Art, Dreams and Active Imagination

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Journal of Analytical Psychology,2005,50,127153

Art, dreams and active imagination:A post-Jungian approach to transference

and the image

Joy Schaverien, Leicester, UK

Abstract: The term active imagination is sometimes applied rather uncritically to

describe all forms of creative activity that take place in depth psychology. Whilst thereare many forms of expression that evoke or are evoked by active imagination, theycannot automatically be classed as active imagination. In this article investigation ofvisualized mental imagery, dreams and art reveals three distinct forms of image-basedpsychological activity. Integrated and mediated within the transference and counter-transference dynamic, it is proposed that the engagement in active imagination reflectsand is influenced by the transference. Distinctions between sign and symbol, simple andbig dreams as well as diagrammatic and embodied imagery clarify the differences.Examples from clinical practice demonstrate each mode in action within the analyticframe.

Key words: active imagination, art, countertransference, dreams, free association,Jung, sign, symbol, transference, visualization, waking dreams.

Active imagination, like transference, mobilizes the psyche. Many forms ofcreative expression experienced within the analytic frame are sometimes ratherloosely regarded as active imagination, or generative of it, but closer observa-tion of their specific nature reveals significant differences. Just as words can beapplied in many diverse ways, so too can images. Therefore the intention inthis article1 is to question the use of the term active imagination in order todifferentiate it from other forms of imaginative and creative activity. It wasJung who proposed that a number of different art forms could give expressionto inner images, through active imagination as he explained:

I . . . took up a dream image or an association of the patients, and with this as apoint of departure, set him the task of elaborating or developing his theme by giving

1 An earlier version of this paper was given at the First International Academic Conference of

Analytical Psychology held at the University of Essex, UK, in July 2002.


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free rein to his fantasy. This . . . could be done in any number of ways, dramatic,dialectic, visual, acoustic, or in the form of dancing, painting, drawing, or modelling.

(Jung 1947, para. 402)

Many present day analytical psychologists apply particular forms of creativeexpression in their work with patients. These include: dance movement therapy(Chodorow 1991), sandplay (Kalff1980; Mitchell & Friedman 1994; Amman1991; Steinhardt 2000), and music (Williams 2001; Skar 2002). Each of thesemight be the spark for active imagination or be generated by it but they cannotbe considered to be active imagination. The art form is not itself active imagina-tion, although it might at times reflect it. It is the experience of the person,rather than the medium, that is active imagination. This is the reason why ana-

lysts and art therapists sometimes declare their interest to be in the processrather than the product [i.e., art] created within analysis. However that is tolimit the potential import of active imagination. The process of active imagina-tion is highly significant but the end product, the vision, dream or picture, as ashared image or object within the therapeutic relationship, is of analytic interestbecause it influences both the transference and the countertransference.

The scope of this article is limited to those areas of expression with which Iam most familiar from my own experience and from clinical practice. Thefocus is on three specific forms of imaginal activity: waking dreams, in the

form of visualizations, dreams and art. Observation reveals three distinctforms of image-based experience and, within the manifestation of each, somecases where imagination is clearly active and others where it is not. It isproposed that this is related to, and sometimes generated by, the depth andquality of the engagement in the transference.

The three clinical examples are intended to reveal the influence of thetransference on active imagination. The first was a profoundly symbolic visu-alization that emerged as an integrated aspect of an already activated transference.The second shows how the unconscious, in the form of dreams, leads a person

deeper into analysis and mobilizes the psyche when the transference feelsstuck. The third demonstrates how artwork may embody the transference,revealing previously unconscious elements, rendering them visible and soavailable to consciousness. None of these was an isolated event but eachdeveloped into a chain of visualizations, or a series of dreams or pictures, andso to a lived form of active imagination.

Active imagination

The term active imagination was applied by Jung to refer to a means ofmobilizing the psyche through an image or a chain of images and their related


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Art, dreams and active imagination 129

surfacing of previously unconscious material and so to its gradual admittanceto consciousness. It may occur in one swift insight or it may dawn gradually,through a series of related experiences. In order to travel this journey a psy-

chological split is necessary; one part of the personality enters into the fantasymaterial, whilst another observes the process.

Jung came to active imagination and his method of amplification throughhis own experiences. After he and Freud parted, Jung experienced what hecalled a period of disorientation. In Memories, Dreams, Reflections he tellsof his confrontation with the unconscious (Jung 1963, chap. 6) and of how hisinterest in his dreams and psychological state at that time led to an intenseperiod of self-analysis. This, combined with listening to his patients dreamsand associations, led him to further explore the mythical content of the psy-

che. Whenever Jung felt stuck with his own analytic material he reverted tomaking models or painting pictures, recalling the play activities of hischildhood. Spontaneously he made circular drawings and later, when heencountered Eastern philosophy, he realized they were similar to mandalas ofthe East. He began to understand the goal of psychic development to be theself. There is no linear evolution; there is only a circumambulation of the self(Jung 1963, p. 222)2.

Active imagination is like this; nothing is linear or logical and yet its processmakes sense in an indirect manner. It evokes archetypal material and Jung

relates it to the collective unconscious when he writes that, certain collectiveunconscious conditions . . . behave exactly like the motive forces in dreams, forwhich reason active imagination . . . to some extent takes the place of dreams(Jung 1947, para. 403). It is this dream function of active imagination thatleads to consideration of it as a means of dreaming whilst awake.

Active imagination was a central tenet of Jungs psychology andChodorow points out, that in one place he described active imagination ashis analytical method of psychotherapy (Chodorow 1997, p. 17). Howeverlike so much else in his oeuvre his views on it were fluid and changed

throughout his life.

Active imagination and free association

Active imagination was originally a development of the free associationmethod of psychoanalysis. Jung wrote: I learned it from Freuds method of

2 It is a common misapprehension to consider all circles in pictures to be mandalas. It has been

shown that the circle is amongst the first marks a child makes (Kellogg 1970; Piaget in Kellogg1970). It could be argued that many such circular movements can be explained as the result of ai l h d h ll hild I h f h l i


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free association, and I regard it as a direct extension of that (Jung 1931,para. 100). Therefore the distinction between the two methods meritsattention3. In free association Freud (1963) instructs the patient to:

Put himself into a state of quiet unreflecting self observation, and to report to uswhatever internal perceptions he is able to makefeelings, thoughts, memoriesinthe order in which they occur to him. At the same time we warn him expresslyagainst giving way to any motive, which would lead him to make a selection amongthese associations or to exclude any of them.

