Carl Jung > Psychotherapy
What is Active Imagination Active
imagination is a method of assimilating unconscious contents (dreams, fantasies, etc.) through some form of self-expression. The object of active imagination is to give a voice to sides of the personality
(particularly The first stage of active imagination is like dreaming with open eyes. It can take place spontaneously or be artificially induced.
In the latter case you choose a dream, or some other fantasy-image, and concentrate on it by simply catching hold of it and looking at it. You can also use a bad mood as a starting-point, and then try to find
out what sort of fantasy-image it will produce, or what image expresses this mood. You then fix this image in the mind by concentrating your attention. Usually it will alter, as the mere fact of contemplating it
animates it. The alterations must be carefully noted down all the time, for they reflect the psychic processes in the unconscious background, which appear in the form of images consisting of conscious memory
material. In this way conscious and unconscious are united, just as a waterfall connects above and below. [Carl Jung: The Conjunction, CW 14, par. 706.]
The second stage, beyond simply observing the images, involves a conscious participation in them, the honest evaluation of what they mean about oneself, and a morally and intellectually binding commitment to act on
the insights. This is a transition from a merely perceptive or aesthetic attitude to one of judgment.
Although, to a certain extent, he looks on from outside, impartially, he is also an acting and suffering figure in the drama of the psyche. This recognition is absolutely necessary and marks an important
advance. So long as he simply looks at the pictures he is like the foolish Parsifal, who forgot to ask the vital question because he was not aware of his own participation in the action. [An allusion to the
medieval Grail legend. The question Parsifal failed to ask was, "Whom does the Grail serve?" ].
But if you recognize your own involvement you yourself must enter into the process with your personal reactions, just as if you were one of the fantasy figures, or rather, as if the drama being enacted before your eyes were real.
(The Conjunction, CW 14, par. 753.) The judging attitude implies a voluntary involvement in those fantasy-processes which compensate the individual and-in particular-the collective situation of
consciousness. The avowed purpose of this involvement is to integrate the statements of the unconscious, to assimilate their compensatory content, and thereby produce a whole meaning which alone makes life worth
living and, for not a few people, possible at all. (The Conjunction, par. 756.) -- Read also: -> Active imagination and the method of free associations
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