Glossary: Active imagination

A method of contacting unconscious contents using art, dance, visualization, etc. Used as a means of bringing unconscious contents into consciousness and integrating them into oneself. By focusing on an affect or image from a dream, one directs one’s energy into the image or affect. Eventually, the image begins to act on its own and one is able to interact with the autonomous content. The purpose of this activity is to give these unconscious parts of the personality a way to be brought into a relationship with the conscious self.

Although, to a certain extent, he looks on from outside, impartially, he is also an acting and suffering figure in the drama of the psyche. This recognition is absolutely necessary and marks an important advance… [I]f you recognize your own involvement you yourself must enter into the process with your personal reactions, just as if you were one of the fantasy figures, or rather, as if the drama being enacted before your eyes were real.

-"The Conjunction," CW 14, par. 753

Although one can practice active imagination 'cold', most people do because, like Jung, they are faced with psychological distress. Paradoxically, the distress provides the best opportunity to practice active imagination, rather like an ailment containing its own cure. Jung suggests taking a bad mood, and focusing on it, making it as conscious as possible. This crystallizes it into a symbol, fantasy image, or some other representation, achieving an "enrichment and clarification of the affect" (emotion). The unconscious seeks consciousness and Jung discovered that "as soon as the image was there, the unrest or sense of oppression vanished." "The whole energy of these emotions," Jung says, "was transformed into interest in and curiosity about the image." With no exaggeration, focusing on his dark moods and transforming them into inner images saved Jung from madness.

- Gary Lachman, "Jung's Active Imagination", (Reality Sandwich)

Links:

Jung's Active Imagination, Gary Lachman (Reality Sandwich)

Active Imagination, Lawrence H. Staples. Ph.D., PsyA. (Jung Society of Washington)

Active Imagination, Robin Robertson

Jungian Active Imagination & Hypnagogia (The Mystical Experience Registry)

Carl Jung's Active Imagination (Hypnosis Alliance Network)

Glossary: Absolute knowledge

Knowledge received neither from the senses nor based on reason but received directly from the unconscious. Acausal and not limited by time or space. Commonly makes its appearance in instances of constellation, such as synchronicity.

Glossary: Abaissement du niveau mental

I'm starting a series of posts with short descriptions of common and important concepts in Jungian psychology. Here's the first one!


Abaissement du niveau mental

A slackness and relaxation of consciousness characterized by lack of attention and an inability to concentrate. Can occur spontaneously in mental illness, or it can be cultivated, as in active imagination, or the use of certain drugs. In such a state it’s easy for unconscious contents to emerge; as such, it’s important that the ego is strong enough to withstand the onslaught. An abaissement du niveau mental can lead to an enantiodromia, as the ego can no longer keep opposites apart. Such experiences require reflection and analysis to successfully integrate the unconscious contents. Also referred to archaically as “loss of soul”. (See also libido, depression, regression, and active imagination.)

It is a slackening of the tensity of consciousness, which might be compared to a low barometric reading, presaging bad weather. The tonus has given way, and this is felt subjectively as listlessness, moroseness, and depression. One no longer has any wish or courage to face the tasks of the day. One feels like lead, because no part of one's body seems willing to move, and this is due to the fact that one no longer has any disposable energy… The listlessness and paralysis of will can go so far that the whole personality falls apart, so to speak, and consciousness loses its unity…

Abaissement du niveau mental can be the result of physical and mental fatigue, bodily illness, violent emotions, and shock, of which the last has a particularly deleterious effect on one's self-assurance. The abaissement always has a restrictive influence on the personality as a whole. It reduces one's self-confidence and the spirit of enterprise, and, as a result of increasing egocentricity, narrows the mental horizon

- Jung, "Concerning Rebirth," CW 9i, pars. 213f

The piggish, Trumpian animus

Overeating, bulimia, and other eating disorders are the woman's reaction to the internalized bad father. She wants to nourish herself, feed herself. To give life and love to herself (that's what the kitchen is in the unconscious; the place where nourishment is made by someone's hands, with their love).

