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For centuries the aspect of the feminine and the body has been relegated to the underworld, split off and devalued. With the approach of the Aquarian Age, Chodorow argues, this aspect is re-emerging and increasingly demanding conscious recognition. Chodorow asserts that ‘Jungian analysts have a profound contribution to make to this developing new consciousness.’ It is important to attend not only to the feminine and the shadow aspects in our work, but also to the living body itself. In this paper Chodorow illustrates the ways in which body experience, as expressed in movement, can be used as a form of active imagination and serve as a guide to unconscious processes.
Chodorow cites the seminal work of Mary Starks Whitehouse as the pioneer and founder of movement therapy. Whitehouse was concerned with the ‘inner experience of the mover’ — what it is to move and to be moved. Through exploring this inner experience, ‘the conscious relationship to both sensory and imaginal realms’ can be fostered.
Within the context of analysis, Chodorow suggests that movement can be seen as both originating from and pointing toward different aspects of the psyche. She identifies four sources out of which movement can arise — the personal unconscious, the cultural unconscious, the primordial unconscious and the self. Each of these aspects is associated with a particular quality of movement.
The personal unconscious is manifest in ‘idiosyncratic movements’ which are personal and develop to form patterns or rituals unique to the individual. Chodorow states that these patterns are ‘frequently related to preverbal experiences’ and carry