ACTIEVE IMAGINATIE

Jungian analytical psychology interprets dreams using a personal and general amplification method, divergent from the Freudian approach to dreams. According to Jung, dreams symbolically represent a current situation in the psyche. Their analysis is the necessary first step in acquiring self-knowledge, it allows us to passively receive contents from the unconscious, whether it is personal or collective. The next step is active work on the assimilation of the contents of the unconscious, which is achieved through other methods, introduced by Jung, such as mandala drawing and other art forms. One of his most efficient transforming methods is ‘active imagination’ – a breakthrough in this direction.

Active imagination consists of a ‘continual conscious realisation of unconscious fantasies, together with active participation in the fantastic events.’ In practice, a subject verbalises or draws all fantasies that come to his/her mind, and, in contrast to ordinary fantasy, the subject has to play an active role – to conduct oneself in a fantasy just like one would do in reality. Ordinary fantasies usually occur spontaneously and a subject not necessarily take active role in the story being imagined. But in active imagination, it is started on will, the subject retells imaginary story aloud, and the subject necessarily plays active role in one’s own story. For instance, in Jung’s example, when his client imagined that his bride fell under the ice, Jung told him to behave in fantasy just as he would do if it all was real – i.e. to hurry to rescue his bride and not just to watch the drama passively. This practice frequently involves making paintings that represent the fantasies or other forms of artistic expressions – dance, drama, making clay figures, etc, thus being a form of art therapy. Jung and his school provide various examples of this method. The paradox of this technique is that even though the subject knows that his fantasies are not part of the external world, he still behaves in fantasy (although not in reality!) as if they were ‘real’.

Active imagination appeared as a technique of differentiation between the ego and the figures of the unconscious, but its consequences go farther than this. The effects of active imagination include: extension of the consciousness horizon, so that a lot of previously unconscious events are recognised, the decrease in the influences of the unconscious on the conscious mind, and a change in personality, so that one becomes aware of the functions that previously were unconscious. The subject who has mastered active imagination, can relate to his own unconscious independently, without the help of a psychologist. This method efficiently promotes personal growth and dramatically increases one’s psychological autonomy. The method of active imagination includes variations, like sand play, in which a sand tray and a variety of small models (like, for instance, tiny models of people, animals, gnomes, flowers, stones, trees, buildings, towers, cars, and so on) are used to facilitate imagination and its expression. In sand play, the subject picks several appealing models and creates with them a story, placing them in a sand tray in an order which reflects a particular story.