Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-tsvsl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T23:11:57.095Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Psychic imaging: a bridge between subject and object

from Part I - Jung’s Ideas and their Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2008

Polly Young-Eisendrath
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
Terence Dawson
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
Get access

Summary

“The psyche consists essentially of images.” (Jung, 1926, CW 8, p.325) / “A psychic entity can be a conscious content, that is it can be represented, only if it has the quality of an image.” (Jung, 1926, CW 8, p.322) / Central to all the basic functions of the personality is the process of mental imaging. Without imaging, self-consciousness, speaking, writing, remembering, dreaming, art, culture - essentially what we call the human condition - would be impossible. Depth psychology developed out of the struggle to understand the process of imaging (e.g. dreams, associations, memories, and fantasies) and the role it plays in personality formation and the development of psychopathology. In attempting to account for the structuring of mental images and their effect on the personality, both Freud and Jung opted for some form of “universal.” Freud posited the existence of phylogenetic “schemata,” the Oedipus complex and its world of desire, whereas Jung opted for “archetypes.” While both subscribe to universals, the difference between the two theories resides in the particular originary principle each adopted. Where Freud initiates his theoretical perspective by postulating a world of desire (eros) prior to any kind of experience, Jung's originary principle is the world of images. Image is the world in which experience unfolds. Image constitutes experience. Image is psyche. For Jung the world of psychic reality is not a world of things. Neither is it a world of being. It is a world of image-as-such.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×