Attention to Images in Jungian Therapy
One of the elements that distinguishes Jungian therapy from some other forms of psychotherapy is its respect for and attention to images. In Jungian psychology, images are understood to be the primary mode through which the activity of the psyche is revealed.
Images are not simply reflections of things in the external world. They are the very nature of the psyche itself — the daydreams, fantasies, fleeting thoughts, and dreams that make up the experience of our inner lives.
Furthermore, from the perspective of Jungian psychology, these experiences are not “accidental,” but full of “meaning and purpose.”
According to C.G. Jung:
“The psyche consists essentially of images. It is a series of images in the truest sense, not an accidental juxtaposition or sequence, but a structure that is throughout full of meaning and purpose; it is a ‘picturing’ of vital activities.”
Images are not random. They are not merely the flotsam and jetsam of the mind. They are inherently meaningful.
To get a sense of what this means, you could use the analogy of an fMRI. With the use of fMRI, the flow of blood in the brain is observed, which provides evidence of what is happening in the brain under various conditions.
In a similar way, the images of the imagination provide clues to the workings of the psyche under certain conditions. This is what Jung means when he calls it a “‘picturing’ of vital activities.”
Confrontation with the Unconscious
The attention to images in Jungian Psychology grows out of Carl Jung’s experience with his own dreams and fantasies. In the period leading up to and during the First World War, Jung was beset by “an incessant stream of fantasies.” It was a period of time that he called his “Confrontation with the unconscious” and that others have called a time of “creative illness.”
Out of this period Jung produced his famous Red Book. This, in turn, became the basis for the development and elaboration of his whole psychology:
“All my works, all my creative activity, has come from those initial fantasies and dreams…the later details are only supplements and clarifications of the material that burst forth from the unconscious, and at first swamped me. It was the prima materia for a lifetime’s work.”
Images and Emotions
An image, as it is understood in Jungian psychology, is not just a picture. It is a psychosomatic whole. In other words, it has a psychic aspect — a visual quality, a thought, or an idea — and it has a somatic quality, meaning that it is experienced in the body as having an emotional quality.
Images, then, are essentially the visual aspect of emotions. Paying attention to images is at the same time paying attention to emotions. This is another way of understanding what Jung referred to as a “picturing of vital activities.”
The presence of emotional resonance is essential for an image to have healing potential. According to Jungian Analyst Marie-Louise von Franz:
“An archetypal image is not only a thought pattern…it is also an emotional experience — the emotional experience of the individual. Only if it has an emotional and feeling value for an individual is it alive and meaningful.”
The value of an image, then, is that it can both give a person access to their emotional experience and, at the same time, allow some distance from the emotion, so that it can be understood and related to.
Many people in therapy are either too close to their emotions or too cut off from their emotions. In both cases they are not sufficiently related to their own emotions. Jung explains the value of working with images this way:
“The essential thing is to differentiate oneself from these unconscious contents by personifying them, and at the same time to bring them into relationship with consciousness. That is the technique for stripping them of their power.”
By finding the image connected to the emotional experience, those who are too close to their emotions are able to gain some distance and perspective. Rather than just feeling overwhelmed by and over-identified with, say, anger, the image gives the person a way to think about the experience of anger.
They are no longer anger (or sadness, or anxiety) personified — “I am angry!” — but have a new way of relating to their anger — “I feel angry.” The difference is subtle but significant.
For those cut off from their emotions, an image can, in effect, introduce them to their emotional experience.
An example of this latter situation might be a person who, as a child, had to learn to deal with their normal anger by withdrawing from contact with others because the expression of anger was not safe in their family. In other words, they learned to repress their anger. In this case, an image could help the individual reconnect to the anger behind and within their strategy of withdrawal.
Jung’s experience during his confrontation with the unconscious provides an example of how this process of paying attention to images works:
“To the extent that I managed to translate the emotions into images — that is to say, to find the images which were concealed in the emotions — I was inwardly calmed and reassured. Had I left those images hidden in the emotions, I might have been torn to pieces by them.”
Terry and the Tornado: A Clinical Example
Terry couldn’t understand why he had suddenly lost interest in the work that he loved. He knew he should want to be busy and stay productive, but he couldn’t stop bingeing on video games instead. He found his lack of energy and motivation confusing and shameful.
What was particularly puzzling to Terry was that he should feel so lethargic given that there were only good things happening in his life. He was moving to a new house, he had just been offered a new position at work, and he was getting close to marrying the woman he loved.
He worried that he might be depressed.
I asked Terry to stay with his feeling of lethargy and see if he could connect to an image that might be associated with it. The image that he saw was a powerful tornado.
At first, this didn’t seem to make much sense as it was so at odds with his emotional torpor. But when I asked him what kind of response a person should have to a tornado, we began to get a deeper understanding of his experience.
“Lay low,” said Terry, “You’re supposed to lay low.”
Working with this idea, we were soon able to understand that what appeared to be laziness or depression was really a needed retreat in the face of the whirlwind of changes that he was currently facing. The image of the tornado allowed Terry to reframe his lack of energy from being something that was wrong with him, to something that was necessary for navigating this time of intense transitions.
Paradoxically, by accepting his need for retreat and not resisting it, Terry soon found that he was able to regain some energy for work, albeit in a modified form.
And this, ultimately, is the great value of paying attention to images in Jungian therapy. The image acts as a kind of catalyst. It is a source of energy and a motivation to activity. “It releases unavailable, dammed-up energy,” wrote Jung, and this allows the flow of living to resume in a meaningful and healing way.
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I like your bringing attention to differences of “I’m angry” and “I feel angry”. At first it seems a subtle difference, but you point the ability to become aware. Well expressed!
I like the rest of your website as well.