Jung's Discovery Of Active Imagination

An indirect way of approach to the instinctual image in man led Jung to the discovery of the therapeutic technique of active imagination. Jung's brief description of how this discovery took place follows:

I had often observed patients whose dreams pointed to a rich store of fantasy-material. Equally, from the patients themselves, I got the impression that they were stuffed full of fantasies, without their being able to tell me just where the inner pressure lay CW8 ¶ 400

I therefore took up a dream-image or an association of the patient's, and, with this as a point of departure, set him the task of elaborating or developing his theme by giving free rein to his fantasy CW8 ¶ 400

This, according to individual taste and talent, could be done in any number of ways: dramatic, dialectic, visual, acoustic, or in the form of dancing, painting, drawing, or modelling CW8 ¶ 400

The result of this technique was a vast number of complicated designs whose diversity puzzled me for years, until I was able to recognize that in this method I was witnessing the spontaneous manifestation of an unconscious process which was merely assisted by the technical ability of the patient, and to which I later gave the name, “individuation process” CW8 ¶ 400

But, long before this recognition dawned on me, I had made the discovery that this method often diminished, to a considerable degree, the frequency and intensity of the dreams, thus reducing the inexplicable pressure exerted by the unconscious. In many cases, this brought a large measure of therapeutic success, which encouraged both myself and the patient to press forward despite the baffling nature of the results CW8 ¶ 400

I felt bound to insist that they were baffling, if only to stop myself from framing, on the basis of certain theoretical assumptions, interpretations which I felt were not only inadequate but liable to prejudice the ingenuous productions of the patient

The more I suspected these configurations of harboring a certain purposefulness, the less inclined I was to risk any theories about them. This reticence was not made easy for me, since in many cases I was dealing with patients who needed an intellectual point d'appui [point of support] if they were not to get totally lost in the darkness CW8 ¶ 400

I had to try to give provisional interpretations at least, so far as I was able, interspersing them with innumerable “perhapses” and “ifs” and “buts” and never stepping beyond bounds of picture lying before me. I always took good care to let the interpretation of each image tail off into a question whose answer was let to the free fantasy-activity of the patient

The chaotic assortment of images that first confronted me reduced itself in the course of the work to certain well-defined themes and formal elements, which repeated themselves in identical or analogous form with the most varied individuals CW8 ¶ 401

I mention, as the most salient characteristics: CW8 ¶ 401

Chaotic multiplicity and order

Duality

The opposition of light and dark

The opposition of upper and lower

The opposition of right and left

The union of opposites in a third

The quaternity (square, cross)

Rotation (circle, sphere)

The centring process

A radial arrangement that usually followed some quaternary system

Triadic formations, apart from the complexio oppositorum in a third, were relatively rare and formed notable exceptions which could be explained by special conditions CW8 ¶ 401

The centering process is, in my experience, the never-to-be-surpassed climax of the whole development, and is characterized as such by the fact that it brings with it the greatest possible therapeutic effect CW8 ¶ 401