The Psyche > Jungian Psychology

Critique of active imagination

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Matswin:
I doubt that active imagination has this powerful capacity of archetypal integration that Jung claims. This was also the position of his own anima, something which he relates in his autobiography. When Jung was painting images the anima told him that this was art which he was doing. He reacted strongly against this and argued that the anima had tried to mislead him, which is a controversial interpretation. I submit that she made an opposite evaluation, to balance out his conscious standpoint. Arguably, he overvalued this activity, or had adopted a lopsided view of it, and the compensating factor was activated. The unconscious compensates the conscious standpoint.

Art history contains movements, such as symbolism and expressionism, which allow expression to the unconscious, to a degree. Arguably, Jungian active imagination should be categorized as a form of art. Novelist often say that their characters take on a life of their own. They are not mere constructions of consciousness. Thus, it is not obvious that the artist's or the novelist's activity is essentially different from active imagination. This could explain why the Jungian form of active imagination seems to have no pronounced effect on personality. It is, after all, an art form. The argument of Jung's anima could be correct. I hold that active imagination easily reverts to artistic creativity, if the creative energy is raised beyond the feeble energy levels where the spirit roams.

I discuss the subject of creativity in this article (evidently it needs some reworking, which I will probably do soon).
http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/creativity.htm

Mats Winther

Starcrosser:
It does. Particularly if you can accept your shadow to a mercurial degree.  I'm currently doing it, and it is probably one of the greatest vehicles of healing I've had in my life.  I'm not Jungian cling-on, but if the dude had discovered his technique of active imagination, I'd be screwed into a psychotic hell.  Quite literally.

Starcrosser:
Err, hadn't.  I suppose that slip will offend the psychologist in you.   (-)smblsh(-)

Starcrosser:
His anima probably was trying to screw with him.  She'll say things sarcastically and leave you to feel her meaning.  It can put a man up against his knowledge and acceptance of feeling, but also his ability to allow himself to be emasculated without being a retributive ass about it.  She is trying to lead him to a deeper understanding of himself, but this requires that he feel her meaning instead of blindly following her word.  There is often a bit of spite in her and that is simply as real as it gets, and, yes, a man can get pissed off because he realizes that if he is too stupid to fall for it that she may mislead him into all kind of delusion.  She can also be quite awesome and functional, so to speak, so this can offset the experience of her as a seductress into the world of fantasy.

Being completely submissive to your anima in an attempt to enlighten yourself is noble, but the reality is that the anima will force one to understand her without telling him how.  This is much like actual women that refuse to tell a man how to love them.  You have to feel her to understand her.  Jung also had a feeling function that was probably a bit underdeveloped, but he did have the extreme wisdom to see beyond her tactics.  Probably because he had such a great understanding of the shadow.  I.E., the devil.



 

Starcrosser:
The realm of "fantasy" is hard to explain.  It can both lead a man into an insane asylum and lead a man to enlightenment.  Believe me, however, the anima will screw with a man.  I can just hear her now bullshitting him by poking fun at his confidence in himself.  What you don't get from reading the text is how she said what she said.  I used to get pretty pissed off at my own for leading me this way.  I'm a lot more even-keeled about it, now.  I realize it has purpose, as crappy as it may be.  Women provide a very nice path for a man, away from his own inflation and towards his own contact with a personal life, which he should be humble and learn to enjoy.  Personal lives are very intimate and are the envy of many men that have given it up for a "greater way in the world."

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