(Freud 1963, p. 287)

So in free association the patient is asked to observe and report his thoughtsbut to refrain from selecting material. In active imagination Jung instructs the

patient to both select and follow the lead of the image: . . . the patient issimply given the task of contemplating any one fragment of fantasy that seemssignificant to him . . . until its context becomes visible (Jung 1951a, para. 101).For Jung therefore, selection is an important part of the process, because itindicates where the patients interest may lie and elaboration of the image orfantasy is encouraged:

It is not a question of the free association recommended by Freud for the purpose ofdream-analysis, but of elaborating the fantasy by observing the further fantasy mate-rial that adds itself to the fragment. . . the resultant sequence of fantasies relieves the

unconscious and produces material rich in archetypal images and associations.

(Jung 1936/37, paras. 101102)

It seems that this is the point of departure; Jung or the patient selects a strandto develop and the patient is encouraged to elaborate the fantasy material. Thepatient embarks on an imaginal journey and the process may be amplified by amyth or fairy tale that seems to resonate with the archetypal atmosphere of thematerial. This might be chosen by the patient or, at times, suggested by theanalyst; clearly this differs from free association. According to Mattoon,

Jungs objection to free association was that it led to uncovering complexesbut it did not take advantage of the unique contributions of dreams to gaininginformation from the unconscious (Mattoon 1984, p. 55). Jung consideredthat, although at first sight [dreams] point backwards . . . [they] also have acontinuity forwards . . . (Jung 1934, para. 444; itals in original). It is this for-wards movement that is of interest when considering active imagination.

Surface to depth

The difference between surface activity and depth experience will becomeincreasingly significant as we consider the transference experiences associated


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with active imagination. Jung makes a distinction between ordinary imaginativeactivity, such as fantasy, and active imagination:

A fantasy is more or less your own invention, and remains on the surface of personalthings and conscious expectations. But active imagination, as the term denotes,means that the images have a life of their own and that symbolic events developaccording to their own logicthat is, of course, if your conscious reason does notinterfere.

(Jung 1935, The Tavistock Lectures, para. 397)

Imaginative activity, such as simple reverie and daydreaming, remains on thesurface of personal things; it is therefore closer to conscious experience.Active imagination requires directed attention and a suspension of disbeliefthat permits previously unconscious imagery to flow and so deeper materialmay become manifest.

Fordham, similarly, differentiated active imagination of adults in analysisfrom the play and spontaneous imaginative activity of children (Fordham1977). Play may be profoundly meaningful but Fordham seems to considerthat play is not synonymous with active imagination. Play remains nearer tothe surface even when it reveals unconscious material. In active imaginationconsciousness is usually deliberately directed towards an image; a new situ-

ation is created and unconscious contents are exposed. This distinctionbetween surface activity and depth leads to consideration of the differencesbetween sign and symbol, to which I will return later.

Active imagination

1. Waking Dreams

Active imagination may emerge spontaneously as visualized imagery, as a wak-ing dream (Watkins 1984). This is different from a simple daydream, which is a

form of reverie, and from a dream experienced whilst asleep. The deliberatelowering of consciousness permits images from the unconscious to rise to thesurface and, as these emerge, it may be as if the visualized event is actually tak-ing place. Therefore this form of active imagination is lived experience. Theimage generates psychological movement whilst the ego is held in a suspendedstate. Then, gradually as they are assimilated these images come into relation-ship with the conscious mind. The protagonist mentally travels from surface todepth and then returns but in an altered state. Watkins writes that:

[Jung] found that the ability he had observed in himself to allow the unconscious andconscious to speak together while awake could . . . be helped to developnaturally . . . This ability of actively imagining would emerge at critical times in


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132 Joy Schaverien

It was like this with the first example I will give; this was active imaginationexperienced at a critical time. It occurred spontaneously from within the trans-ference/countertransference dynamic with which the images resonated at

depth. The context was a therapeutic relationship where non-verbal imageryhad played a significant part from the beginning.

Vignette 1.

The couch in my consulting room was rather small and it could not reallyaccommodate big people, as well as this the person lying on it was unprotectedfrom the cold wall beside it. Therefore when, during one Spring break, I founda suitable new couch I exchanged the old couch for this new one. It was larger

and it had an arm along one side that would protect the person lying on itfrom contact with the wall. Peoples reactions to this change of couch varied,some appeared not to notice the change. Others commented, expressing theirlike or dislike of it. The person who was most affected was Lizzie, a slimwoman in her late twenties, who was not in need of the larger couch. She wasdevastated by what she experienced as the presence of an interloper in theplace of the little, old, friendly couch. As her attachment to the first couch wasgradually explored a powerful series of mentally experienced visual imagesemerged, which we might understand to be a form of spontaneous active

imagination arising from the unconscious. For several sessions there was silentand unspoken rage as Lizzie sat in the chair, eyes on the ground or glaringwith hostility at the handsome, new couch; she could hardly bear to look at it.Eventually she was able to tell me how upset she was as she said in a quietvoice, It was my father.

During the course of this analysis the room, as well as the objects within it,had become animated and, in Lizzies mind, incorporated into the transfer-ence. They were experienced as the analysts body in many different genderedguises. I remembered now that she had experienced one particularly difficult

break, as an enforced birth. On her return she had hated the little couch; shesaid that it had been the fathers penis, which had intruded, in her absence,into the maternal body/room.4 This penis/couch could go where she could nolonger be and so she was furious and had imagined destroying it. Of courseduring that time it had been very necessary that it had survived. Then she hadbegun to befriend it and to lie on it and so it had become a benign paternalpresence to which she could relate within the room.

It was because of this history that the new couch took on immensely hostileproportions. She would not lie on it and eventually she was able to admit to

a chain of images in which she saw herself getting hold of the new couch,throwing it forcibly out of the room, tearing it up, ripping the legs off it, and


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stamping on it, breaking it up into little pieces. It became an impostor fatherwho had to be destroyed. She described the scene in detail without looking atme. She was devastated and, in her mind, she laid waste to the couch and me

along with it.This was an active imagination, vividly conveyed through a combination of

the atmosphere generated in the room, action in her posture and the sense ofsilent rage that went on for many sessions. Finally it emerged in words spokenwithout eye contact and in a whispered voice that belied the chain of eventsdescribed. In one sense Lizzie was passive before this chain of images and inanother sense active in them. Thus two parts of herself were involved; one partparticipated in the imagined events, whilst the other observed and later com-mented on the action. Jung writes of such an experience:

It is part dream, part vision, or dream mixed with vision. These visions are far frombeing hallucinations or ecstatic states; they are spontaneous, visual images of fantasyor so-called active imagination.

