Alchemy, Creativity, Active Imagination, Transference: how do they hang together?
Jung found the process of active imagination portrayed in the approach of the old alchemists to their material, working in their laboratories. The alchemists studied their observations and documented their ‘art’ or ‘philosophy,’ trying to come to an understanding of what they were doing. This made Jung realize that they were aware of the fact that their ‘gold-making’ was a psychological process.
The vas symbolizes the containing function. This does not refer only to the physical container but also to the meditative attitude to the work, ‘holding it in one’s thoughts,’ so to speak. Without the containing vas, the mercurial substance, the unfolding volatile process, will continue to dissolve. Without this containment there can be no coniunctio and no symbol, the work of the transcendent function. [1]
The transcendent function was an early concept which Jung later developed into his concept of the Self. Active imagination, in all its forms, was seen as the method.[2] In his paper, The Transcendent Function (1916, reworked in 1958)[3], Jung widened his original approach to active imagination to include many forms of creative expression.
In my creative approach to the unconscious, the creative space, like the vas, takes on this role of on-going containment. The space is formed, not only by the physical space and the medium, but even more so by one’s relationship to one’s inner world and one’s attitude to the creative process.
By projecting one’s mood, one ‘heats’ the work. One notes the unfolding of the image, the work, while staying with the energy; one continues to project psychic content by living with the image, paying attention to new insights and emotions, an ongoing dialogue; one endeavors to find how it is meaningful and how it wants to enter one’s life.
This special way of concentrated looking and of projecting inner content involve more than mere looking at. Jung used the word betrachten, which means ‘to look at’ but also ‘to make pregnant.'[4] We make it pregnant with material from the unconscious. Then we can see it and be influenced by it, make it conscious.
Jan Wiener finds her own understanding of the countertransference process reflected in this process. She refers to Jung’s use of the words geschehen lassen, or ‘to let it happen, to allow, to be receptive to the other,’ as the analyst’s attitude toward and involvement with the patient. Betrachten is the mutual projection of unfolding unconscious content, and sich auzeindersetzen is to come to terms with it, finding meaning.[5]
This is certainly also true of the unfolding process of the transference, both in a single session and from one session to the next, where the analytical third or the symbol or the divine child is slowly taking shape. This cannot be attributed only to the contribution of the therapist/analyst, for both therapist and patient are present in this container of the therapeutic relationship, consciously as well as unconsciously. Both are projecting, ‘looking at it,’ and both are trying to make sense of what is happening.
To me it is obvious that the creative process, when approached in the way I suggest, dovetails with the therapeutic process, each enriching the other. Although this relational creative process is enriching and supportive in its own right, it can only really come into its own when integrated into a therapeutic relationship.
References:
[1] Jung, CG. Collective Works 12 par 342 – 400.
[2] Chodorow, Joan. (1997). Encountering Jung, Jung On Active Imagination, Princeton University Press, NY. P. 5.
[3] Jung, CG. The Structure And Dynamics Of The Psyche, Collective Works 8, par 131 – 193.
[4] Chodorow 1997 p. 7. (Quoting Jung, CG, Interpretation Of Visions, Mimeographed Notes By Mary Foote, 1941.)
[5] Wiener, J. (2009). The Transference Relationship: Transference, Countertransference And The Making Of Meaning. Manufactured in the USA. P. 72 – 3.
