by Phil Goss
‘Active imagination’ is essentially Jung’s term for the use of guided fantasy that can activate the transcendent function, and his formulation for describing the underlying process sets the scene well:
‘firstly, extending the conscious horizon by the inclusion of numerous unconscious contents; secondly, of gradually diminishing the dominant influence of the unconscious, and thirdly, of bringing about a change in personality.’
Jung, 1966, para. 358
From this formula for describing what happens when a conscious effort is made to expand our awareness of our unconscious, Jung devised a method for ‘actively’ working with imagination that could fulfil this aim. This was derived initially from his own confrontation with the unconscious, described in Chapter 1. He applied a clear sequence to this, which we shall come on to. This in turn was based on his theoretical formulation of how the activation of the transcendent function effectively shifts the active centre of the psyche from the ego to a position which is on the mid-point between conscious and unconscious and between ego and self, as shown in the following diagram.
The effect of activating the transcendent function
THE STAGES OF ACTIVE IMAGINATION
As Chodorow (1997) points out, Jung’s initial formulation from 1935 has been developed beyond the initial two stages he proposed, and the value of working in this way with the unconscious has spawned a number of applications that can support personal development in general, as well as being used as a tool in the analytic context. An example of this is Robert Johnson’s application to ‘inner work’ (1986; see ‘Spotlight’ below), and comparisons can be made with the use of guided imagery in the Humanistic field (e.g. Natalie Rogers, 2000).
Jung drew on his formula for activating the transcendent function to identify two stages wherein a person first allows the unconscious to take the lead. This requires an attitude of careful attention to the unconscious, and is not the same as common definitions of daydreaming, whereby we may choose a theme we want to daydream about so we are initiating the process and then guiding ourselves through it. In fact, Jung meant the opposite. He described it to be like dreaming but with our eyes open. We find a quiet space and sit and wait for fantasy to emerge, noticing the emotions being generated by this process.
Once images form, we allow them to show us what they want us to see, not what we might consciously be seeking out. Jung, and others following him, discovered that using creative expressive methods can support the spontaneous expression of what is coming forward from the unconscious: spontaneous writing, drawing, painting (or through another creative medium), or by simply holding it in mind (taking care to remember as much detail of what we have seen as we can).
The second part of the process involves the conscious mind taking the driving seat, as the ego takes the lead in noticing themes and insights emerging from the fantasies experienced. This, for Jung, is where the ethical obligation comes to the fore. As the insights are evaluated, they must be integrated and lived out, otherwise one has effectively decided to ignore the messages arising from the unconscious. Having said this, as with dreamwork, the indications revealed are not to be simply swallowed uncritically, but need to be scrutinized and evaluated to check their validity.
Once those aspects that genuinely do not seem authentic, or connected to current challenges and themes, have been tested and set aside, what is left does often require adjustment on our part to a new attitude to life, sometimes significantly, but often in a subtle but important way. We may recognize that we no longer need to reach after unrealistic ambitions, or realize we have taken a completely one-sided attitude towards an aspect of our lives, such as our closest relationships, and adjust accordingly.
One of the later models for active imagination which has become well established is that of Marie-Louise von Franz (1979). She set out Jung’s model in four clear and elegant stages:
1 Empty the ‘mad mind’ of the ego
2 Let unconscious fantasy image arise
3 Give it form of expression
4 Ethical confrontation: apply it to ordinary life
As you will have noticed, this is a similar sequence but laid out in four stages, with an initial emphasis on the work needed to clear the ‘mad mind’ – by which she meant the generally full and frenetic mind we are all used to experiencing on a daily basis – full of worries, ideas and the fantasies we generate. Jung referred to the Taoist principle of ‘wu wei’ here, which is a fundamental state of ‘non-action’ that has to be actively cultivated. So, the work our conscious mind has to do is based on an attitude that prioritizes ‘wu wei’ so the unconscious fantasy images can arise from their own volition, not from our habitual tendencies to generate and control them.
Spotlight: Active imagination and personal development
Johnson (1986) proposes an adaptation of the Jungian model which can be used to support personal development. The four stages he proposes are:
1 Invite the unconscious
Consciously wait for, or even ask, the unconscious to show itself.
2 Dialogue and experience
Allowing spontaneous images to appear and experiencing them. Beginning to dialogue with these (e.g. asking ‘what do you have to say to me?’)
3 Add the ethical element of values
Thinking carefully about implications arising, and applying them to our lives.
4 Make it concrete
Taking the essence of what has been discovered and bringing it into life, e.g. by changing a habit or making something that physically represents this essence.