(Jung 1951a, para. 319; itals. in original)

There is not space here to develop the psychological aspects of the case indepth but I will outline my understanding of some of the processes involved.Before the break Lizzie had been beginning to move from two-person relating

to three; the third was represented in her mind by the couch. Although hersense of exclusion from the parental couple/analyst in the break had enragedher this had been just about bearable. However on her return the couch wasgone; an object that played a significant role in her inner world was missing. Itseemed that it was as if the parents had split up during the break. This evokedmore intense rage accompanied by terror that her destructive fantasies hadhad actual consequences. The impulse for revenge on the mother/analyst wasvividly expressed through the spontaneous active imagination described. Itwas only much later that the sadness associated with these events could be

expressed.This active imagination emerged spontaneously from within the transfer-

ence/countertransference relationship. It was a depth and so symbolic eventexperienced whilst the protagonist was awake. Lizzie saw herself engagingin this act as if it were actually happening; she lived the experience. This wasevident when she said, It was my father rather than, it was as ifit were myfather. At the time there was no as if, and the extent of the expression of herfury terrified and shocked her. However an important distinction needs to bemade here because she was not psychotic and this was not a delusional

transference. Lizzie had sufficient ego strength to manage the feelings and totalk about them. For the time of the imagining the as if was temporarily

b d b kl d d h h d


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she did not believe it had happened. It is the ability to regain the as if positionthat distinguishes a psychological event such as this from psychosis.

This visualization was unlike a dream, in that Lizzie was awake and aware

of her fury. Clearly this is very different from dreaming in the night when theconscious psyche has no volition. Watkins describes how Jung:

had found that the acts of allowing the images to arise while conscious and aware,and of participating with them, invested the bare fantasy with an aspect of reality,which lends it greater weight and greater driving power.

(Jung 1954, para. 106, quoted in Watkins 1984, p. 47)

This was also unlike a picture because there was no concrete manifestation of

the image. One difference between the three modes of experience under discus-sion is in the way it is conveyed to the analyst. With a mental event such asthis, no matter how powerfully it is described or conveyed non-verbally, theanalyst cannot see the imagined act as the patient does. Words are needed toreport the experience. It is similar with a dreamwords are needed. Withpictures they are not always necessary.

Transference as active imagination

The therapeutic relationship constitutes the environment within which activeimagination arises. Therefore the symbolic depth of the active imaginationreflects the transference. We have seen this with Lizzies active imagination,which was evoked by the transference in which she was at the time immersed.

Transference is a technical term, a concept, which stands for an imaginalenterprise in which analysts engage daily. It was Freuds initial leap of imagin-ation that gave us this term almost one hundred years ago. In the years since itwas initially used, transference has developed, been discussed, argued over,and generally applied in consulting rooms throughout the world. In consider-

ing this I quote Bachelard who warns that:Concepts are drawers in which knowledge may be classified; they are also readymade garments which do away with the individuality of knowledge that has beenexperienced. The concept soon become lifeless thinking since, by its definition, it isclassified thinking.

(Bachelard 1958, p. 74)

It is rare that transference, or active imagination, is applied as lifeless thinkingbut their very familiarity may lead to tenuous assumptions of common meaning.

There is a basic agreement about what they mean but creative discourse avoidslosing the subtlety of the live, and ever changing, states of being they convey. It


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It is well known that Freud (1912, 1915) first came to understand that,within the framed setting of analysis, the patient might regress to an earlierpattern of relating in which the analyst was experienced as a parent, or an

authority figure from the past. As the past becomes live in the present, thepsyche is so-to-speak set in motion, and change is possible. I will be using theterm set in motion again later in this article so it merits a little attention here.It is borrowed from Bachelard who writes that: Psychoanalysis sets thehuman being in motion . . . It calls on him to live outside the abodes of hisunconscious, to enter into lifes adventures, to come out of himself (Bachelard1964, p. 10). This seems to express vividly the experience of engagement inanalysis and active imagination in particular. The transference itself is animaginal experience that sets the human being in motion and, as previously

frozen states come to life, change is possible. This is initially generated by theanalysts attention, understanding and interest. All kinds of distortions mayoccur in the transference but it is usually clear to both participants, unlessthere is a psychotic transference, that the analyst is not (for example) theparent. The analyst, perceived through the lense of the transference, is botha real person and an imaginal one carrying the traces of the pattern of pastrelationships.

Thus it is that the transference itself may sometimes be viewed as a form ofactive imagination. In an article, published in this journal in 1966, Davidson

proposed that: a successful analysis can be thought of as a lived-throughactive imagination (Davidson 1966, p. 135). This view, that transference beregarded as active imagination, merits some attention because it departs fromthe classical understanding that it is the patient who experiences active imagin-ation. Davidsons proposal is that the analyst might regard the whole of thepatients unconscious drama, enacted through the transference, as a form ofactive imagination even though the patient may not see it that way.

The unconscious contents . . . will enact themselves in the form of a drama which will

go on being enacted until such time as it comes through to the analystin exactly theway Jung has described the fantasies coming through to consciousness in activeimagination.

(Davidson 1966, pp. 1378)

It is the method of this coming through that interests her as she emphasizesthat: it is the analyst, and not the patient, who is the one with the attitudefavourable to active imagination and who stands for the ego integratingfunction (Davidson 1966, p. 144). This was an innovative approach to coun-tertransference at the time that it was written. Lowering of consciousness in

order to be in touch with the patients inner world is certainly an imaginativeact and a creative way of understanding the images, which arise in the analyst,


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In Davidsons view the analyst, as observer, is temporarily placed in theposition of the ego, holding the conscious function for the patient.According to Samuels et al. (1986) and Chodorow (1997) this observation

is her particular contribution. However Davidsons thesis is analyst cen-tred and I suggest that in it there are two facets of active imaginationunder discussion. The first is counter transference as active imagination.The second is the transferencethe patients experiencebut viewed bythe analyst, as active imagination. We are then left with the questionwhat of the patients experience?

