Literature, Creativity, Jung and Photography Tuesday January 3, 2006
“The mind of Man is fram’d even like the breath
And harmony of music. There is a dark
Invisible workmanship that reconciles
Discordant elements, and makes them move
In one society.”
~ William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book 1
Introduction
Writing is an especially fluid creative medium. The parameters and possibilities are almost unlimited, defined by the multifarious variety of language. Writing is intimately linked to psychological process, some of which is conscious and easily described, and some of which is not. Journal writing – in particular – is a means of exploring how subjectivity can be expressed in words. This practice can be a form of creativity, a means of unlocking creativity, or the basis for further creative work. Ira Progoff’s book, At A Journal Workshop (1992) articulates the psychological possibilities of journal-keeping, in relation to an understanding of unconscious life direction: the part of the psyche that motivates, guides and defines us, regardless of conscious process. In this essay I’ll describe his ideas in relation to Jung, compare his work to another book related to the same subject, and conclude with a comparative evaluation of photography.
Ira Progoff
Progoff studied with psychologist Carl Jung; he wrote about 17 books and was the Director of the Institute for Research in Depth Psychology at Drew University Graduate School, from 1959 to 1971. He is most well known for his method of journal writing, designed to access the unconscious mind and release creative energies. His work is interesting for several reasons.
- Firstly it is based on Carl Jung’s ideas, which gives Progoff a stature rather different from the more common ‘positive thinking’ approach to creative development.
- Secondly, his work uses a structured method of personal writing that anyone can do by themselves; group workshops are valuable but not essential.
- Thirdly, when the online journal or web log is such a popular practise, Progoff’s ideas provide a critical framework to understand personal diary writing.
- Most importantly, Progoff’s journal method is based on creative process. It is a self-development approach to creative development, underpinned by the Jungian outlook. Progoff viewed “the life of the artist (as a) prototype by which we can recognise the necessary movement of energies in an individual’s life” (Progoff: 142).
For anyone interested in creativity – what it is, how it works, and how to develop it – Progoff’s ideas are a valuable resource.
The Way of the Artist
Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way (1998) is more popular and best-selling than Progof’s. She bases her ideas around what she calls the ‘morning pages’: you fill several pages of paper with spontaneous and uncensored writing, about whatever is on your mind; it is designed to be a clearing-out process, to facilitate creative flow. Progoff’s method is structured in the sense that you write in a similar spontaneous way, but around defined themes. Following on from this – and more importantly – are exercises which integrate the raw material of prior entries, enhancing your perspective on your own life. He compares this to another creative situation:
The experience of recognition that will come to you then will be very much like learning to play a musical instrument. After slow and stumbling beginnings, you suddenly realise that you now comprehend not only the keyboard as a whole but the infinite possibilities for combining the keys creatively. From that point onward, the instrument is accessible to you with all its potentials (Progoff: ix).
Both volumes explore the nature of creative activity, but at different levels of understanding and sophistication. Progoff emphasises that you do not consciously try to do anything – the results are generated within the unconscious. If we accept the notion of the unconscious mind, popularised by Freud and refined by Jung, then Progoff’s methods are perhaps more valid than creative growth programmes which rest on active techniques at a conscious level. Self-help and pop psychology programmes, like Cameron’s, are notoriously superficial: like fad diets, or TV make-overs.
Freud, The Artists Way and Carl Jung
Freud taught people to ‘free associate’ as a means of unravelling and deciphering unconscious patterns Sitting at home in the morning is different to being in a consulting room with a psychoanalyst – classically, lying on a couch with no eye contact. However, Cameron teaches people to express whatever they have to say – trite and mundane or poignant and profound, in a similar free-association manner, to unlock creative energies. Freud was analytic, whereas Cameron focuses on creativity and integration. Freud’s view of creativity was sometimes cynical: he saw it as a means of recovering psychic balance, like dreaming, rather than a healthy aspiration. It was for this reason – and others – that Jung broke away and developed his own system:
If the meaning of a poetic work can be exhausted through the application of a theory of neurosis, then it was nothing but a pathological product in the first place, to which I would never concede the dignity of a work of art. (However) today, it is true, our taste has become so uncertain that often we no longer know whether a thing is art or a disease (Jung 1989: 207)
Carl Jung
Jung had a more positive and optimistic view of the psyche where there are higher levels of personal discovery, as symbolised in mythological stories. He worked extensively with artistic practice, notably with drawing and painting, and identified common and recurring themes in his clients which he correlated with mythological stories and symbolic systems like alchemy. He found that many of his clients frequently produced structurally similar paintings, comparable to traditional mandalas. He concluded that the mandala was an archetypal design, created and representative of psychic wholeness. We can see Jung’s influence in the current practice of Art Therapy – recognised by the NHS – and other psychologists have developed an artistic method based on ‘sand play’.
