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Beyond its somewhat awkward sounding (English) title, Professor Kast's book is a primer of technique for working therapeutically with the imagination.
Why yet another book about imaginative procedures, the author asks? In spite of its pivotal influence on the use of imagination in therapy, C. G. Jung's method of Active Imagination is rarely mentioned in current literature and is known ‘only to a few specialists’. Kast recognizes that some people do not spontaneously identify images, and may be unable to describe a vision of the inner world. Her ‘technique of imagining’ provides a means of moving from a beginning state where conscious imagination is absent, through guided imagining, to the ability to use Active Imagination as a therapeutic tool.
The realm of the imagination is not limited by space, time, or personal or physical boundaries. So it is called the ‘space of freedom’. Imagination organizes our perceptions. It mediates between concretely experienced reality and the reflections of our psychic background. It allows us to experience empathy. Imagination is the germ of creativity.
Active Imagination involves bringing inner images to life by concentrating on them, giving them ‘voice’, and establishing a dialogue with them. ‘This dialogue between the ego and the unconscious is the prerequisite for the individuation process, the psychic process in the course of which a person becomes what he or she ultimately is.’
For meaningful dialogue to occur between the ego and unconscious images (or between a patient and a therapist who wishes to work with the imagination) it is necessary for a person to relate to those images with feeling, and not just to perceive and report them. In therapy, when a patient is unable to connect affectively with his own images Professor Kast may ask him to describe a house, a tree, or a body of water. The description of these objects conveys to the patient's consciousness the rudiments of imaginative ability. Reflection upon the images and ampli