In Jungs original view the analyst would encourage the analysand tofocus on aspects of her or his own imaginal experience. This would thenbe amplified with mythical or personal associations, which would often

lead to the emergence of archetypal material. Rather surprisingly David-son reports that analytical psychologists do not nowadays use activeimagination in the form in which Jung described it (Davidson 1966, p.144). Located in the developmental school of the Society of AnalyticalPsychology in London forty years ago perhaps this was her experience butit would be a pity if that remained as the final word on the matter. Othersfrom the same Society writing at that time, and since, seem to integrate Jungs method within their analytic work (Plaut 1966; Fordham 1977;Gordon 1993; Moore 1986; Powell 1998).

Moreover at the time that Davidson was writing in the UK, Marie-Louisevon Franz with her colleagues in Zrich, were working with active imagin-ation in the more traditionally Jungian sense. Therefore post-Jungianapproaches to active imagination seem to reveal some of the differencesbetween the traditions of Classical and Developmental schools, discussed bySamuels (1985) and Chodorow (1997). Whilst a review of the literature onactive imagination and further discussion of these differences would be fasci-nating, it is beyond the scope of this present article.

Although my thoughts have some resonance with Davidsons thesis, I am

proposing something a little different. I am not addressing the idea of act-ive imagination as transference but active imagination within the transfer-ence. This article is predominantly about the patients experience. It is thequalitative variation between different forms of active imagination thatemerge within the transference and countertransference dynamic that is thetopic of this present article.

Active imagination within the transference

As a dialogue with the unconscious, active imagination requires an ability tocomprehend metaphor. Activation of the unconscious may engender arche-


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such patients the danger of being overwhelmed by the unconscious is considerableand so the analyst may well temporarily hold the ego position whilst thepatient lives the experience as Davidson suggests. The analyst remains calm in

the face of potentially overwhelming material and so normalizes and earthsthe experience in the present. This is an important argument for embeddingactive imagination within the here and now of the transference and counter-transference dynamic.

A psychological split makes it possible for one part of the personality to livethe imagined events, dream the dream or paint the picture, whilst the otherremains detached, as an observer of the process. This split is similar to thatrequired in the ordinary course of analysis. This is explained by the FreudianGreenson (1967) who divides the therapeutic relationship into three parts: the

real relationship, the therapeutic, or working alliance, and the transference. Inorder to observe the transference the patient needs to be capable of forming atherapeutic alliance with the analyst; this is an, often unspoken, agreement: tostand beside the analyst and observe the transference. Sufficient ego strength isneeded in order to make the necessary psychological split to observe in this way.

In working with pictures in analysis, I have taken this a stage further andshown how the art object becomes a third element in this process, embodyinga form of transference; this is the scapegoat transference (Schaverien 1991,1995, 1999). I am proposing that it is similar with active imagination. There

are times when active imagination may be a third element that embodies thetransference as well as expressing it. At other times the process is less intenseand the result of a more controlled psychological attitude. Before turningto my second example, in which this latter is evident, I will discuss sign andsymbol in order to differentiate between these types of active imagination in alittle more detail.

Sign and symbol and transference

The active imagination described above was profoundly symbolic and part ofthe reason for this was that it reflected the depth of engagement in the trans-ference. Moving on from active imagination generated by visualization alone Iturn now to dreams and art. Both are multi-faceted, and I propose, function atdifferent psychological levels according to the nature of the engagement in thetransference. Their aesthetic impact affects the psyche of the dreamer, or artist,as well as that of the analyst. In this way they further influence the transfer-ence and countertransference.

Elsewhere (Schaverien 1991, 1995) I have applied Suzanne Langers (1957)

distinction between significant form and significant motif in art to distinguishbetween categories of pictorial image. Significant motif is like a design or


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square on a map; it is not itself a house but indicates that here stands a house(Wittgenstein 1980, p. 42). Thus signs remain on the surface. Significant formis differentit is what Langer calls the art symbol; this is the work of art as a

whole. Unlike the sign, it touches depth. It stands alone as a profoundly sym-bolic, irreducible entity that does not need the embellishment of words. There-fore the art symbol is different from symbols in pictures, which, if regardedwithout attention to the whole, are reduced to mere signs.

In considering art within analysis I have made a distinction between embod-ied and diagrammatic imagery. Embodied imagery, like the art symbol, isprofoundly symbolic, employs visual metaphor, and as a result touches depth.No other form of articulation can be substituted for such an image. Diagram-matic images on the other hand are more like signs, remaining at a more

surface level, and need words to tell their story (Schaverien 1987, pp. 779;1991, pp. 857; 1999, pp. 48893). This is reiterated because there is a similardistinction to be made between active imagination that touches depth andimaginative activity that remains on the surface.

Active imagination evokes genuine psychological movement whilst milderforms of imagining may stay nearer to the surface. As Jung puts it: the symbolis alive only so long as it is pregnant with meaning (Jung 1971, para. 81). It isthis symbolic depth that gives us what might be called embodied active imagin-ation. This evokes visual or verbal metaphor and it can be articulated in no

other way. The expression, it was my father, as described above, was a pro-foundly symbolic experience and such an event changes perception and maytransform the psychological state of the artist or dreamer.

In each of the modes that we are considering the distinction between sign andsymbol is helpful. Lived mental events are profoundly symbolic and differentfrom daydreaming. Ordinary, every day, or simple dreams differ from bigdreams and, with pictures, diagrammatic images differ from embodied imagery.

Active imagination2. Dreams

Dreams per se are not active imagination but there are times when they set thepsyche in motion (Bachelard 1964) and so generate it. Freud distinguishedsimple from complex dreams (Freud 1900, pp. 101102). Simple dreams are,in the context of our discussion, rather like signs; they often appear to refer today-to-day events or day residues and they are not always profoundly symbolic.Complex dreams on the other hand touch depth and convey their meaning

through metaphor; thus they are more like the art symbol. We might callthem, the dream symbolan irreducible entity. Jung too distinguished differentt f d Th d th t t i i bi i f l d f


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According to Hillman (1979) and Hall (1983), Jung did not believe in a hiddendream meaning behind the manifest dream, therefore he did not try to seebehind the disguise of the dream images. They both make the point that Jungs

respect for the dream led him to treat dreams as the facts of the psyche. Hedid not try to explain them; rather they were amplified and embellished withassociationspersonal, mythical and cultural. He linked them to active imagin-ation: Dreams behave in exactly the same way as active imagination; only thesupport of conscious contents is lacking (Jung 1934, para. 404). Mattoon(1984) develops this theme, drawing out the links between dreams and activeimagination, in her detailed work Understanding Dreams. She explains that Jung would try to establish the personal context of a dream and help thepatient to amplify his own dream. This might be done through associations or

by reference to metaphor and myth. This intensifies the archetypal aspects,and therefore attention to the present context of the therapeutic relationship isimportant. It is this that earths the material and brings it into the realm ofconsciousness.

