wavers and he begins to think that there is another sex, which exists even though it is "invisible." Other elements of the visual deserve further attention. For example, the central role that psychoanalysis grants the visual is justified by the fact that there must be a visual reference, a virtual psychical mirror (certain moments in the treatment) or a visual fantasy. The determining function of the visual might be related to the timelessness of the unconscious, because only the visual is in a position to prevent the representation of the fantasy from being eternalized.

Bibliography

Aulagnier, Piera. (1975). La violence de l 'interprétation. Du pictogrammeà l'énoncé. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Freud, Sigmund. (1900a). The interpretation of dreams. SE, 4-5: 1-751.

——. (1939a [1934-38]). Moses and monotheism: Three essays. SE, 23: 1-137.

Lacan, Jacques. (2002). The mirror stage as formative of the I function as revealed in psychoanalytic experience. In Écrits: A selection (Bruce Fink, Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1949)

—JEAN-MICHEL HIRT

Pertaining to vision.

• v. acuity test — performed by walking the animal through an obstacle course. A room full of unfamiliar furniture, or a stairway is usually used for companion animals. Farm animals are led or driven through a passage with drums or boxes strewn across it.
• v. cortex — the part of the cerebral cortex which deals with images received by the visual apparatus.
• v. evoked potentials (VEPs) — see visual evoked response.
• v. following — movement of the eyes in watching a moving object.
• v. pathway — the bulk of the retinal ganglion cells have axons in the optic nerve which synapse with cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus, which project to the visual cortex in the occipital lobe of the cerebrum; in a secondary visual pathway the axons of the remainder of the retinal ganglion cells terminate in the anterior rostral colliculus (pretectal region).
• v. system — includes the eye, the optic nerve and the optic cortex in the cerebrum. The oculomotor, trochlear, abducent, trigeminal and facial nerves are all involved in reflexes which are part of the animal's responses to visual stimuli.
• v. yellow — all-trans retinal; see retinal (2).

IN BRIEF: Having to do with sight. Also: Visible.

Here was a tremendous visual spectacle, but viewed in silence. — Charles Walker, astronaut.

Quotes:

"The whole idea is to enable you to see mentally the picture at all hours of the day." - Claude M. Bristol

"See yourself confronting your fears in your mind's eye and handling those fears like a champ." - Les Brown

"You must see your goals clearly and specifically before you can set out for them. Hold them in your mind until they become second nature." - Les Brown

"Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible." - Cherie Carter-Scott

"See things as you would have them be instead of as they are." - Robert Collier

"I train myself mentally with visualization. The morning of a tournament, before I put my feet on the floor, I visualize myself making perfect runs with emphasis on technique, all the way through to what my personal best is in practice.... The more you work with this type of visualization, especially when you do it on a day-to-day basis, you'll actually begin to feel your muscles contracting at the appropriate times." - Camille Duvall

See more famous quotes about Visualization

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - visuel, synlig, syns-, optisk
n. - synlig, billedside

idioms:

• visual aid    synshjælp, visuelt hjælpemiddel
• visual angle    synlig vinkel
• Visual Basic    Visual Basic; programmeringssprog
• visual display unit    computerskærm
• visual field    synsfelt
• visual purple    rhodopsin
• visual ray    linie fra et objekt mod øjet

Nederlands (Dutch)
zichtbaar, beeldend, visueel, (mv) visuele hulpmiddelen

Français (French)
adj. - visuel
n. - images, (Cin) effets visuels, (École) supports visuels

idioms:

• visual aid    support visuel
• visual angle    angle visuel
• Visual Basic    (Comput) langage de programmation orienté objet
• visual display unit    (Comput) écran de visualisation
• visual field    champ visuel
• visual purple    (Biochim) rhodopsine, pourpre rétinien
• visual ray    rayon visuel

Deutsch (German)
adj. - visuell, Seh-
n. - Skizze zu Anschauungszwecken

idioms:

• visual aid    Anschauungsmaterial
• visual angle    Gesichtswinkel
• Visual Basic    Visual Basic
• visual display unit    Bildschirmgerät
• visual field    Gesichtsfeld
• visual purple    Sehpurpur (lichtempfindl. Pigment in der Netzhaut)
• visual ray    Sehstrahl

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - οπτικός, ορατός, πραγματικός, εποπτικός
n. - (καθομ.) εκδήλωση προσφερόμενη για φωτογραφική κάλυψη

idioms:

• visual aid    εποπτικό μέσον (διδασκαλίας)
• visual angle    οπτική γωνία
• Visual Basic    (Η/Υ) γλώσσα προγραμματισμού
• visual display unit    (Η/Υ) μονάδα οθόνης, οθόνη
• visual field    οπτικό πεδίο
• visual purple    (χημ.) ροδοψίνη
• visual ray    οπτική ακτίνα

Italiano (Italian)
visuale

idioms:

• visual aid    sussidio visivo
• visual angle    angolo visivo
• visual display unit    unità video
• visual field    campo visivo
• visual purple    rodopsina
• visual ray    raggio visivo

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - visual, visível
n. - imagem (aspecto)

idioms:

• visual aid    meio visual (de ensino)
• visual angle    ângulo visual
• visual display unit    unidade de apresentação visual
• visual field    campo visual
• visual purple    púrpura visual (rodopsina)
• visual ray    raio visual

Русский (Russian)
зрительный, наглядный, визуальный

idioms:

• visual aid    наглядные пособия
• visual angle    угол зрения
• visual display unit    устройство отображения
• visual field    поле видимости
• visual purple    родопсин (зрительный пурпур)
• visual ray    видимый луч

Español (Spanish)
adj. - visual, visible, óptico
n. - visual, viñetas, diseño gráfico

idioms:

• visual aid    medios visuales
• visual angle    ángulo visual
• Visual Basic    herramienta de programación
• visual display unit    pantalla de visualización
• visual field    campo visual
• visual purple    Rodopsina, púrpura visual de los bastones retinianos
• visual ray    rayo visual

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - syn, synlig, visuell
n. - visuellt hjälpmedel, skiss

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
看的, 形象的, 视觉的, 画面, 图像, 广告图面

idioms:

• visual aid    视觉教具
• visual angle    视角, 视界
• Visual Basic    一种高阶程序语言
• visual display unit    直视显示部件, 视觉显示单元
• visual field    视野
• visual purple    视紫红质
• visual ray    可见射线, 可见光线, 维生射线

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 看的, 形象的, 視覺的
n. - 畫面, 圖像, 廣告圖面

idioms:

• visual aid    視覺教具
• visual angle    視角, 視界
• Visual Basic    一種高階程式語言
• visual display unit    直視顯示部件, 視覺顯示單元
• visual field    視野
• visual purple    視紫紅質
• visual ray    可見射線, 可見光線, 維生射線

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 시각의, 마음의 눈에 비친, 시각 교육의
n. - 시각 교재, 선전용 영화

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 視覚の, 目に見える, 視覚に訴える

idioms:

• visual aid    視覚教材
• visual angle    視角
• visual display unit    表示装置
• visual field    視野
• visual purple    視紅
• visual ray    視感光線

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) بصري, نظري‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮חזותי, ראייתי, של חוש הראייה, ויזואלי‬
n. - ‮תמונה, תצוגה חזותית‬

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Visual Basic	visual foxpro
visual c#	visual studio