Key idea: Handle with care
This kind of use of active imagination has potential value for personal development, but needs to be handled with care. One’s state of mind is the most important consideration to check prior to using such approaches, as Jung was rightly concerned to point out. Any concerns about someone’s current, or long-term, capacity to engage with active imagination safely would render the use of active imagination inappropriate.
Active imagination in Jungian analysis
Within Jungian analysis, active imagination can be used to facilitate the analytic process. It may be, for example, that a theme relating to a complex keeps coming up and may feel stuck. Inviting the analysand to clear a space and see what images come up, supported perhaps by the use of drawing materials, can unlock the situation via the images and associations arising. It can also be fruitful to do active imagination around a dream, whereby key themes and characters within a dream can be revisited and actively engaged with. An example of this is given in the case study below.
Often, the use of this tool will become pertinent once the analysis has developed for a period and the analysand is ready to engage more actively with the unconscious. This can then be used to facilitate the process, for example by inviting the analysand to play with an image which they report is present as they talk with the analyst, or one which may have cropped up, unbidden, in between sessions. The analyst may also invite them to draw the image using the paper and crayons or pencils that they keep available in their consulting room.
This, then, provides an immediacy to material from the unconscious for both involved to look at, and for the analysand to associate to. There may also be scope to set up a dialogue, in the room, between the analysand and the figure or object(s) portrayed.
THE ANALYST’S ACTIVE IMAGINATION
Sometimes spontaneous images are generated in the analyst’s countertransference. Shaverien (2007) describes examples in her work, such as the image of a wolf appearing over the shoulder of the analysand, and how this gave her clues about what was happening for the analysand as well as between both of them in the room. This is an example of the analyst being active with the appearance of imaginal material, and there is a choice for them as to whether to offer such an image back to the analysand or just to hold it in mind as a potentially valuable tool for better understanding what psyche is ‘saying’.
THE PITFALLS OF ACTIVE IMAGINATION
Jolanta plays with her dream
After doing some initial amplification of the connections and possible meanings associated with her ‘airport’ dream (see Chapter 11), the analyst senses intuitively that the dream could reveal more if Jolanta were given the chance to ‘play’ with and explore it more freely than merely thinking about what its elements might mean.
After explaining briefly how active imagination works, the analyst invites Jolanta to consider using this approach, having first assessed her readiness to do so. The analyst feels that, although they have not been working together long (about four months), they have formed a strong working alliance in their twice-weekly sessions. Jolanta agrees, and the analyst invites her to clear her mind and then invite the dream about the airport back in. She is then invited to explore it however she wants, and spend time ‘walking around’ (in her imagination) inside it, maybe talking to different elements in it.
Jolanta finds it hard to get into this activity at first, it feeling a touch artificial, but once she fully relaxes in her chair she finds herself ‘in the airport’ and spends a few minutes walking around by the walkways, enjoying standing in them with her trolley as they move slowly towards the exit.
She then makes her way to the escalator behind her, which is taking the bag she accidently dropped on to the ‘up’ escalator back to the baggage hall. She decides to try and retrieve the bag, but realizes, as she stands behind it, that she just wants to follow it and the tousle of her hair sticking out of it. She follows its move on to the baggage claim area and realizes that at any moment it will disappear from view and end up back on a plane to Poland. So she walks quickly forward and scoops the bag up and holds it in front of her eyes. She then asks it the question: ‘Why are you taking my hair back to Poland?’ Eventually the bag ‘says’ ‘Because you did not say goodbye properly.’
This feels very powerful to Jolanta and she starts breathing deeply and fast. The analyst notices this and invites her to come back from the airport and out of the dream, if she wants to. Jolanta nods and allows herself time, with the analyst’s help, to find her way back into her bodily awareness. The analyst says that, if it is helpful, she can look around the room and notice carefully all the furniture and objects in it, to help her ‘come back’ to reality. But Jolanta says she is fine.
She smiles and says it has been powerful and has helped her understand how much she has left behind, and that she’s ‘left the people that really mattered to me too quickly’ so it was ‘no wonder I keep being horrid to people I get close to here’. Jolanta also says it feels as if there is also something more to it, ‘something from way back… family…’ which they both agree they could explore. In a prospective sense, there is also something important about not trying to cut off the past (as her hair got separated from her in the dream) in order to go forward. ‘I have to bring the past with me, or my hair will keep falling out!’
