ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of C. G. Jung’s approach to art and the influence of this on later generations of analytical psychologists and art therapists. Jung’s psychology was influenced by his studies of Eastern philosophy. Jung’s view of the unconscious differed from that of Freud: Jung understood the psyche to be founded on instincts, whereas Freud attributed it to drives. Jung understood, both from his own experience and from observing his patients, that making pictures was a useful method of contacting the healing potential of the unconscious. It is through “The Transcendent Function” that art is understood as one means of mediating between consciousness and unconscious material. Originally written in 1916, “The Transcendent Function” could be understood as a bridge between conscious and unconscious elements in the psyche. Jungian and post-Jungian analysts have developed Jung’s theories, many giving central importance to imagery.