It is obvious to state that dreaming takes place when the dreamer is asleepbut as it is this that distinguishes dreams from visualized mental images andfrom pictures it merits a mention. In dreams previously unconscious materialmay arise spontaneously and without directed attention. A dream may bedescribed, but it is impossible to show someone else a dream; it is essentially

private. Like a visualization, dreams differ from pictures, in that they areintangible, elusive and ephemeral whilst pictures have a concrete and materialpresence.

It is important to reiterate the point that not all visualizations, dreams or pic-tures lead to active imagination. Material that appears to stem from the uncon-scious cannot be automatically regarded as active imagination5. It is the patientsattitude to their own material that may develop into active imagination but s/hehas to participate. Not everyone can do this; some people are too consciouslycontrolled. Then the analyst may become interested in a dream presented but,

whilst the dreamer may appear gratified by the analysts interest, there may belittle apparent understanding of the authorship of the dream. The dreamer mayhave to learn to relate to their material before psychological movement canbecome possible. This was the case with my second example.

Vignette 2

Ians development had been one-sided, favouring consciousness. In his lifethere had been little space for imagination; he had been sent to boarding

5 Thi d d d d fi i i f h i b i ld b d h


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140 Joy Schaverien

school at the age of six and this had been followed by a successful professionalarmy career. This was highly structured and required much of him intellec-tually but the emotional impact of his work, which had at times been consider-

able, had been ignored. Now aged 60 he was retired. Ian was an intelligentman with wide interests and knowledge but he was emotionally inarticulate.This is typical of the person who has been sent to boarding school at an earlyage (Duffell 2000; Schaverien 2004). Although he was clearly very sensitive heappeared to be puzzled by emotions and did not recognize them in himself. Hecame to see me because his wife had had counselling and found it useful andshe was concerned that he did not speak about his feelings.

In the first session I asked him what had brought him to the point of phon-ing me. He could not respondthat is the problem, he said. Ian sat in the

chair in my consulting room and having told me this, there was an uncomfortablesilence, he could not think of what to say next. Over the weeks that followed,I found that I was often breaking the silence in order to try to help him in hisevident discomfort. The sessions were inordinately painful as he sat in thechair unable to speak or know what was expected of him. Then one day hesaid that he had had a dream and wondered if he should tell it to me. This wasthe first of many. He dreamed either the night before the weekly session or thenight after it. It seemed that the unconscious, activated by his dreams, hadcome to his rescue so that he would have something to talk about in the next

session.In these early dreams he was often searching in empty houses or in buildings

that reminded him of his school. Gradually we pieced together aspects of hisstory so that we could begin to relate his dreams to his history. Born duringthe war he had lived alone with his mother until he was six, at which point hisfather returned from the war and he was sent to boarding school. He had littlememory of the vacations or his time at home between the ages of6 and 14. Itseemed that the trauma of his fathers appearance, along with the simultan-eous perceived abandonment by his mother, had left him without memory of

that period in his life. This seemed to be replayed in the transference; he wasrendered inarticulate in the presence of the analyst/mother.

During the early phase of analysis Ian dreamed prolifically and oftenappeared puzzled by the sense I made of his dreams. At first it was I whoseemed impressed with his dreams, whilst he seemed amused by theoutrageous links that I made. Much of what happened in the room was to dowith the analyst picking up non-verbal signals and speaking about them. Ianseemed to find it odd speaking to a strange woman about intimate things.However he came every week on time and there was an element of humour in

the therapeutic alliance. Very gradually, he became familiar with attending tohis dreams. Then he had what seemed to be a big dream.


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book. This latter was an elaborately decorated, ancient, manuscript. He described,with a sense of delight, how on one side of the page were all the kings and queens ofEngland and on the other side all the kings and queens of France.

At first Ian did not have many associations to it except that he had a library,where he spent much time, and that he collected rare books. The three bookswere all clearly meaningful for him. However it was not easy for him toconvey this in words. As we discussed the possibilities we wondered aboutEvelyn Waugh. The word Waugh could also be understood to link to theword war, and this might link to the opposites represented by the two coun-tries England and France. C.S. Lewis was meaningful to Ian because of hisreligious affinity. However it was the third book that drew his attention andmine. He was delighted and slightly awed by this beautiful, embellished, reli-

gious book almost as if he had actually discovered it. Clearly he had foundsomething of extreme value to himself that was symbolized by this dreambook.

We discussed how the two sides of the page might be seen as aspects ofhimself, which needed to move into relation with each other. On one side theEnglish, on the other the French; on one side the familiar, on the other theforeign. This could be thought of as a division between conscious and uncon-scious. The fact that the book presented him with royaltykings andqueensgave it added import. We might see his boarding school and army lifeas having imposed on him a psychological gender split, as well as a divisionbetween logos and eros. Thus the opposites, symbolized by the kings andqueens, needed to come into relation with each other. The fact that the bookwas beautifully embellished, delighted and slightly awed the dreamer. Thisindicated that it was a big dream: one that would not easily be forgotten. Initself this reflects the potential for psychological change. Although the dreamwas discussed it was not readily translatable in terms of his history nor could itbe fully understood. The facts of the psyche merely presented themselves forattention. Like the art symbol this dream was much more than the sum of itsparts. It was a dream symbolan irreducible entity. It impressed the dreamerprofoundly. The dream had symbolic depth and metaphorical significance; itwas in Jungs words pregnant with meaning. Thus previously frozen imagin-ative capacity began to become active. The dream itself was not active imagin-ation but it did set the psyche in motion and give Ian an understanding ofhow he might begin to dialogue with the unconscious.

Ian began to interpret his own dreams and so began to develop awareness ofhis emotional life. Over time he became less uncomfortable in the room, beganto relax and to talk and, as this happened, his dreams lessened in frequencyand complexity. It seems that when there is a need for it the psyche will find away of making unconscious contents conscious. Then active imagination may


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seemed that once he was able to talk he needed his dreams less. Jung notedsomething similar when he made the point that:

The existence of unrealized unconscious fantasies increases the frequency and inten-sity of dreams, and when these fantasies are made conscious the dreams change theircharacter and become weaker and less frequent. From this I have drawn the conclu-sion that dreams often contain fantasies, which want to become conscious.

