Jungian Psychotherapy: between the symbolic and the imagination

What does the psychotherapy proposed by Carl Gustav Jung consist of?

One does not reach enlightenment by fantasizing about the light but by making the darkness conscious.

-Carl Jung

Within the different psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic schools that emerged from the approaches of Sigmund Freud, and which are sometimes encompassed under the term of depth psychology (psychoanalysis, Adler's individual psychology and Jungian analytical psychology) share the premise of the existence of a psychic substratum containing a psychic substratum containing unconscious factors that condition and determine the ways of thinking, feeling and acting of individuals..

The unconscious: repressed desires and collective patterns.

For Freudian psychoanalysis, the unconscious is a conglomerate of fantasies and desires that have been repressed by the individual in the process of adaptation to the social environment.. Therefore, it refers to contents related to the personal history of the individual, giving special relevance to the memory linked to parental figures.

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, creator of analytical psychology, agrees in part with this assumption, but suggests that in addition to biographical contents, it is also possible to identify the unconscious in the unconscious, it is also possible to identify elements in the unconscious that are part of the phylogenetic history of humanity.. He then proposes that in addition to the personal unconscious, there is a collective unconscious composed of prototypes of experiences and behaviors shared by all human beings as a species.

Archetypes in the collective unconscious

These patterns of behavior, which Jung called archetypes, are closely related to the instincts, insofar as they operate as stimuli that compel us to perform certain behaviors and promote reactions in us. operate as stimuli that compel us to perform certain behaviors and promote typical reactions to various circumstances in our life (emancipating ourselves from our parents typical reactions to various circumstances of our life (emancipation from parents, forming a family, having offspring, seeking a livelihood, appropriating a territory, participating in the collective, transforming the social order, death).

Unlike instincts, which are drives with a relatively closed and concrete circuit of realization, archetypes behave in an open and symbolic way; however, their non-fulfillment is alsoHowever, their non-fulfillment is also a source of discomfort and frustration.

Jung states that it is possible to infer the existence of archetypes from their manifestations, one of which are the typical dramatic images and structures that can be found, with different cultural clothing, in mythological and fantastic narratives from different places and times.

Myths show us how humanity has faced different critical situations, and although some of them are thousands of years old, they continue to resonate and have an impact on our psyche since the challenges to which they allude continue to accompany us.

Jung emphasizes that it is not possible on many occasions to adduce direct or indirect contact between peoples to explain the structural similarities of myths. It is also relevant that these dramas and typical characters also arise spontaneously in delusions and psychotic hallucinations, as well as in altered states of consciousness as an effect of meditative practices or by the ingestion of psychedelic substances. Some dreams whose contents cannot be related to biographical aspects can also be an expression of archetypal images.

The archetype of the solar hero

Freud and Jung not only diverged because of their different conceptions regarding the unconscious, but also because of their approaches to the nature by their approaches to the nature of the fundamental energy that moves human beings: the libido.the libido.

As is well known, the libido is, according to Freud, of a sexual character, while for Jung, the sexual is only one of the manifestations of a much broader and more comprehensive vital energy. Jung describes the libido then as a creative energy, which is the origin and motor of the universe.. This energy manifests itself in human beings as a yearning for transcendence, for fulfillment, for the expansion of consciousness. Jung found that this process of manifestation and unfolding of vital energy is mythically manifested through the archetype of the solar hero. This archetype is the prototype of many ancient and contemporary stories in which the transformation of the hero is narrated (The Odyssey, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings)

Through a series of journeys and adventures (setting out on a journey, fighting the dragon, descent into hell, death, rebirth), and the encounter and confrontation with other archetypes (shadow, animus- anima, wise old man, the great mother) the hero enters into relationship with the forces of the underworld (the unconscious), finds the treasure sought and returns to his place of origin to share the "light", the wisdom, with his people.

Jung proposes to understand this mythical structure as a projection of a psychic process of transformation and evolution to which all human beings are called.. Each human soul is confronted with a series of circumstances that lead it to manifest its vocation, its particular calling, its singular contribution to the collective, to the world. It manifests itself as a yearning for knowledge, for self-improvement, for wholeness. I call this evolutionary path the process of individuation and it is also considered as a symbol of the gradual transformation of the ego in its confrontation and adaptation to the forces of the unconscious and the external world.

The affective complexes

The archetypes are humanized in individuals from what Jung called the personal affective complexes. personal affective complexes. The complexes, besides being imbued by the archetypes, are nourished by our personal experiences, are nourished by our personal experiences. They can be considered as a set of images and representations, affectively charged, around a common theme (relationship with the father or mother, power, eroticism, etc.).

Different circumstances of our life constellate, that is to say, make a certain complex more relevant. A constellated complex alters our conscious perception and will, tinging it with the traces of the corresponding archetypes added to previous experiences with respect to the same subject matter. Ancient demonic possessions and multiple personality disorders are expressions of highly constellated complexes. In these cases they behave as massive invasions of the unconscious that oppress and override ego and consciousness functions.

The complexes express themselves in our psyche as compulsions, needs, points of view, emotional reactions, feelings of admiration or disproportionate contempt, obsessive ideas. They have the faculty to personify themselves in our dreams, and to generate events and circumstances in the physical world with analogous meanings (somatizations, accidents, encounters with people, repetition of a finished type of relationship). The capacity of externalization of archetypes and complexes is the basis of the phenomenon described by Jung as synchronicity.

