Interdisciplinary Understandings of Active Imagination The Special Legacy of C.G. Jung

List of Contributors

1. Active Imagination: The Special Legacy of C.G. Jung 

Chiara Tozzi

2. The Origin and History of Embodied Active Imagination: Authentic Movement Through the Life and Work of its Early Pioneers

Karin Fleischer

3. Active Imagination "When the Vague Images of the Psyche, Can Be Touched Whit the Finger"

Ana Deligiannis

4. Active Imagination and the Psychic Body

Margarita Méndez

5. A Rite of Passage: Interview with Elsa Piperno.

Chiara Tozzi

6. Active Imagination and Painting: Four Phases to Represent the Possible Similarities and Figurative Expression.

Luca Padroni

7. The Experience of Grace: The Possibility of Transformation in Vladmir Nabokov and Carl Gustav Jung

Chiara Tozzi

8. Imaginations

Dario Voltolini

9. Impalpable and Shooting for the Clouds: Interview with Umberto Contarello

Chiara Tozzi

10. Bridge, Hybrids and Devils: Floating in a Movie with Jung

Mario Sesti

11. Exploring the Active Search for Information During Active Imagination

Gianfranca Nieddu and Irene Cogliatti Dezza

12. Active Imagination and Quantum Entanglement: An Outlook

Emiliano Puddu

13. Intro-Spettro: 64 Acousmatic Examples of Synchronicity

Giacomo Aiolli 

Biography

Chiara Tozzi is a Psychologist and Psychotherapist. She is a Training Analyst and Supervisor of Associazione Italiana di Psicologia Analitica (AIPA) and of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP). She is also a Writer, Screenwriter and Screenwriting Professor. She is Artistic Director of the “Mercurius Prize”, based in Zurich.

"This remarkable and exciting book brings C.G. Jung's Active Imagination to the creative, scientific, spiritual, and transdisciplinary needs of the twenty-first century. Perspicaciously rooted in Jung, the book reinvents the clinical and provides essential steppingstones for those taking this practice into art, philosophy and the synchronistic sciences. With this collection, Chiara Tozzi establishes herself as an important voice in analytical psychology and its multiple capacities to energize knowing and being."

Susan Rowland

"This book offers a series of articles covering a wide scope with the aim of restoring Active Imagination to its rightful place as a significant method to access the unconscious and meaning in Jungian analysis. Active Imagination is a method developed by C.G. Jung which allowed him to access and delve into the images of his inner world and of the unconscious in order to more clearly understand their meaning and significance following the painful separation from Freud in 1913. The images and dialogues that emerged were recorded in the Red Book, which was kept private till its publication in 2019. The novelty of this method and the unusual images that emerged initially created concern in those around Jung and led some to question whether he was not falling into a state of psychosis. In fact, Jung was later very clear that it was precisely the use of Active Imagination and of the powerful images and dialogues that emerged as a result that enlightened him and led to a more profound understanding of the unconscious and of its archetypal contents. One of the legacies of the history of these early years is that there remains a lingering skepticism or mistrust with regard to the use and validity of Active Imagination. As a result, other than in training programs in Zurich, Active Imagination is often not given much attention. The editor of this book Chiara Tozzi sets out to address this lacuna and to restore Active Imagination to its rightful place as an invaluable avenue to access a living experience of psyche and of the unconscious in a personal manner. She manages this by bringing to the table, contributions from esteemed Jungian analysts who descrive their use of Active Imagination in clincial practice, which can include dialogues with dream figures, painting, meditation, body movement and dance. In addition, she has included voices from the world of the arts by inviting a director film/critic, a script writer, a professional dancer, a painter, an author, and a musician to reveal, from their unique and personal perspective, the central role that Active Imagination played in giving form to their creativity and of this method as a way of accessing the ephemeral from which meaning can emerge. The result is a wide-ranging collage of personal testimonies that attest to the usefulness of Active Imagination as a way to access the creative and the imaginal, in clinical practice, in their arts and in our daily lives as an avenue to find meaning. This book will appeal not only to analysts, therapists and artists but to everyone interested in their inner world and in creative expression. I highly recommend this book and am confident it will nourish many in their search for access to creativity and meaning in their lives."

Tom Kelly

"The strength of this book lies in its rich tapestry of voices. It is impressive to learn about the applicability of Active Imagination in scientific, artistic, and cultural fields. The editor has masterfully gathered together an exceptional collaboration of authors that offers a multifaceted exploration of Active Imagination, providing readers with a treasure trove of insights and perspectives. Across the two volumes of this book, theory, practice, and research are assembled in a very creative way that includes research, methodology, theory and practice. Readers will find references to personal experiences and practical examples that help us understand the transformative power of Active Imagination as an indispensable attitude and tool in all creative processes and encounters with the unconscious. Real-life applications and personal anecdotes add depth and authenticity to this book. I am sure that Chiara Tozzi's two-volume book on Active Imagination: Active Imagination in Theory, Practice and Training: The Special Legacy of C.G. Jung (vol 1) and Interdisciplinary Understandings of Active Imagination: The Special Legacy of C.G. Jung (vol 2) is a significant contribution that keeps the spark alive of one of C.G. Jung's most important legacies."

Pilar Amezaga

"Chiara Tozzi presents her research on the essential factor in analytical work that makes Jungians unique. Active Imagination is engagement with the psyche that speaks in images from within and from without. In this process one is guided by the wisdom of the Self that moves the development of the personality towards increased consciousness and wholeness. Tozzi clarifies that it is a process specific to the individual rather than a "technique". It furthers engagement with our fears and the unknown leading to the Transcendent Function that results in profound changes in our personality. Conversely though, it is this hard work and frightening engagement that deter many from its use. This book challenges us with a reminder of C.G. Jung's deeply effective creative path to healing."

Nancy Swift Furlotti