This is why so many women have emotional and digestive disorders. The only way for the feminine to fight this aspect of the masculine is to pull away from it, to abandon him, to deprive him of any sustenance. It's why he's so ravenous, so rape-full of everything he desires, like a piggishly greedy spoiled little boy. This is why such men are insatiable in their childish neediness; they get no real nourishment. Like irate babies they fling their food on the floor and scream and throw temper tantrums. What need did they never get fulfilled, that they scour the earth hungrily for anything to stem the tide of hunger that gnaws at their ribs, any sort of satisfaction, even if it’s only temporary (satisfaction that he, of course, denies her.) Not that he consciously denies her (although sometimes he does), it’s more that he neither knows nor cares what she thinks, because he neither knows nor cares what anyone thinks about him. He is one of those ones who deep inside is a retarded, shit covered little child, alone in the center of a vast, empty nothingness. This is why they do what they do. The only possible solution is to create a world in which they never have the ability to hurt others or to cause them any suffering. Maybe they can be reached, maybe they can't. But they should never be free to hurt others with impunity.

It's also why we women tend to love cats and their feminine nature. A cat just wants pleasure, and maybe some affection (ok, lots of affection). To care for a cat, whether in a dream or in your life, is to care for your sensual, affectionate, pleasure-loving femininity. It’s very healing, especially when dealing with the brutal Animus.

Possession by the anima/us

Possession caused by the anima or animus presents a different picture. . . . In the state of possession both figures lose their charm and their values; they retain them only when they are turned away from the world, in the introverted state, when they serve as bridges to the unconscious. Turned towards the world, the anima is fickle, capricious, moody, uncontrolled and emotional, sometimes gifted with daemonic intuitions, ruthless, malicious, untruthful, bitchy, double-faced, and mystical. The animus is obstinate, harping on principles, laying down the law, dogmatic, world-reforming, theoretic, word-mongering, argumentative, and domineering. Both alike have bad taste: the anima surrounds herself with inferior people, and the animus lets himself be taken in by second-rate thinking.

Jung, The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious

The cutting Animus

It always boils down to love or power – it’s always one or the other. The masculine way is to count, measure, judge, and compare. This is the abstraction of power. It’s always about length, it’s always a number. It’s always about who’s better. There’s always a winner. There’s always a loser. This is the dark side of the masculine, whether within or without.

When this is applied to love, it’s a disaster; you end up with the Trump-like measuring love. “You’re too skinny. You’re not skinny enough. Your butts too small. Your butts too big. Your boobs are too saggy. Your skin is too dark. You’re just not good enough.” Whether it’s said by the man within or the one without, it destroys love.

The masculine that’s trapped in power can never find real love, only the caricature of love. It never fills you up, but only creates an empty bottomless hole that eats and eats and eats up the world, devours the world. It’s Fenris, the rage filled monster wolf who eats the whole world. When the masculine is trapped in this, he’s possessed by the Wolf. The negative masculine is The Destroyer of Worlds.

Love doesn’t count, it doesn’t measure, it doesn’t judge, and it doesn’t compare. Love connects, heart to heart and soul to soul. It can’t compare because it sees your utter uniqueness. It doesn’t measure because it sees your absolute worth. Love loves you, flaws and all. Love loves your flaws; your flaws make you you. Love is a garden, a paradise. The masculine can only love when it hurts him to judge. Love can only be when power is forsaken, overwhelmed by love. Love is a gift; you can open yourself up to it, create a comfortable home for it, invite it in. Like a bird it may come and grace your heart with its beauty.

The challenge of the masculine is to learn how to love; to truly love is the man’s bridge to God/dess.

Dark Animus or bright?

Within her, the Animus possessed woman has two opposing forces, being the Animus and the negative Anima (her inferior shadow perception of herself). These two forces in her can balance each other out by pitching them against each other.

Let the dark animus fight with the shadow.