Affective complexes are considered the constitutive particles of the unconscious psyche and therefore are not only part of the field of psychopathology.. They function as if our house were inhabited by pets, that if we ignore or neglect them, sooner or later they will end up going against us causing us multiple havoc. The alternative is to get in contact with them, to pay attention to their needs, so that with time and effort we can somehow tame them, and even make use of their potential resources. The unconscious, whether we want it or not, is going to act in us, so the most appropriate thing to do is to enter into its mysteries.

This dialogue with our complexes, with our inner characters, which as we have seen are the expression of the drama towards the realization of our deepest self, requires the deployment of a symbolic attitude through imagination and creativity.

Imagination and creativity as a dialogue with the unconscious

Imagination has been reviled by rationalist and materialist thought since the Enlightenment, considering it of no value for obtaining valid and productive knowledge. Jung, however, joins the hermetic and phenomenological current that recognizes the realm of the imaginary. the realm of the imaginary, in which myths, dreams and fantasies are included, as elements that allow us to access the as elements that allow access to the paradoxical complexity of the psyche, to the depths of human nature and above all to that other sublime reality that inhabits and conditions us.

Imagination

The imagination is recognized as having the symbolic property of uniting and reconciling polarities; of expressing, suggesting and evoking the ungraspable; of comprehensively approaching unclassifiable phenomena through concept and rationality. The analyst James Hillman proposes the imagination as the language of the soul.

The imaginary manifests itself spontaneously in dreams and that is why its interpretation is a fundamental part of Jungian psychotherapy. Also It is also possible to artificially induce the imaginary in the therapeutic space through the technique of the active imagination. This consists in giving the opportunity to express the contents of the unconscious, making use of its capacity for personification.

It is then proposed to enter in contact with our inner characters, to listen to them with attention and rigor, interacting and conversing with them as if they were real entities.

Ways of approaching the unconscious

Our inner characters can be evoked through the image of a dream, an intense emotion, a symptom. Each of us possesses a modality that facilitates such communication. Some people can hear voices, or perceive inner images, some express themselves through body movements in a kind of dance. For others, contact with the unconscious is possible through automatic writing, a technique used by the surrealists.

Jung differentiates idle phantasy from active imagination, emphasizing that in the latter, the ego assumes the role of the unconscious. in the latter, the ego assumes an active attitude, that is to say, it does not passively and submissively obey the voices and images of the unconscious, but interpellates them.. The active attitude implies supporting and maintaining the tension with the unconscious, allowing what he calls the transcendent function to emerge, that is, a new birth, the emergence of a new attitude, the product of this confrontation.

The transcendent function of the psyche is that which makes possible the reconciliation of apparently irreconcilable opposites. It is the emergence of a third element or perspective, which includes and integrates the elements that have been in dispute. It is a process of conflict, negotiation and transitory agreements.

The technique of active imagination is usually used in advanced stages of analysis, since it requires a structured ego that supports the tension of the opposites and does not succumb to dissociation or identification with some of the contents of the unconscious.

Jung emphasizes that taking the unconscious seriously does not mean taking it literally, but rather giving it credit, giving it the opportunity to cooperate with consciousness, instead of automatically disturbing it. This cooperation of the unconscious is related to the self-regulatory principle of the psyche. self-regulating principle of the psychea fundamental concept in the Jungian perspective.

Imagination as a facilitator of the self-regulatory mechanism of the psyche

The psyche is posited as a dynamic system of opposing forces (conscious-unconscious, progression-progression of the libido, matter-logos), with an intrinsic tendency to maintain a balance. This self-regulating mechanism implies a permanent interplay of compensation and complementarity between the psychic components.

The state of psychic equilibrium is regularly altered by stimuli coming from the lability of the internal and external world. This alteration demands modifications tending to adapt to the new requirements, promoting in the psyche a transformation to increasingly complex and integral stages. to stages of ever greater complexity and integrality. Neurotic symptoms (obsessions, depression, anxiety, accidents, somatizations, repetition of relationship patterns, self-sabotage) are an expression of an attempt of the unconscious psyche in search of this higher equilibrium state. An attempt to create consciousness out of stumbling blocks.

The dialogue with the unconscious psyche through the imagination allows the self-regulating mechanism of the psyche to act without the need to resort to symptomatic phenomena. It is in a way to anticipate the events and to avoid that Jungian sentence by which, "everything that is not done consciously will be lived on the outside as a destiny".

Self-regulation: one of the keys to the unconscious.

The self-regulating mechanism of the psyche is referred to by the analyst James Hillman as our inner daimon. With this Hellenic concept, he intends to allude to that force that leads us by hook or by crook to express our vocation, our particular calling.. Imagination and creativity are a means then to interpret the winks of destiny, the signs of our daimon.

The development of the symbolic attitude that Jungian psychotherapy seeks to foster through imagination allows us to escape from the narrow literalness of facts. It gives us access to paradoxical subaltern logics. It links us with the profound polysemy of events through symbols, analogies and correspondences.

The symbolic attitude also broadens our sensitivity and readiness to respond constructively to everything that the diversity of life summons us to do. and to integrate and coexist with our dark aspects. Dialogue with the unconscious allows us to become co-creators of our reality and not simple slaves or victims of circumstances.