A Visionary’s Imagination: C.G. Jung: Art, Active Imagination and the Creative Process

A Visionary’s Imagination: C.G. Jung: Art, Active Imagination and the Creative Process

5 consecutive Wednesdays, 6:00 – 7:30 pm Eastern Time, USA via Zoom
Beginning October 4
Instructor: Maria Taveras, LCSW

7.5 CE contact hours for licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists.

This course will contrast the Freudian aesthetic based on free association with a Jungian aesthetic based on active imagination.

Active imagination is perhaps the most radical innovation of Jungian psychology.  In contrast to free association, which is a passive process, active imagination is a process in which the ego actively evokes images from the unconscious and actively engages those images.  Whereas free association is an interior monologue (a dictation from the unconscious to the ego), active imagination is an interior dialogue (a conversation between the ego and the unconscious).

The most famous example of the Freudian aesthetic is surrealism.  “Surrealism,” Andre Breton says, “is based on the belief in the superior reality of repressed associations.”  It was possible for the surrealists to articulate a Freudian aesthetic because Freud’s writings on free association were available in the first quarter of the twentieth century.  In contrast, Jung’s writings on active imagination were unavailable at that time.  The Transcendent Function, although written in 1916, was not published until 1957; Memories, Dreams, Reflections was not published until 1961, and The Red Book was not published until 2009.

Jung was influenced by visual art works as a young man and by his encounter and relationship to Modern Art.  “At one time I took a great interest in art. I painted myself, sculpted and did wood carving. I have a certain sense of color.  When modern art came on the scene, it presented a great psychological problem for me.  I wrote about Picasso and Joyce.  I recognized there something which is very unpopular, namely the very thing which confronts me in my patients.”

Thus, it seems as though the individual psyche expresses itself in relation to the emotional experiences of the ego and/or a priori, the ego in relationship to the archetype. The particular visual forms of expression have their own personality (language, mannerisms and personal characteristics) unique to the autonomous psyche.  The Art of the personality is its expression in thoughts, ideas, emotions, behaviors, instincts, and the senses.

The creative dialogue between the ego and the unconscious and archetypal is an important factor in the creative process since the affect laden ego mixes with the archetypal unconscious to create the artistic product. By creating art out of their own active imagination, dreams, visions, images, dance, or writings, participants will directly embody the relation between art and psyche and then have an opportunity to share with other participants their uniquely personal experience of the creative process.

Learning Objectives:

On completion of this class, you will be able to:

  1. Discuss the practical, clinical value of the theoretical difference between Freud’s technique of free association and Jung’s method of active imagination.
  2. Explain clinically how to apply Jung’s method of internal dialogue between the ego and images that emerge spontaneously, autonomously, and purposively from the unconscious to enable clients to experience their psyche
  3. Develop a general knowledge of Jung’s relationship with his imagination.
  4. Describe the difference between being an “Artist” and the Artist within.
  5. Learn how to employ Jung’s method of Active Imagination in order to induce in clients an altered state of consciousness so that they can access the archetype of creativity within the unconscious.

LOCATION

Please download the Zoom program in advance of the first class session at Zoom.us

Program Information

PROGRAM COSTS

$150 per single-day program registration. There are no scholarships available for this program.

YOU DO NOT NEED A PAYPAL ACCOUNT. HERE IS HOW TO PAY WITH CREDIT CARD: On the Paypal login page, look below login fields for a boxed link that reads PAY WITH DEBIT OR CREDITCARD.

PAY ONLINE: YOU DO NOT NEED A PAYPAL ACCOUNT. HERE IS HOW TO PAY WITH A CREDIT CARD: On the Paypal login page, look below login fields for a boxed link that reads PAY WITH DEBIT OR CREDIT CARD.

TUITION

All 5-week courses are $175 for the general public and $150 for members.

REGISTRATION

The full fee must be paid at the time of registration. Please register through the payment buttons on this website.

$175 General Public

$150 Members

IMPORTANT NOTES:

When you pay you must also email your current email address and telephone number to the Foundation at cgjungny@aol.com.  The Foundation will send you an email message and you must reply to confirm receipt. If you are taking this course for 7.5 CE contact hours for licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists, please specify which license you hold and give your NYS license number.

 Class size is limited. Early registration is strongly recommended. Refunds for continuing education courses, less $15 for administrative services, will be made up to seven days before the first session. There will be no refunds issued after classes have begun. No exceptions will be made. Programs are subject to change without notice.

FACULTY

Mary Apikos, MA, taught at Parsons School of Design NYC for 17 years. She taught inter-disciplinary courses about aspects of design culture that fell through the cracks to people who fell through the cracks. She is ABD in Cultural Anthropology from CUNY Graduate Center and has worked as an ethnographic textile conservator at the Museum of the American Indian, George Heye Foundation NYC and in private practice where she specialized in the care of sacred materials. In 2022 Mary completed a one-year remote applied arts program at the Centre for Applied Jungian Studies in South Africa. She is a working artist and currently resides in Chicago. Her work can be seen on her website maryapikos.com

Maxson J. McDowell, PhD, LMSW, LP, is a senior Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City.  Former President of the C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, he is also a longtime faculty member. He has taught courses in dream interpretation online and in person for over 25 years.  He has published papers on dream interpretation, Jungian psychology, narcissistic injury, systems theory and autism.

Bob Piller, JD, is a retired public interest lawyer with a lifelong interest in the study of the alchemical and esoteric works of Carl Jung, those who influenced Jung, and others who were influenced by him.   Since 2016, he delved deeply into Jungian inspired literature and Jean Gebser’s explorations of consciousness.  Inspired by the significance of Gebser’s genius and contributions, he designed and led a seminar program on Gebserian consciousness and its important and coherent relationship with Jung’s understanding of soul and access to the unconscious.  In 2023, he designed and led a seminar program that focused the unity of the physical body and consciousness in the context of Gebserian consciousness, and how integral consciousness impacts freedom and morality.

David Rottman, MA, is past President of the C.G. Jung Foundation and is a member of the Jung Foundation’s Continuing Education Faculty. He is the author of The Career as a Path to the Soul. He was the editor and publisher for The Way of the Image by Yoram Kaufmann. In private practice, he works with people from the US and many other countries.

Maria Taveras, LCSW, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City.  She is also an award-winning creator of Dream Art.  She creates art from images in her own dreams and is the recipient of two Gradiva Awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis for her Dream Art.  Her Dream Art has been exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Berkeley, London, Montreal, and Cape Town.

 

 


With the exception of the course on Jung and Gebser, these are online courses, given through the program Zoom. Please download the Zoom program in advance of the first class session at Zoom.us

The Jung and Gebser course is given in-person only at the Jung Center, 28 East 39th Street, NYC.


IMPORTANT NOTES

When you pay you must also email your current email address and telephone number to the Foundation at cgjungny@aol.com.
The Foundation will send you an email message and you must reply to confirm receipt. If you are taking this course for 7.5 CE contact hours for licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists, please specify which license you hold and give your NYS license number.

 Class size is limited. Early registration is strongly recommended. Refunds for continuing education courses, less $15 for administrative services, will be made up to seven days before the first session. There will be no refunds issued after classes have begun. No exceptions will be made. Programs are subject to change without notice.  These programs will not be recorded.


For more information, call or write:

Office of the Executive Director
The C.G. Jung Foundation of New York
28 East 39th Street
New York, New York 10016
Telephone: (212) 697-6430
Email: cgjungny@aol.com
Web address: www.cgjungny.org
Like us @facebook.com/cgjungny
Follow us @twitter.com/cgjungny


 

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Continuing Education Fall 2022, Continuing Education Spring 2023