Active imagination

In the years after his break with Freud in 1913, Carl Jung did something few psychiatrists of his time would have dared. Instead of analysing his fantasies from the outside, he let them unfold, and talked with the figures that appeared.

One of them, an old man with the wings of a kingfisher whom he called Philemon, became a kind of inner teacher. Jung later wrote that Philemon taught him that the figures of the mind have a life of their own. He called this way of working active imagination.

Feelings can be hard to talk about directly. Active imagination gives one a shape: a figure, an animal, a colour, a landscape. Then you let it speak.

You might ask it: what do you look like? What do you want? What are you trying to protect me from? Then wait, and see what comes, rather than deciding the answer in advance. Many people find that anxiety, given a voice, turns out to be trying to keep them safe.

Your own images and associations lead. There's no fixed meaning to look up, and no right answer.

• Gestalt therapy

  Fritz Perls's "empty chair" invites people to speak aloud to a part of themselves, then answer as that part.

• Internal Family Systems

  Richard Schwartz's therapy treats difficult feelings as "parts", often protective ones, that can be understood rather than fought.

Think of a feeling that's been around lately. Take a breath, and let an image come.

Your answers stay in this page and aren't saved or sent anywhere.

You imagine your anxiety as a small, frantic dog. What's the next step in active imagination?