The Process of Active Imagination

The aim first of guided imagery is to allow the individual to produce fantasies freely,
but if this free style is not appropriate for the patient, then the analysts resorts to an
artificial aid. The first step in this process of inducing fantasy material is to make the
emotional state the basis or starting point for the procedure (p. 53. !ung describes the
process"
#e must make himself as conscious as possible of the mood he is in,
sinking himself in it without reserve and noting down on paper all the
fantasies and associations that come up. $antasy must be allowed the
freest possible play, yet not in such a manner that it leaves the orbit of its
ob%ect, namely the affect, by setting off a chain reaction association
process (!ung &''(, p. 53.
)t is !ung*s (&''( belief that from this state of preoccupation with one+s mood,
there is the potential for understanding a more complete e,pression of the mood and of
symbolic representation associated with it. This allows the analysts to treat the mood as
an e,pression of the unconscious. !ung believed that since the mood was not
manufactured by the conscious mind, it must be an unwelcome intrusion from the
unconscious (p. 53. $urther, the focusing on mood provides a picture of the contents
and tendencies of the unconscious that were massed together in the depression (p. 53.
The use of active imagination to access information allows the mood and related
contents to be brought closer to consciousness by allowing it to become more
understandable. The result of this process is that the prior ambiguous affect becomes an
articulated idea. -ith this new idea there is the possibility of a new attitude. .ccording to
!ung (&''(, there are five predominant ways that one can give rise to their unconscious
contents. The visual type of person should allow the active imagination to arise through
inner images. !ung (&''( states that for this type of person a fantasy/picture will appear.
This fantasy should be observed by the patient and analyst. The second type is the audiovisual
type of person. These individuals usually hear words or perhaps fragments of
various apparently meaningless sentences. .nother possibility for this type is that they
will hear their other internal voice. This voice comes across as an inaudible voice
that can be heard as an internal dialogue. These words or sentences should be written
down or noted by the analyst. .ccording to !ung (&''( the third predominant way of
e,pressing the unconscious is through the hands and art. . fourth way is by
e,perimenting through the movements of the body. . fifth way is through a process of
automatic writing though !ung claims that this method is rare.
0nce the client has used active imagination to give rise to their unconscious
contents, the ne,t stage is to allow the conscious mind to confront the products of the
unconscious (p. 55. !ung proposed two ways that this process may happen. 0ne is the
way of creative formulation and the other is the way of understanding. )n the process of
creative formulation, !ung states material is continually varied and increased until a kind
of condensation of motifs into more or less stereotypes symbols takes place (p. 55.
-ith the way of understanding, there is a focus on understand the meaning of the
unconscious product (p.55. 1oth of these ways are ultimate needed for accurate
understanding of the unconscious contents. The creative formulation needs understanding
of the meaning and understanding need for creative e,ploration. The ideal situation is for
these two modes to be present together.
)n this process of giving voice to the unconscious, the analyst should allow the
e,plorative lead to be left up to the client as much as is possible. !ung (&''( e,plained
that this is often felt as a painful process by the client. The reason for this is that the
information contained in the unconscious is there because it is incompatible with the
conscious material or is otherwise too weak to cross into consciousness.
0nce the unconscious material has been given form and meaning the ne,t stage is
to allow for the ego to come to term with the information. $or !ung (&''(, this is an
important stage in the transcendent function, the bringing together of opposites for the
production of a new attitude. .t this stage the ego, or the continuous center of
consciousness (p. 5(, must come to terms with the new material and insight. )n this
process, the voice of the ego and the voice of the unconscious material are given
authority. The conscious ego takes the lead, but the unconscious is given a voice.
.t this point !ung (&''( suggests that the client might engage in a dialogue
between the two voices. This is best done by writing down the other voice and then
answering its statements from the standpoint of the ego. This is done %ust as if it were a
dialogue between to people. This movement between the arguments of the voice of
conscious and unconscious material represents the transcendent function of opposites
(p. 5' and allows for the development of a third viewpoint that is integrative of the
opposites. .ccording to !ung (&''(, this process allows for a new level of being, a new
situation (p. 5'. The process of active imagination has thus allowed for the integration
of the opposites held by the conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche.