Image or Art? From Jung’s Red Book to Jungian Art Therapy

Description

This video is the 1-hour lecture portion of a 3-hour experiential workshop. When viewing the video, pause during workshop portions and follow instructions to create your own Images. You may wish to have a journal and art materials of your choice such as colored pencils, oil crayons and markers as suggested by the instructor.

Jung’s courageous engagement with a creative life, by way of The Red Book, was a calling that opened the gates for an initiation journey into what he called the spirit of the depths. Jung worked with the initial material for 16 years using active imagination and art materials that revealed the inner opposites and illuminated the torment and suffering of becoming conscious. Not only did Jung’s inner Red Book journey transform the deepest levels of his own psyche, but this material, finally published in 2009, continues to influence the development of consciousness in the collective, reminding us that our lived experiences may take us to the depths where we discover the treasures of wholeness.

In this workshop, I will briefly explore how Jung’s personal and clinical experiences provided a foundation for analytical psychology, Jungian art therapy and the expressive arts based on his notion that psyche is image. We will make use of clinical examples and image-making exercises to experience how the dynamic nature of Jung’s structure of the psyche can often become personally more accessible when we actively use art materials to engage the creative instinct through the making of spontaneous images. These living images transport contents that animate the soul and allow this invisible wisdom to show itself. Rather than interpreting the final image, Jungian art therapy welcomes the lived alchemical process as an opportunity to receive and engage with what emerges at the door of consciousness. Finally, we will consider the compelling question of whether Jung’s pictures are art or images, bringing to the forefront Jung’s enthusiastic encouragement that his patients to create their own Red Book so as to more fully honor their individuation process.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe two important features about Jung’s process of making The Red Book.
2. Name and discuss three different concepts that Jung defined in his map of the psyche.
3. Explain the function and role of the transcendent function and its importance for the expressive arts.
4. Discuss three examples of how Jung’s analytical psychology has become integral to and influenced the collective’s view of consciousness.
5. Explain the process of active imagination and its role when using art materials.

Suggested Reading

• Jung, C.G. (2009). The Red Book: Liber Novus (Reader Edition). Introduction by Sonu Shamdasani, pp.1- 95.
• Swan-Foster, N. (2020) C. G. Jung’s Influence on Art Therapy and the Making of the Third, Psychological Perspectives, 63:1, 67-94, DOI:10.1080/00332925.2020.1739467. Link
• Swan-Foster, N. (2018). Jungian Art Therapy: Dreams, Images, and Analytical psychology. Chapter 10: Active Imagination and Art Therapy. Routledge. Link

Instructor

Nora Swan-Foster, MA, ATR-BC, LPC, NCPsyA is a senior training analyst with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (IRSJA), and faculty member with the Memphis-Atlanta Seminar (MAJS). Between her academic role at Naropa University and serving as seminar coordinator for an IRSJA Jungian training seminar in Boulder, Colorado, Nora has been immersed in pedagogical questions regarding the intersections of contemplative art therapy education and Jungian analytic training. She has led workshops and clinical training seminars on a range of Jungian topics and fundamentals, art therapy, and on childbearing issues in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Nora has authored professional articles, chapters and the books Jungian Art therapy (2018) and Art Therapy and Childbearing Issues (2021) (editor). Nora is the former North American Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Analytical Psychology. Her full-time private consulting practice is in Boulder, Colorado. swanfoster.com.