C.G. JUNG'S PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUE OF ACTIVE IMAGINATION IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Abstract

This essay in the history of psychoanalysis investigates C.G. Jung's psychotherapeutic technique of active imagination, a state of consciousness in which images from the unconscious are brought to conscious awareness and are expressed artistically in a number of different forms such as writing, painting, sculpting, or dance. This essay outlines the state of psychotherapeutics at the turn of the twentieth century and situates Jung's practice of active imagination in other researches concurrently being undertaken in France, England, Switzerland, Germany, and the United States.