Active Imagination in Theory, Practice and Training The
Special Legacy of C. G. Jung - 1st Edition
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Active Imagination in Theory,
Practice and Training
The Special Legacy of C.G. Jung
Edited by Chiara Tozzi
Designed cover image: Getty Images
First published 2024
by Routledge
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-53301-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-53300-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-41136-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003411369
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To my masters,
to my patients,
to my students.
Contents
About the Editor xi
List of Contributors xii
1 Active Imagination: The Special Legacy of C.G. Jung 1
ChIARA TOZZI
2 Active Imagination, Agent of Transformation in the
Individuation Process 19
MuRRAy STeIN
3 Active Imagination and the Process of Individuation 34
FeDeRICO De LuCA COMANDINI – TRANSLATeD By ROBeRT
MeRCuRIO
4 Is Active Imagination the Sleeping Beauty of
Analytical Psychology? 48
GAeTANA BONASeRA – TRANSLATeD By ALeSSIA MARZANO
5 Sandplay Therapy and Active Imagination 60
evA PATTIS ZOJA
6 Imaginative Movement Therapy: A Neo-Jungian Approach
to Active Imagination 65
LANeR CASSAR
7 The Magic Labyrinth: Imagine a Game to Be Played
with Images 76
vALeRIO COLANGeLI
x Contents
8 yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Active Imagination,
Analytical Training and Clinical Practice 97
MARTA TIBALDI
9 Symbols of the Soul: From The Red Book to Active
Imagination in Movement 112
ANTONeLLA ADORISIO
Index 130
About the Editor
Chiara Tozzi is a Psychologist and Psychotherapist. She is a Training Analyst
and Supervisor of Associazione Italiana di Psicologia Analitica (AIPA) and of
the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP). She is also a
writer, screenwriter and screenwriting professor. She lectures internationally,
and is a visiting Professor to different IAAP Developing Groups. She is author
of an International Research on Active Imagination supported by the IAAP, to
be published by Routledge. She is Artistic Director of the international “Mer-
curius Prize for Films of Particular Psychological Significance and Sensitivity
to human Rights”, based in Zurich. She is former editor of Studi Junghiani, the
journal of the AIPA.
Contributors
Antonella Adorisio is a Training and Supervising Jungian Analyst with CIPA and
IAAP. Past Director of Programming and Training at CIPA – Institute of Rome.
Past Member of CIPA National executive Board, she was President of the
17th CIPA National Congress in 2016. Antonella is a Registered Psychologist,
Psychotherapist, Dance Movement Psychotherapist and Art Psychotherapist. She
has been internationally teaching Active Imagination for many years. As a teacher
of Authentic Movement, she studied with Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow. She
leads international workshops on Authentic Movement and since 2004 she has
been collaborating with Joan Chodorow as co-leader at the Pre-Congress day on
Movement as a form of Active Imagination at the IAAP international congresses
(Barcelona, Cape Town, Montreal, Copenhagen, Tokyo, vienna). She is the au-
thor of numerous papers on Active Imagination, Authentic Movement, Body/
Psyche connections and the Feminine published in Italy, the uK and the uSA.
She has co-edited several books. She works and teaches mainly in Rome. She has
been invited to lecture and teach in Kiew, Bucharest, Malta, Singapore, Zurich
and in several Italian cities. She is still teaching Authentic Movement at ISAP
Zurich as Guest Teacher. She is working with the IAAP Training Router Program
in Romania. She filmed and edited the film-documentary “Mysterium – A Poetic
Prayer-Testimonials on Body/Spirit Coniunctio”, offered in many countries. The
DvD was distributed by Spring Journal Books.
Gaetana Bonasera, PsyD, is a Jungian Analyst, IAAP and AIPA Member. She
graduated in Psychology from Sapienza university of Rome. She obtained su-
pervised systemic-relational psychotherapy training, a Master’s in hypnosis and
ericksonian Psychotherapy, and a master’s in emergency Psychology and Psy-
chotraumatology. PsyD Bonasera has been working as a private psychotherapist
for more than 20 years. Since 2018, she has been a Member of the DuN-Onlus
Association that provides psychological support to migrants and refugees. She
attended the AIPA Training Seminar on Active Imagination by Chiara Tozzi in
2019. She was also a speaker at the conference on Active Imagination by Chiara
Tozzi: “Who Is Afraid of Active Imagination?” (AIPA, Rome 2019) as well as
in the seminar by Chiara Tozzi “From horror to ethical Responsibility” (AIPA,
Milan 2020).
Contributors xiii
Laner Cassar is a Jungian Analyst (IAAP) from Malta. he is also a registered clini-
cal Psychologist, Psychotherapist and Supervisor working with mental health
services, and currently heads the Psychology Department at the Gozo General
hospital/Steward health Care Malta. he hails from the “essex school of analyti-
cal psychology” of the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, university of essex,
uK, where he earned his PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies. he is also an independ-
ent researcher in the history of psychoanalysis, analytical psychology and im-
aginative psychotherapy. Dr Cassar is engaged in various local and international
educational institutions. he has written several publications on his main interest,
namely the use and application of imagination in psychotherapy. his latest book
was published by Routledge in 2020 and is entitled Jung’s Technique of Active
Imagination and Desoille’s Directed Waking Dream Method – Bridging the Di-
vide. he is the President of the Malta Depth Psychological Association, Director
of SITe (Malta) and the International Network for the Study of Waking Dream
Therapy (INSWDT).