(Jung 1936/37, para. 101)

An example from several years later further makes the point that Ian hadlearned to respect his own imaginative material. Probably as the result of theearlier dreams and the associations that had developed in relation to them, he

was now able to bear more uncertainty. Ian experienced a dream that was apowerful example of synchronicity. This is the acausal connecting principle ofthe psyche, about which Jung (1951b) wrote.

Ian dreamed he was in the House of Lords [to which in his real life he had access aspart of his job]. He was on his way to the library and he passed a room with fivemen in it. These men were his friends in real life and they were playing a gametogether in which they were standing in a circle and jumping up and down. One ofthem saw him and signalled to him to join them but he had other business to attendto and so he went on his way.

When he awoke he was so mystified that he had dreamed about this old friendwhom he had not seen for some time that he remarked on it to his wife. Hewas therefore shocked when, as he read the newspaper that morning, he cameacross the obituary of this very friend, the one who had signalled to him. Hehad died the previous day.

Before a dream event, such as this, even the most sceptical person is left withquestions. There is no rationale that sufficiently explains it although there aresome possible interpretations. The House of Lords as the location seems sig-nificant; it might indicate the Lords House and so a place associated with

death. However it is also a real place and he was heading for the library wherehe had business to attend to. We might see Ian as moving on from the point-less game in which his friends were engaged to more important matters. It willbe recalled that a library featured in his earlier dream alongside the profoundsignificance of the beautiful embellished book that he found. Earlier that bookwas discussed as a self-image, therefore the significance of the library seems torelate to a quest for the selfhe had more important work to attend to. Perhapsin the dream Ian ignored the distraction offered by his friends because he waskeeping focused on his own psychological journey. However this does not take

account of the uncanny element, Ian dreaming of his friend just prior todiscovering that the same friend had died. In a case like this the facts of theh h j k h i l i lif d h i i


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This was a remarkable dream but a dream is not itselfactive imagination.However it is likely that the dreamer was open to this strange event as a resultof the mobilization of the psyche that had previously taken place and so he

was able to accept it with wonder. Perhaps, as a result of the psychotherapy,his capacity for active imagination had developed and therefore his trust innot knowing had increased.

In the beginning Ians transference revealed that the capacity for fantasy andimagining was paralysed, probably as a result of his early traumatic experi-ences. The apparent non-engagement in the therapeutic relationship thereforewas the transference. During the course of the analysis there was movementfrom the initial dreams, which remained on the surface, to the profoundlymoving kings and queens dream, and then to the library in the House of

Lords, which resonated at depth. A more fluid relationship to his inner worldgradually developed, through a deepening trust in the therapeutic relationship.In this case it was dreams that set the psyche in motion evoking movementfrom surface to depth. It is this depth experience that might be understood asthe emergence of the capacity for active imagination.

Active imagination

3. Art

I turn now to the third and last of the three modes of creative expression underdiscussion: art. One of the most important papers that Jung wrote with regardto active imagination is The transcendent function (Jung 1916/1960). Thetranscendent function is the bridge between conscious and unconscious. In thisthe mediating function of dreams and spontaneously created imagery plays asignificant role. Jung wrote of art as active imagination that:

Often it is necessary to clarify a vague content by giving it visible form. This can bedone by drawing, painting or modelling. Often the hands know how to solve a riddlewith which the intellect has wrestled in vain. By shaping it, one goes on dreaming thedream in greater detail in the waking state, and the initially incomprehensible,isolated event is integrated into the sphere of the total personality, even though itremains at first unconscious to the subject.

(Jung 1916/1960, para. 180)

Direct interpretation of a dream or a picture may destroy the life in the imageand so we need to find ways of talking around itbefriending it. Jung writesof two kinds of thinking which he calls directed thinking, and dreaming or

fantasy thinking (Jung 1956, para. 20). The former applies to communicationin words and language and the latter is spontaneous and guided by uncon-i ti it i thi l tt th t i d d i t i l i T


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the image is so important (Moore 1986). This is a way of using mythic,historical, and cultural parallels to clarify and make ample the metaphoricalcontent of dream symbolism (Samuels et al. 1986, p. 16).

Unlike visualization and dreams, art has a tangible and material existence. Itrecords traces of the imaginal activity that produced it. Moreover it holds, andfixes, at once moving and limiting the flow of the unconscious. In art there is apublic manifestation and a shared viewing; both people see the same thing;there is an object for the shared gaze of the spectators. This is a significant fac-tor within analysis because unlike other modes of active imagination the tracesof its path are recorded for both people to see. In his discussion of the develop-ment of the theory of archetypes Jung reveals how central to his thinking wasthe art form within active imagination:

First I made the observations, and only then did I hammer out my views. And so it iswith the hand that guides the crayon or brush, the foot that executes the dance-step,with the eye and the ear, with the word and the thought: a dark impulse is the ultimatearbiter of the pattern, an unconscious a priori precipitates itself into a plastic form . . .

(Jung 1947, para. 402)6

It is this unconscious a priori that is sometimes revealed in the embodiedimages described earlier (Schaverien 1991, 1995). Attention to the aestheticqualities of pictures made in analysis reveals much about the process of active

imagination and this is why the product is as important as the process.Dieckmann (1971) comments on the aesthetic qualities of a series of objectsmade by an analysand. He describes vividly the ways in which they formed apart of the active imaginative process. However the assumption appears to be thatart and active imagination is one and the same thing. This present article is anattempt to distinguish them, as well as the particular nature of different formsof active imagination. In this the aesthetic quality of the work is significant.Whilst some pictures or art works are powerful examples of active imagination,others are not; similarly, not all art is symbolic articulation.

As explained earlier, in considering the aesthetic qualities of art made inanalysis I have identified two categories of pictorial image. The first, thediagrammatic image is like a sign. Such an image is of little aesthetic interestand its role in the transference is as a signifier in that it refers to something

6 The discussion of this controversial claim that the archetypes are based on an a priori patternhas been the subject of much heated discussion in Jungian circles recently. See Stevens, Peitikanen,Knox in thisJournal. Can archetypal patterns be a priori and what does this mean? The picturesmade in analysis bear out the idea that there is a commonality in the imagery produced across

cultures but the question of how that might be transmitted remains. It is too little to attribute allsuch imagery totally to culture, although it will account for a large part of it. It may be that therei f f i i l i i h d l F l h d


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outside of itself. It may be made to tell something to the therapist and needswords to embellish its meaning. For example if I draw a picture (Figure 1):

This tells you that I feel sad but it does not change anything, it is a surfaceexpression that is made to tell something to the therapist. It may evoke

emotion in relation to it but making the picture does not alter the psychologi-cal state of the artist; it is not a depth experience. This picture is unlikely to bethe result of active imagination, as it remains on the surface. However associ-ations in relation to the image might lead to active imagination.

