ABSTRACT
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung's autobiography, dictated to Aniela Jaffe, gives perhaps the most vivid account in Jung's Collected Works of the method of active imagination. Those familiar with various types of hypnotic work may assume that Jung was using a formula of some sort to accomplish something more akin to guided imagery. This is not the case. Jung's means of imaginal induction came from his own imagination. Jung views active imagination as a means to an end. Beginning to discuss the method that he will later label as active imagination, Jung explains that spontaneous fantasies can be a strong source of unconscious material. The reader begins to understand, through Jung's intertwining of functional and structural discussions, why he can be so thin on discussions of technique, per se. For Jung, technique comes a distant second to the actual unfolding of psychic contents in whatever fashion they may emerge.
