Jung's Technique of Active Imagination and Desoille's Directed Waking Dream Method: Bridging the Divide

233 Pages·2020·5.285 MB·English

by  Laner Cassar

Jung’s Technique of Active
Imagination and Desoille’s
Directed Waking Dream Method
Jung’s Technique of Active Imagination and Desoille’s Directed Waking
Dream Method brings together Carl Jung’s active imagination and Robert
Desoille’s “rêve éveillé dirigé/directed waking dream” (RED) method. It
studies the historical development of these approaches in Central Europe in
the first half of the 20th century and explores their theoretical similarities
and differences, proposing an integrated framework of clinical practice.
The book aims to study the wider European context of the 1900s which
influenced the development of both Jung’s and Desoille’s methods. This
work compares the spatial metaphors of interiority used by both Jung and
Desoille to describe the traditional concept of inner psychic space in the
waking dreams of Jung’s active imagination and Desoille’s RED. It also
attempts a broader theoretical comparison between the procedural aspects
of both RED and active imagination by identifying commonalities and
divergences between the two approaches.
This book is a unique contribution to analytical psychology and will
be of great interest for academics, researchers and post-graduate students
interested in the use of imagination and mental imagery in analysis, psycho-
therapy and counselling. The book’s historical focus will be of particular
relevance to Jungian and Desoillian scholars since it is the first of its kind
to trace the connections between the two schools and it gives a detailed
account of Desoille’s early life and his first written works.
Laner Cassar is a clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst and Gestalt psycho-
therapist from Malta. He holds a Ph.D. in psychoanalytic studies from the
Centre of Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, UK. He is the
president of the Malta Jungian Developing Group (I.A.A.P.) and the Inter-
national Network for the Study of Waking Dream Therapy (I.N.S.W.D.T.).
Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian
Studies Series
Series Advisor: Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology, Essex
University, UK
The Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies series fea-
tures research-focused volumes involving qualitative and quantitative re-
search, historical/archival research, theoretical developments, heuristic
research, grounded theory, narrative approaches, collaborative research,
practitioner- led research, and self-study. The series also includes focused
works by clinical practitioners, and provides new research informed explo-
rations of the work of C. G Jung that will appeal to researchers, academics,
and scholars alike.
Books in this series:
Jungian Metaphor in Modernist Literature
Exploring individuation, alchemy and symbolism
Roula-Maria Dib
Symbolic Mental Representations in Arts and Mystical
Experiences
Primordial mental activity and archetypal constellations
Giselle Manica
Jung’s Technique of Active Imagination and Desoille’s
Directed Waking Dream Method
Bridging the Divide
Laner Cassar
The Cartesian Split
A hidden myth
Brandon Short
For more information about this series please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/Research-in-Analytical-Psychology-and-Jungian-Studies/book-series/
JUNGIANSTUDIES.
Jung’s Technique of Active
Imagination and Desoille’s
Directed Waking Dream
Method
Bridging the Divide
Laner Cassar
First published 2020
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2020 Laner Cassar
The right of Laner Cassar to be identified as author[/s] of
this work has been asserted by him/her/them in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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ISBN: 978-1-138-31870-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-45439-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
For my parents
Joseph and Violet
With gratitude
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http:// taylora ndfra ncis.com
Contents
List of figures ix
Foreword by Christian Gaillard xi
Preface and acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
PART I
Active imagination and the directed waking dream 11
1 Active imagination 13
2 Robert Desoille and the directed waking dream method 24
3 Post-Jungian developments on active imagination 40
4 Post-Desoillian developments on the directed waking
dream method 50
5 Jungians and the directed waking dream: Orthodox
and unorthodox perspectives 55
PART II
Jung and Desoille – a historical investigation 65
6 Theoretical influences on Jung and Desoille 67
7 Jung and Desoille: sharing common colleagues 75
8 Unacknowledged European imaginative therapeutic
practitioners 86
9 Jungians bridging differences with Desoillians 93
viii Contents
PART III
Comparing RED and active imagination 99
10 The concept of interiority and its development in
Western Europe 101
11 On spatial metaphors of interiority 106
12 Conceptualising a theoretical comparison of RED
and active imagination 121
13 A theoretical comparison of RED and active
imagination: getting started preparation of the
body and directivity by the analyst 125
14 A theoretical comparison of RED and active
imagination: transferential issues, narrative style
and interpretation in the middle and final phase
of treatment 142
Conclusion 157
Bibliography 165
Appendix: biographical details of Robert Desoille 199
Index 201
Figures
2.1 Desoille’s model of the psyche 35
7.1 Common colleagues of Jung and Desoille 76
8.1 Desoille’s signed book copy to Jung. Reprinted with
permission of Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung, Zurich 87
8.2 Letter sent to Desoille by Jung’s secretary. Reprinted with
permission of Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung, Zurich 88
9.1 French Jungians that collaborated with Desoillians 94