The embodied image is different because, in the process of its creation,something changes. Such a picture may reveal far more than the artistconsciously intended. The image may be aesthetically pleasing and profoundlysymbolic and this may evoke an aesthetic countertransference (Schaverien1995, 1999). Like the art symbol (Langer 1957) no other mode of articula-

tion could convey its meaning. This may be why it is that formulae, such as thetraditional model of picture interpretation discussed by Rosen and hiscolleagues (Rosen et al. 2003) and Furth (1988), may be less helpful than issometimes assumed. Such a method restricts the imaginative capacity of thepsyche by reducing it to a predictable set of rules. In order to convey a sense ofactive imagination through a series of related experiences I turn now to myfinal example. A dream followed by a series of embodied images, reveals activeimagination in motion through different modes of expression. I hope to showhow the process of active imagination generates series of images that could not

have been articulated in any other way.

Vignette 3

Jacquis mother had died suddenly, in her late fifties, when Jacqui was 22. NowJacqui was in her early fifties but she still felt oppressed by her mother. Theinternalized mother dominated her every move and denigrated her attempts towork or make relationships. It was a dream that first set the psyche in motionand revealed just how dominated Jacqui was by this inner world mother.

There were two people in a room; the dreamer was an observer (a third person).A small dog entered it grew smaller and it seemed to be dying Jacqui witnessed this

Figure 1


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146 Joy Schaverien

In the telling she made a new connection; she remembered her mother hadsuch a briefcase. The little dog therefore seemed to be a selfimage. It seemedthat Jacqui felt trapped, locked inside the mothers case (body) and unable to

survive separately.A picture made one month into the analysis further, and graphically, reveals

the power of the presence of the dominating, dead mother. The picture, alandscape, was made after Jacqui returned from a holiday in Egypt where shehad travelled in a boat down the Nile. On her return, she remained soimpressed by the landscape that she had painted it. However she did not showthe picture to me until nearly a year after making it. The transference to hermother was manifest when she told me about it and also in the way, when shedid bring it, that she prefaced showing it by explaining: This is not art therapy

and I am not an artist. This was said in a manner, of some deference, whichseemed to imply you must not judge me too harshly.

She then showed me picture 1 and explained that the river is in the fore-ground and the irrigated fertile land is next to the water. Then behind that, in

the background, is the desert, which is made of hilly sand dunes, looking a bitlike mountains. In the foreground is a boat. As she spoke the picture lay beforeus on the ground and I noticed with an intense, and almost physical, shockthat the sand dunes seemed to suggest a figure. It looked to me like a hugecorpse dominating the landscape. This seemed to fit with the sense I had of hermothers all pervading presence. This Egyptian mummy appeared to be theMummy of Jacqui: dead but dominating her inner world landscape. (Inciden-tally Jacqui always called her mother Mummy.).

I did not immediately point this out to Jacqui as she was showing me alandscape and I did not want to impose what may have been merely my ownviewpoint. However the image persisted and grew stronger, dominating the

Picture 1


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sessions before she was able to return to this image. This echoed the way thatshe would react if material about her mother surfaced in other ways. She was,as she put it, scared to touch it. Gradually she was able to admit that she

could see the picture and its implications.Over time we discussed it and together we began to make the following

sense of it. This image seemed to reveal the archetypal background to her life.The elements in the picture could be understood in the following way: thejourney down the river might be the flow of her lifes journey. The irrigatedpart, closest to the river, was the area where things were functioning well forher; Jacquis job and present family life were satisfactory in many ways. How-ever her life was overshadowed by her general sense of depression and this wasechoed and embodied in the image of the sand dunes. The sand dunes revealed

an immense and overpowering figure which, in this context, could be under-stood to be an archetypal negative maternal presence. This was emphasized bythe boat which resembles a scytheoften a symbol of deaththe deadmother. She could only regard it fleetingly and then put it away again. It was along time before this picture became de-potentiated so that she could look at itwithout the shudder of fear that greeted each new viewing of it.

In order to consider the picture as an embodied image it is worth asking one-self the question Could this be conveyed in any other way? With the diagram-matic image the answer would be yes, like a sign it would demand some extra

verbal explanation. However before an embodied image, such as this, the answeris No. No words could adequately convey the symbolic depth that is attainedthrough this imagethere is little that can be said that would not detract fromthe impact of the image. The picture is its own interpretation and words spokenin relation to it could not add anything significant. In this sense it is a product ofactive imagination within an intensely experienced transference.where the ana-lyst was often experienced as a dominating, feared maternal presence.

This embodied image was also a visual interpretation (Schaverien 1995,p. 166). In order to develop this idea a little I turn again to Wittgenstein (1922)

who describes types of seeing that are relevant in this context. He distinguisheswhat he calls continuous seeing of an aspect from the dawning of an aspectWittgenstein (1958, p. 194). He shows the well-known diagram, which can firstbe seen as a ducks head and subsequently as that of a rabbit (Figure 2).


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148 Joy Schaverien

The picture remains the same but something changes that permits us to seeboth at once. The difference is a perceptual one. First we have continuousseeing, we see the picture as a duck but when it has also been seen as a rabbit,

the other aspect has dawned. Then it is no longer possible to merely view thepicture as a single thingit constantly flips between the two.

This is like the impact of an interpretation in analysis. Once an interpreta-tion has been made and the unconscious significance has become conscioussomething is known and a perceptual transformation takes place. When picturesare involved in analysis there is a more obvious similarity to Wittgensteinsexample. Here a picture, made consciously to depict one thing, is transformedby our perception into something else. This has the effect of an interpretationbut without words. It was thus with the picture of Jacquis mother. By paint-

ing the landscape that she had so enjoyed Jacqui had, quite inadvertently,revealed something profound of her inner world. This image embodied thesource of her depression and, once seen it could never again be unseen. Activeimagination is evident here, not merely in the act of painting, but in the asso-ciations to the image. This experience set in motion a series of pictures, madeover the following months.

