Symbols of Active Imagination

In his first paper on active imagination C. G. Jung describes two opposite principles which inform this process: the principle of creative formulation and the principle of understanding. He writes: ‘The two ways do not divide until the aesthetic problem becomes decisive for the one type of person and the intellectual-moral problem for the other. The ideal case would be if these two aspects could exist side by side or rhythmically succeed each other; that is, if there were an alternation of creation and understanding. It hardly seems possible for the one to exist without the other, though it sometimes does happen in practice: the creative urge seizes possession of the object at the cost of its meaning, or the urge to understand overrides the necessity of giving it form’ (Jung, 1916, p. 86).

Later in the Mysterium coniunctionis Jung writes of expressing an opinion regarding the value of a matter instead of letting the principle of understanding work. A decision of that sort is the opposite of the aesthetic standard, and it underlines the accent of psychic engagement (Jung, 1955).

It is only relatively seldom in clinical practice that we come across the perfect combination, the symmetrical coexistence of skilful artistic work and intensive struggle for meaning, in contents which a patient has created unconsciously. Most patients will take pencil, paint-brush or clay merely in a passing way during analytical treatment. Also on our side as analysts we attach more importance to the principle of understanding than to the beauty of the form. It is just for this reason that these cases are especially valuable in which the two principles come into harmony during analysis as a result of long and patient work. Such careful work, especially on the process of development, done with fascinated interest, not only liberates the libido from its fixation in symptoms, but can also in many cases endow the patient with a meaningful activity which will enrich his life long after