The reason the anima of the animus is the same as one's shadow is because it calls in the bright side of the animus. As long as one is consciously involved with the dark animus, the bright animus can't reach you. He stays in the unconscious, being tormented by your shadow as you are tormented by the dark animus.

http://appliedjung.com/animus-possession/

Not scholarliness, but a knowledge of the heart

Dreams are the guiding words of the soul. Why should I henceforth not love my dreams and not make their riddling images into objects of my daily consideration? You think that the dream is foolish and ungainly. What is beautiful? What is ungainly? What is clever? What is foolish? The spirit of this time is your measure, but the spirit of the depths surpasses it at both ends.

Dreams pave the way for life, and they determine you without you understanding their language. One would like to learn this language, but who can teach and learn it? Scholarliness alone is not enough; there is a knowledge of the heart that gives deeper insight.

But how can I attain the knowledge of the heart? You can attain this knowledge only by living your life to the full. You live your life fully if you also live what you have never lived, but have left for others to live or think. You will say: "But I cannot live or think everything that others live or think." But you should say: "The life that I could still live I should live and the thoughts that I could still think, I should think."

- C. G. Jung, The Red Book (p. 133)

The Integrated Animus

The “soul” which accrues to ego-consciousness during the opus has a feminine character in the man and a masculine character in a woman. His anima wants to reconcile and unite; her Animus tries to discern and discriminate.

- Jung (The Psychology of the Transference,” par. 522.)

Within her, the Animus possessed woman has two opposing forces, being the Animus and the negative Anima (her inferior shadow perception of herself). These two forces in her can balance each other out by pitching them against each other. Through this conflict between her shadow and her Animus, she can make the connections within herself and the world. This is the power of the integrated Animus – consciousness and a connection with herself, her passions and her values.


The individual breaks through the ready made boundaries of their personality and discovers the forces – archetypes and experiences – which helped form them. The ensuing wrestle with self leads to personal insight into ones own life, and into the collective life of humanity. One gains insight into the collective forces, ideas, dynamics, which direct human life. This is spiritual insight. It enables the individual in some degree to gradually find motivation from other than the urge toward sexual reproduction, social power, aggressive domination and self aggrandisement. It isn’t an easy process, but a new type of person emerges from the work.

…If one is to mature and grow as a person, the childlike dependencies and angers, the blaming and the idolisation must be met and transformed. In doing so one is led into, or uncovers, a wealth of experience within oneself that was previously unconscious. Out of this maturing and growing process the images of the anima as guide and initiator have arisen. All must meet themselves in one way or another in the process of maturing, just as we all dealt with emerging sexuality in one way or another in adolescence.


The positive animus shows as the man who solves problems, shows how things work, exhibits love despite trials, and is the deliverer from death. P. W. Martin says that more than anything else the animus figure has two characteristic marks: energy and ambivalence…

It shows the woman integrating her own ability to be independent and capable in outwardly active terms. This makes her more whole, balancing her ‘female’ qualities… It also brings a sense of connectedness between her conscious self and what she senses as the ‘commercial’ world.

If she realises who and what her animus is and what he does to her, and if she faces these realities instead of allowing herself to be possessed, her animus can turn into an invaluable inner companion who endows her with the masculine qualities of initiative, courage, objectivity, and spiritual wisdom.


The animus in his most developed form sometimes connects the woman’s mind with the spiritual evolution of her age, and can thereby make her even more receptive than a man to new creative ideas. It is for this reason that in earlier times women were used by many nations as diviners and seers. The creative boldness of their positive animus at times expresses thoughts and ideas that stimulate men to new enterprises


An integrated Animus allows the woman to be actively and creatively enterprising. This woman is able to take up new ideas and new movements and they often are at the forefront of the new zeitgeist.

