I invite you to notice your imagination as you read this blog. Before you engage in musing about this amazing topic, can you first notice your imagination? What comes up for you? Do you easily engage in imagination? Or are you more drawn to what’s real and present? Does it come as images, movements, sensations, or words? Just notice.

I recently took a class about imagination and learned about the power of this function of our psyche. Jungian analyst Roberto Assagioli described our psyche as having six major parts: thinking, feeling, sensing, intuiting, desiring, and imagining. We tend to over-rely on thinking and often use our imagination to think or to problem solve, but there is so much more to imagination than that. As I explored imagination, I could not identify aspects of my life where I didn’t use imagination at some point or another.

Jonathan Erikson defined imagination as generating meaningful, coherent images and narratives arising in consciousness. In this definition, meaning is multiple and not singular, so what is meaningful to me might not be meaningful to you. However, the process of imagination is mostly invisible, later made real through the language of art, technology, and writing. This aspect of imagination, its invisibility, made it difficult for science to address it, to value it. But now we have different tools, and imagination has started to come to the forefront as an essential characteristic to develop, particularly in children.

Imagination in Children

Children are naturally imaginative; if a child is not using their imagination, we know something is up, and we need to look deeper into it. Trauma, such as divorce, grief, war, domestic violence, and others, deeply impact a child’s capacity to imagine. The inner world becomes scary, and the child might feel safer by staying close to reality.  Or a child might get lost in imagination, finding it hard to know what is real and what is fantasy. Feeling more in control in imagination than in reality.

Imagination as a Way of Knowing

Artists are often better able to discuss imagination. Goethe (German artist-scientist who lived in the 1800s) described imagination as a way of knowing. It was more than a tool but a way of engaging with nature. In Goethe’s view, we cannot see the wholeness of the natural world except through imagination. Imagination puts the pieces together so that we can interpret our life as a continuum and not bits and pieces of disconnected facts and events.  This view was later verified by neuroscience, which now shows how the brain needs imagination to put all sense information together.

Imagination and Archetypes

So, imagination helps us make sense of and make meaning of our lives. It helps us create a story and, in that way, helps to bring meaning to what happens in the external world. And yet, imagination also gives us access to the archetypal realm. Jungian analyst Hillman defined archetypes as the “deepest patterns of psychic functioning.” According to Carl Jung, engaging with these images of the unconscious is the most important task and ethical responsibility of our life. Our most significant task is to better understand ourselves and our inner world. And this is done through learning to use our imagination and turning it within. This means taking imagination seriously and creating the space for imagination and practices that support our imagination.

Imagination in Art Therapy

In art therapy, imagination is a central aspect of the work. We use imagination to access stories and trauma. We use imagination to develop characteristics and aspects that might need support. We use imagination to practice difficult scenarios and rehearse better responses to the challenges in our life. We use imagination to connect with more profound aspects of ourselves and support our healing. Remember that healing comes from the meaning of the whole, so we make ourselves whole, complete, and soulful through imagination. Imagination can be medicine. Having a regular connection with your imagination and developing awareness around it can make a huge difference, and this is what our Self & Symbols workshops are all about.

So, what happened with your imagination as you read this blog? Did you imagine the topics discussed? Did you time travel to a different space and time? Did you start worrying about some imagined future? When we do not use our imagination mindfully, it might be highjacked by anxiety. I hope you notice and develop your imagination with heartful joy and awareness.

References

Allen, P. B. (1995a). Art is a way of knowing: A guide to self-knowledge and spiritual fulfillment through creativity. Shambhala.

Cornejo, C. (2017). From fantasy to the imagination, A cultural history and a moral for psychology. In B. Wagoner, I. B. de Luna & S. H. Awad, (Eds.), The Psychology of imagination: History, theory and new research (pp. 4–44). Information Age Publishing.

Erickson, J. (2020). Imagination in the Western psyche: From ancient Greece to modern neuroscience. Routledge.

Hillman, J. (1976).  Revisioning psychology. Harper Collins.

Hillman, J. (1979). Image-sense. Spring: An annual of archetypal psychology and Jungian thought, 41, 130–143.

Jung, C. G. (1967). Commentary on “the secret of the golden flower.” In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 13, pp. 1–56). Princeton University Press.

Jung, C.G. (1989). “Confrontations with the unconscious.” In Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Vintage.

Manzur, L. B. (2017). Gaps in human knowledge: Highlighting the whole beyond our conceptual reach. In B. Wagoner, I. B. de Luna & S. H. Awad, (Eds.), The Psychology of imagination: History, theory and new research (pp. 239–256). Information Age Publishing.

Patton, K. (2009). Ancient Asklepieia: Institutional incubation and the hope of healing. In S. Aizenstat & R. Bosnak (Eds.), Imagination & medicine: The future of healing in an age of neuroscience (pp. 3–34). Spring Journal Books.

Watzlawik, M. (2017). Nature leaves no gaps: From scientifically dissected phenomena back to the whole. In B. Wagoner, I. B. de Luna & S. H. Awad, (Eds.), The Psychology of imagination: History, theory and new research (pp. 239–256). Information Age Publishing.