Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Jung: Analytical
Psychology
© The McGraw−Hill^133
Companies, 2009impression begins to “move.” The person must follow these images to wherever they
lead and then courageously face these autonomous images and freely communicate
with them.
The purpose of active imagination is to reveal archetypal images emerging
from the unconscious. It can be a useful technique for people who want to become
better acquainted with their collective and personal unconscious and who are willing
to overcome the resistance that ordinarily blocks open communication with the un-
conscious. Jung believed that active imagination has an advantage over dream analy-
sis in that its images are produced during a conscious state of mind, thus making
them more clear and reproducible. The feeling tone is also quite specific, and ordi-
narily a person has little difficulty reproducing the vision or remembering the mood
(Jung, 1937/1959).
As a variation to active imagination, Jung sometimes asked patients who were
so inclined to draw, paint, or express in some other nonverbal manner the progres-
sion of their fantasies. Jung relied on this technique during his own self-analysis, and
many of these reproductions, rich in universal symbolism and often exhibiting the
mandala, are scattered throughout his books. Man and His Symbols(1964), Wo r d
and Image(1979), Psychology and Alchemy(1952/1968), and Claire Dunne’s (2000)
illustrated biography, Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul,are especially prolific
sources for these drawings and photographs.
Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 127Carl Jung, the wise old man of Küsnacht.