Jung, art and psychotherapy re-conceptualized by the symbol that joins us to the wildness of the universe

Abstract

Despite the impact of the publication of Jung's own (literally) monumental work of rendering images in The Red Book (2009), the relation of art, artists, art psychotherapy and Jungian studies is puzzling and complex. As Tjeu van den Berk's excellent Jung on Art (2012) demonstrates, Jung by no means posited a comfortable continuum between his psychology and aesthetics. Even artists impressed by his notions of the inherently creative unconscious imagination do not share the priorities of Jungian-oriented art psychotherapists. In exploring this problem of Jungian psychology and the aesthetic domain, I take issue with some of van den Berk's conclusions, proposing instead that in his core concept of the ‘symbol’ Jung constructs a theory of the imagination that overcomes disciplinary, mythic and individual boundaries: rather, it is an idea of radical re-visioning of psyche as expressed in time and space. By dismantling the notion of psyche as bound to an individual person, I suggest the symbol transforms the dialogue of Jung, Jungians and art.

Keywords:

• C.G. Jung
• art
• symbol
• psychotherapy
• aesthetics
• ecocriticism

Notes on contributor

Susan Rowland Ph.D. is Chair of MA Engaged Humanities and the Creative Life at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California. She has published extensively on Jung, literary theory, gender, myth, literature and detective fiction. Her books include, Jung: A Feminist Revision (2002); Jung as a Writer (2005); C.G. Jung in the Humanities (2010) and the essay collection, Psyche in the Arts (2008). Her new book, The Ecocritical Psyche: Literature, Complexity Evolution and Jung (2012) argues that the somatic symbol is a reciprocal portal to the non-human. She is currently working on two projects: Jung and James Hillman as literary theory, and women's mysteries and goddesses. Founding chair of the International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) in 2003, Susan lives in California with digital literary artist, Joel Weishaus.

Notes

1. Without using the term ‘symbol’, James Hillman and Michael Ventura call for a therapeutic practice that takes account of the inevitable wildness of the universe in We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World is Getting Worse (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1992, p. 167).

2. On Romanticism's commitment to stylistic innovation, see David Blayley Brown, Romanticism (Art and Ideas) (London: Phaidon, 2001).