Valerio Colangeli, IAAP and AIPA Analyst, is a clinical Psychologist and Psy-
chotherapist. he collaborates with a social cooperative non-profit organisations
as an operator in some residential and semi-residential psychiatric services of
the ASL-RM1, with both adult and adolescent patients. he also has a private
practice. he is the author of publications in Italian and in international journals.
his main fields of research are analytical work in institutions and symbolic play
in adolescence. he attended the AIPA Training Seminar on Active Imagination
by Chiara Tozzi in 2019. he was also a speaker at the conference on Active
Imagination by Chiara Tozzi: “Who Is Afraid of Active Imagination?” (AIPA,
Rome 2019) as well as in the seminar by Chiara Tozzi “From horror to ethical
Responsibility” (AIPA, Milan 2020).
Federico De Luca Comandini is a Jungian IAAP Analyst who graduated from
the C. G. Jung Institute Zurich. he trained under D. Baumann and M. L. von
Franz. he is a Member of the International Association for Analytical Psychol-
ogy (IAAP), International Association of Graduate Analytical Psychologists,
Zurich (AGAP) and Ordinary Member and Teacher at the Associazione Italiana
Psicologia Analitica (AIPA). he holds seminars and participates as a speaker at
conferences in Italy and worldwide. he carries out research on symbolism, in
particular on the psychological processes involved in imagination. he is the au-
thor of many publications, including L’Immaginazione Attiva. Teoria e pratica
nella psicologia di C. G. Jung (2002, curated with R. Mercurio), In dialogo
con l’inconscio (2011) and Quattro saggi sulla proiezione. Riverberi del Sé
nella coscienza (2013), with the contributions of R. Mercurio, D. Ribola and
C. Widmann. he lives and practises in Rome.
Robert Mercurio is a Training Analyst and President of the Association for Re-
search in Analytical Psychology (ARPA). After graduating in philosophy and
then in management, he carried out his post-graduate studies in philosophy and
theology at the Gregorian university in Rome. he then completed the training
xiv Contributors
programme at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich where he got his diploma in
Analytical Psychology.
Eva Pattis Zoja is a Jungian Analyst and Sandplay Therapist. She works in private
practice in Milan, Italy. She is the founder of the International Association for
expressive Sandwork (IAeS) and has offered training in Jungian Analysis and
Sandplay Therapy in europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Murray Stein, PhD, is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the International
School of Analytical Psychology Zurich (ISAP-ZuRICh). he was President of
the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) from 2001 to
2004 and President of ISAP-ZuRICh from 2008 to 2012. he has lectured inter-
nationally and is the editor of Jungian Psychoanalysis and the author of Jung’s
Treatment of Christianity, In MidLife, Jung’s Map of the Soul, Minding the Self,
Outside Inside and All Around, The Bible as Dream and most recently Men Un-
der Construction. he lives in Switzerland and has a private practice in Zurich.
Marta Tibaldi is a Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Jungian Analyst and Training
and Supervising Analyst at IAAP and AIPA. From 2010 to 2019 she was the Li-
aison Person of the IAAP Developing Group in hong Kong (hKIAP) and from
2012 to 2019 an applied visiting Analyst in Taipei, Taiwan. She was an adjunct
Professor of Intercultural Psychology at the university of Siena and a Consult-
ant at the Italian Center of Solidarity “Don Mario Picchi Onlus” in Rome. Since
2008, she has been a teacher at the AIPA’s analytical high School in Rome.
Lecturer in national and international congresses and workshops, and author
of many articles and essays, she has published the books Il mito delle isole fe-
lici nelle relazioni di viaggio del Sette-Ottocento (with G. Mazzoleni, D’Anna,
Messina-Firenze 1975); Oltre il cancro. Trasformare creativamente la malattia
che temiamo di più (Moretti & vitali, Rome 2010); Pratica dell’immaginazione
attiva. Dialogare con l’inconscio e vivere meglio (La Lepre, Rome 2011; en-
larged edition published in Mandarin by PsyGarden Publishing, Taiwan and in
simplified Chinese by Beijing ChenSheng Culture Communication Co. Ltd.);
Transcultural Identities. Jungians in Hong Kong (with T. Chan, M. Chiu, M.
Lee, B. Tam, e.T. Wong, Artemide edizioni, Rome 2016); Jung e la metafora
viva dell’alchimia. Immagini della trasformazione psichica (ed. with S. Massa
Ope and A. Rossi; Moretti & vitali, Bergamo 2020). She is the author of the
blog “C.G. Jung’s Analytical Psychology between Italy and China”, now re-
named “Conoscersi per conoscere”. She also has a website and a video channel
called “Marta Tibaldi. Psicologia analitica in un click”.