Picture 2 is of a tree, which she described as showing her chaos, insecurityand depression on one side, and the lively part of her life on the other. It showsthe distorted growth that had emerged as a result of her parental domination

and lack of autonomy. The dominating mother had a brother who wassimple and who was never really able to function in the world. The familyviewed him as rather pathetic and hopeless. At times he was admitted to thelocal psychiatric hospital for in-patient treatment. Jacqui loved him buther fear of her own vulnerability was at times associated with her uncle andat worst she feared that she was mad. This sense of her own vulnerability,associated with the flaw in her family, emerged as a dark area in many of herpaintings.


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In a session, soon after an insight that connected her fear of madness withher beloved uncle she made picture 3, another a painting of a tree. It was animage of growth and she explained how one colour represented the warmth ofher feelings for her uncle. The tree had strong roots and branches, but a darkpatch, which she felt indicated her relationship to her parents, was like a flawthat ran throughout it.

As we looked at the picture a wasp flew into the room. I was distracted by it

and she offered to kill it, saying I am not averse to killing wasps. Then sherecalled that her uncle had a plum tree and her father offered to help him toharvest the fruit. She was about 8, and remembered sitting in the branches ofthe tree eating plums, and killing wasps, whilst her father and uncle workedtogether. This was a rare and precious happy memory of her relationship withthese two men: her father and her uncle. Symbolically it seemed to integratethe vulnerable uncle with the image of her father and a positive aspect of herkilling wasps aggression.

This was memory rather than strictly active imagination but it was gener-

ated by the act of painting the tree. The amplification of the material related tothe pictures seemed to lead to significant psychological shifts. This was activeimagination in that it was achieved through a lowering of consciousness andkind of diffuse viewing, which permitted previously unconscious material toemerge. Moreover, within the transference, her offer to kill the wasp could beunderstood to have indicated her ability to take charge and to find autonomy.Perhaps this occurred through identification with a benign image of the paternal:the combined father and uncle image that permitted her to indulge in eatingplums and killing wasps.

Conclusion

Picture 3


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150 Joy Schaverien

pictorial images have their own distinct nature. Within the transferenceand countertransference dynamic there is a difference when these are merelyimaginative acts and those times when they manifest as, or evoke, active

imagination.Active imagination, experienced as visualization, may be very real and may

have a compelling life of its own. Like dreams, such experiences are totallysubjective and, no matter how real, they are ultimately elusive, transient andcan only be communicated if translated into the shared medium of spokenlanguage. There is no public manifestation of an imagined event. Howevervisualizations and dreams can sometimes be conveyed in pictures and, unlikemental imagery or dreams, art objects have a real, concrete, existence in thepublic arena. A picture is an object offered for the shared gaze and therefore it

may be a bridge between inner and outer, between private and public experience.I hope to have shown how the process of experiencing active imagination, andthe products created through it, are significant; they affect and are influencedby the transference and the countertransference.

TRANSLATIONSOF ABSTRACT

Le terme imagination active est parfois utilis de faon plutt indtermine pour dcrire

toutes formes dactivit cratrice dans la psychologie des profondeurs. Bien quil y aiten effet de nombreuses formes dexpression qui activent ou sont actives par limagin-ation active, celles-ci ne peuvent pas pour autant tre automatiquement classes commetant de limagination active. Larticle explore le rve veill, les rves nocturnes et lesproductions artistiques faisant apparatre trois formes dactivit psychologique basesur la production dimage. Il est avanc que lengagement dans limagination active,lorsquil est intgr dans et mdiatis par la dynamique du transfert et contre transfert,reflte et est influenc par le transfert. Les distinctions faites entre signe et symbole,rves simples et grands rves, imagerie schmatique ou applique permettent de clarifierles diffrences. Des exemples cliniques sont utiliss pour montrer chaque mode enaction dans le cadre analytique.

Der Begriff Aktive Imagination wird manchmal ziemlich unkritisch angewendet, umalle mglichen Formen kreativer Aktivitt zu beschreiben, die in der Tiefenpsycho-logie angewendet werden. Wenn es auch viele Ausdrucksformen gibt, welche dieAktive Imagination hervorrufen, oder von ihr hervorgerufen werden, so kann mansie doch nicht automatisch als Aktive Imagination einstufen. In diesem Artikel zeigtdie Untersuchung von vorgestellten mentalen Bildern, Trumen und Kunst drei

unterschiedene Formen psychischer Aktivitt, die auf bildlichem Ausdruck beruhen.Integriert und vermittelt innerhalb der bertragungs- und Gegenbertragungsdynamik, wird vermutet, dass die Beschftigung mit Aktiver Imagination die bertra-


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geben einen lebendigen Eindruck der unterschiedlichen Modi innerhalb desanalytischen Rahmens.

Il termine immaginazione attiva a volte utilizzato in modo acritico per descrivere tuttele forme di attivit creative che trovano posto nella psicologia del profondo. Mentre cisono molte forme espressive che evocano o vengono evocate dallimmaginazione attiva,queste non possono essere automaticamente classificate come immaginazione attiva. Inquesto articolo lindagine sullimmagine mentalmente visualizzata, sui sogni e sullarterivela tre distinte forme di attivit psicologica basata sullimmagine. Integrata e mediataallinterno della dinamica transferale e controtransferale, si ipotizza che limpiegodellimmaginazione attiva riflette il transfert ed da esso influenzato. Le differenzevengono chiarite facendo distinzioni tra segno e simbolo, tra sogni semplici e grandi

sogni e anche tra immagini diagrammatiche e incarnate. Esempi tratti dalla praticaclinica dimostrano come ciascun modo agisca allinterno della cornice analitica.

El trmino imaginacin activa se usa con frecuencia en indiscriminadamente paradescribir todas las formas creativas que ocurren en psicologa profunda. Aun cuandohay muchas formas expresivas que evocan o son evocadas por la imaginacin activa,ellas no pueden ser clasificadas automticamente como imaginacin activa. En este art-culo la investigacin de la imaginera visual mental, sueo y arte revela tres manerasdistintas de la actividad psicolgica basada en la imagen. Integrada y mediada dentro

de la dinmica de la transferencia y la contratransferencia, se propone que la conexincon la imaginacin activa refleja y es influenciada por la transferencia. La distincinentre signo y smbolo, pequeos y grandes sueos as como entre imaginera diagram-tica y corporeizada clarifican las diferencias. Con ejemplos de la prctica clnica sedemuestran los modos de accin dentro del marco analtico.

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Art, Dreams and Active Imagination