This active engagement with the imagery in a dream has proffered some valuable insights for the analysand. It has also given her agency in engaging with unconscious material. She is also beginning to apply its psychological and ethical implications to her life situation. This is not ‘pure’ active imagination, as the analyst has set the scene by suggesting she engage with the dream in this way rather than literally seeing whatever came into her mind once she had cleared it, but this example illustrates how the active imagination sequence can be adapted to meet the needs of the situation and individual.
Spotlight: Watching a film as active imagination?
Jungian writer John Izod (2002) suggests that, when we fully engage with a work of fiction, especially film, it can be like active imagination. By playing with what we would like to happen as we are watching a film, for example, we are taking an active role in shaping the material ‘coming at us’. As Izod observes, this is a way of describing how we can use the symbols and narrative on the screen to deepen our awareness of self, just as Jung proposed active engagement with the unconscious, via our imagination, can do.
Key terms
Active Imagination: Allowing spontaneous fantasy to arise from the unconscious and then engaging with it consciously to uncover fresh insights, which should then be applied to life.
Transcendent function: The capacity in the human psyche to facilitate engagement between conscious and unconscious contents and to synthesize these to create a new situation in the psyche that promotes balance and the individuation process.
Dig deeper
Casement, A., Carl Gustav Jung (London: Sage, 2001)
Chodorow, J. (ed.), Jung on Active Imagination (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 1–20
Hannah, B., Encounters with the Soul: Active Imagination as developed by C. G. Jung, ‘One Beginning Approach to Active Imagination’ (Cambridge, MA: Sigo, 1981), pp. 52–65
Izod, J., ‘Active imagination and the analysis of film’, Journal of Analytical Psychology, pp. 267–85 (April 2000)
Johnson, R., Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth (New York: Harper & Row, 1986)
Jung, C. G. (1958), ‘The Transcendent Function’, CW8, paras 131–93
Jung, C. G. (1928), ‘The Technique of Differentiation between the Ego and the Figures of the Unconscious’ in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, CW7, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1966)
Jung, C. G., ‘Conscious, unconscious and individuation’ in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, CW9i (London: Routledge, 1968)
Rogers, N., The Creative Connection: Expressive Arts as Healing (Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books, 2000)
Schaverien, J., ‘Countertransference as active imagination: imaginative experiences of the analyst’, Journal of Analytical Psychology, 52(4), 413–31 (September 2007)
Von Franz, M-L., Alchemical Active Imagination (Boston: Shambhala, 1979)
Fact-check (answers at the back)
1 What does the transcendent function allow us to do?
a Access the transcendent via the unconscious
b Synthesize unconscious and unconscious material in a meaningful way
c Transcend the conscious mind in order to access archetypal imagery
d Explore the collective unconscious as fully as we want
2 What do the workings of the transcendent function allow to happen?
a Conscious and unconscious to disengage so that the unconscious can come through
b The person to rise above whatever problems they are experiencing
c Conscious and unconscious to engage and promote balance and healthy change
d The person to experience the transcendent
3 How did the philosopher Hegel influence Jung on the transcendent function?
a By suggesting that all of reality is really transcendent
b By constructing a synthesis of Kant’s noumenal and phenomenal
c Through his idea of thesis and synthesis producing a transcending antithesis
d Through his idea of thesis and antithesis producing a transcending synthesis
4 Why is a dream not so effective for activating the transcendent function?
a It is experienced passively and so does not allow for conscious confrontation
b It leaves us in a state of inactive sleepiness
c It is already transcendent so we cannot apply it to reality
d It activates a symbolic function
5 What do the two fundamental stages of active imagination involve?
a First, us becoming thoroughly conscious of ourselves and, second, unconscious
b First,
allowing the unconscious to overwhelm us and, second, to repress it
c First, allowing consciousness to fade by us choosing a fantasy to follow, then seeing what the unconscious does with this
d First, allowing the unconscious to take the lead in fantasy and, second, consciously evaluating this and applying it to life.
6 What specific stages of active imagination have other authors emphasized?
a Artistically recording the experience; writing about it to a trusted person
b Filling the mind at the start; emptying it afterwards
c Emptying the mind at the start; doing a ritual at the end to embody the experience
d Inviting in a fantasy of our choosing at the start; dismissing it at the end
7 What does ‘wu wei’ mean and why is it ideal for active imagination?
a A state of complete relaxation which helps us to notice our deeper thoughts
b A state of ‘non-action’ which is also alert and dynamic
c A state of relaxation that helps us to dream
d A state of ‘non-action’ so we fall into an unconscious state
8 How can active imagination be utilized to support the analytic process?