Chapter 1
Active Imagination
The Special Legacy of C.G. Jung
Chiara Tozzi
The Pursuit of Active Imagination
The objective of this two-volume book on active imagination can be defined by two
statements by C.G. Jung. I will begin with the first:
The years when I was pursuing my inner images were the most important in
my life – in them everything essential was decided. It all began then; the later
details are only supplements and clarifications of the material that burst forth
from the unconscious, and at first swamped me. It was the prima materia for a
lifetime’s work.
(Jung, 1961, MDR, cap. VI p. 137)
When I read Memories, Dreams, Reflections for the first time in 1978, it was this
very sentence, and the account of C.G. Jung’s courageous confrontation with the
unconscious, that particularly struck me. In the description of that dialogue and
encounter with obscure and dangerous parts of oneself, which could fascinate but
also instill horror, I found echoed the significant contents and images of the fair-
ytales and legends that had captivated me as much as any other kid in childhood,
regardless of the time and space in which that narration had taken place. And it
was exactly from listening to and reading fairytales that a passion for storytelling
was born in me, both as a mode of communication and as a profession, in literature
and film.
When I started my training to become a Jungian analyst at Associazione Italiana
di Psicologia Analitica (AIPA) in 1996, Dr Bianca Garufi, one of the most im-
portant Italian Jungian analysts, explained to me that this way of confronting the
unconscious, first experimented by Jung on himself, was a real form of therapy,
specific to Jungian clinical practice and referred to as active imagination.
Meeting Bianca Garufi resulted in a friendship that was precious to me. I met
her at the making of the feature film Le parole sono altrove1 (Tozzi et al., 2000)
with the AIPA Cinema Group. Bianca Garufi – with whom I had carried out one
of the interviews needed to be admitted to the AIPA-IAAP Training – was the
one who had invited me to join the AIPA Cinema Group because, although I was
DOI: 10.4324/9781003411369-1
2 Chiara Tozzi
then an AIPA trainee and not yet an AIPA-IAAP member, I had been a scriptwriter
and screenplay teacher for over a decade. Bianca Garufi, in addition to being an
AIPA-IAAP training analyst, was a recognized writer and poet: as a writer, she had
published several books, including a novel written in four hands, including one of
the most important Italian writers, Cesare Pavese (Garufi and Pavese, 1959). Here,
I would like to recall one of her qualities as a poet – as I have done elsewhere:
her splendid poem “Non l’Io” (Not the Ego; Garufi, 2002), referring precisely to
the conversation between the Ego and the unconscious that takes place during the
experience of active imagination. I was thus fortunate to have a first illustration
of the complex and special essence of active imagination precisely through that
“double-meaning” language that Bianca Garufi used spontaneously, and of which
Jung speaks about his way of writing (von Franz, 1988): i.e. giving voice to a har-
monious interaction between consciousness and the unconscious. Bianca Garufi,
as an artist, could express herself and write in such a special way because she
naturally possessed that more permeable diaphragm between consciousness and
the unconscious (Jung, 1916/58), which for Jung is typical of creative people; yet,
that more permeable diaphragm can be reached by anyone through the experience
of active imagination, by virtue of the activation of the transcendent function, that
is, that “movement out of the suspension between two opposites, a living birth that
leads to a new level of being, a new situation” (Jung, 1916/58, par. 189).
The specificity of the therapeutic method Jung had identified and experimented
on himself, i.e. active imagination, seemed to me extraordinary and valuable; at
the same time, the fact that, during the six years of AIPA training and afterwards,
I heard very little about it in the Jungian community was disconcerting.
Over time, I learned that this bizarre scotomization of a legacy that appears to
be not only precious, but Jung’s most specific clinical methodology compared with
other psychoanalytical methods developed by famous scholars of the psyche, was
not only taking place in Italy, but throughout the international Jungian community.
Certainly, the publication of The Red Book (Jung, 2009) and its worldwide dis-
semination necessarily led to recognizing that “first matter for a lifetime’s work”
mentioned by Jung in Memories, Dreams, Reflections. But what else was that “first
matter,” so admirably depicted and described in The Red Book, if not precisely the
contents of the unconscious that sprang from Jung’s courageous experience of ac-
tive imagination? And yet, while such contents and illustrations, after the publica-
tion of The Red Book by Sonu Shamdasani, became the object of in-depth study by
the international Jungian community and anyone interested in the psyche, the same
cannot be said for the dissemination of active imagination, which was also at the
origin of those contents and illustrations. Focusing on one of the special qualities of
The Red Book, namely its ability to symbolically illustrate a complex psychologi-
cal journey through written and visual images that were never saturated, I decided
to refer precisely to that double background used by Jung to explain his expository
peculiarity. I therefore made a video, entitled Un doppio fondo,2 in which I tried
to summarize the affinities between the language of film and those of C.G. Jung’s
analytical psychology.