1) Anja van Kralingen (Center of Applied Jungian Studies)
http://appliedjung.com/animus-possession/

2) Tony Crisp
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/archetype-of-the-anima-jungs-view-of-the-female-in-the-male/

The Dark Animus

Whenever [the] drive for wholeness appears, it begins by disguising itself under the symbolism of incest, for, unless he seeks it in himself, a man’s nearest feminine counterpart is to be found in his mother, sister, or daughter. [“The Psychology of the Transference,” CW 16, par. 471.]

https://carljungdepthpsychology.wordpress.com/category/incest/


My father had forever deserted me, leaving me only memories which set an eternal barrier between me and my fellow creatures … [His] unlawful and detestable passion has poured its poison into my ears, and changed all my blood, so that it was no longer the kindly stream that supports life but a cold fountain of bitterness corrupted in its very source. It must be the excess of madness that could make me imagine that I could ever be aught but one alone; struck off from humanity; bearing no affinity to man or woman; a wretch on whom Nature had set her ban.

http://www.laurakkerr.com/2013/01/27/loveless-sexual-abuse/


The vampire is a religious figure like the Christian devil, but older than Lucifer, and more truly depicting the dark image of Christ. The vampire myth reverses the symbolism of the Eucharist. Therefore, the Vampire archetype and the Redemptive archetype (Christness) are polar opposites of the same archetypal energy. They emerge from the collective unconscious as a dividable pair. One enters the ego space while the other takes up residence in our personal shadow. Both are great forces which we all must bring to consciousness and confront.

http://jungian.info/library.cfm?idsLibrary=9


The Animus in this woman has one goal, and that is to pull her away from life and cut her off from it. He prevents this woman from entering a spiritual life and keeps her focused on the material physical world… When the feeling life (Eros) is missing, the result is someone who pursues and values only the intellect, resulting in a stiff attitude, lacking warmth and feeling.

Since the Animus involves the Will to Power vs Eros (feeling), facing the Animus head on is futile. The woman must cleverly outwit and avoid him. Women cannot fight the Animus by killing him, they can only catch him and escape. The internal conflict that the Animus creates is overcome by walking out of it.

Being Animus possessed implies inflation, since the Animus is an archetype and belongs to the collective unconscious. The standards used by the Animus are collective standards and no individual is able to attain them. The benchmark the Animus uses to criticise is too high for a normal human being to live up to. The Animus always knows better, but in assuming this position the woman is only inflating her own abilities. When she finds herself saying or thinking “You should be doing this” with herself or others, it would be wise to counteract this Animus position by taking on a humility and admitting that you don’t know everything, that you may very well be a failure.

The Animus is often very impatient, making the woman feel that she has to make up her mind immediately, to act straight away, instead of waiting for her psyche to bring forth the proper new development. The truth is that for women it often takes years for the new development to emerge. However difficult it is to stay within this space of tension, resist the temptation to move immediately and give your psyche time to process and create the solution.

The Animus is a demon who wants to pull the woman away from life, cut her off from it. That is why she must run away and not get trapped by it.

http://appliedjung.com/animus-possession/


The negative aspect of the animus may show [up in dreams] as the seducer, the man who imprisons or leads her into danger or tortures or beats her.

A strange passivity and paralysis of all feeling, or a deep insecurity that can lead almost to a sense of nullity, may sometimes be the result of an unconscious animus opinion. In the depths of the woman’s being, the animus whispers: “You are hopeless. what’s the use of trying? There is no point in doing anything. Life will never change for the better.”

To be in conflict with the man, or unable to make real physical and pleasurable contact with him, suggests difficulty in meeting what may have been a painful or threatening experience of father or some other man. This can lead to lack of ability to make clear judgements, and lack of decisiveness… Actual relations with men will be difficult, or entered into simply as a duty. Emotional or intimate merging is threatening because it brings the woman close to the conflicts and pain connected with father/man. Sex may be possible but not a close feeling union.

Like the anima, the animus does not merely consist of negative qualities such as brutality, recklessness, empty talk, and silent, obstinate, evil ideas. He too has a very positive and valuable side; he too can build a bridge to the Self through his creative activity.

… The fact that the animus figure in the dream is double suggests that the burglars personify a psychic factor that is dual in its effect, and that could be something quite different from these tormenting thoughts... Next the dream reveals that the veiled burglars are actually disguised artists, and that if the dreamer recognises their gifts (which are her own), they will give up their evil intentions.

http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/archetype-of-the-animus-jungs-view-of-the-male-in-the-female/