Jung’s outlook acknowledges the importance of creative aspiration and the ideals and power of art. Progoff studied and understood Jung’s ideas, and applied them not to painting, drawing or sand-pictures, but to literary expression.
Literature and Psychology
All literature has a rich psychological dimension. It operates on many levels: not only the imaginary characters and their problems, hopes and interactions, but also as an expression of the writer’s psyche. When writers and artist’s talk about their work, they often refer to unplanned discoveries and unforeseen developments, as if the work ‘takes them over’. This might sound implausible and indulgent, but it could be a reasonable way of describing unconscious process:
Writing is a psychological matter: at once a conscious activity and an unconscious one. Reconciling and balancing the two – making the unconscious conscious, and making the conscious tap the elements that are less than conscious – is an essential part not just of the process of writing, but becoming a writer in the first place (Malcolm Bradbury in Brande 1996: 13)
Most of us read literature more than write it. We enjoy the experience of having the imagination shaped by a skilful author. In the modern computer age, the term ‘interaction’ has become a widespread goal: whether it is in digital games, web sites, or sophisticated television. Yet reading a novel is interactive; walking though a gallery and gazing at traditional paintings is interactive. This term does not only apply to technological wizardry. Reading is interactive because we make interior pictures and interpretations as rich and varied as any multi-media experience – probably more so.
Progoff’s journal method is based on the psychology of literature, reversing the more common situation where you explore someone else’s work. This is significant. Art of all kinds is not automatically or necessarily creative; much of it is imitative. Creative work means you become the author of something yourself. Progoff begins his book by referring to religious Bibles, which are written by other people. Reading them is imitative, because you are not generating insight yourself (Progoff: 2, 4). He suggests that journal writing is – if you follow his procedures – potentially writing your own Bible, based on personal creativity rather than passive imitation. As Jung said, “Only the mystic brings creativity into religion” (Jung 1989: 206). In other words religion is imitative; only the mystic understands spiritual discovery, as a solitary experience transcending society and the collective psyche. This reference to non-imitative discovery suggests the more elevated, i.e. ‘spiritual’ aspect of Progoff’s method.
Active Imagination
Freud used free association, and Jung used what he called active imagination. Active imagination is a psychological state between everyday awareness and the dream world. It occurs naturally in circumstances like listening to stories, watching the flames in a fireplace, and listening to the sea. Progoff uses active imagination, but called it “twilight imagery”. It is the central method for working intuitively with diary entries. Thus, the book tells you to “sit in stillness” and move into “twilight imaging”:
The key to Twilight Imaging lies in the fact that it takes place in the twilight state between waking and sleeping. We find that by working actively in that intermediate state of consciousness, we are able to reach depths of ourselves with which it is very difficult to make contact by any other means (Progoff : 77-78)
Diaries and Creativity
At www.diaryland.com you find thousands of online diaries, mostly authored by young people. Very often, those personal writings have a theatrical quality where the author self-consciously recognises they are communicating with an audience, although whether you or anyone else finds their work is another matter. The following is an extended example; I include all of it because it ‘sets the scene’ like a piece of theatre:
2001-11-11 – 3:13 p.m.
this morning my family (krista, mom, michelle, and i) actually went out for breakfast together, it was weird, and we ran into eric and carl stein (i didnt know the were brothers!!) HAHA! well umm then we went to the cherry hill mall to look at prom dresses for the junior prom, and michelle and i didnt find anything but we did end up spending lotsa $$$ in gap body and nobody wanted to go in hot topic ::sigh:: my favorite store and kept stopping other places and i kept running towards that black entrance!! I finally made it in there, and i bought this spiffy notebook thingy thats sparkly and cool and i decided that im going to buy the store as soon as i get a job, and i was like, why not get a job now! marching band is over! so im going to get a job, im gonna see if the flower junction is hiring b/c they’re close by and a classy place to work (i dont want to be flipping burgers) and I have to wait til I’m 16 to work at a country club/clothing store. Well, im good with people so im not going to sit in a cubicle all my life, then again im not going to be waitressing all my life either…. well then. Umm what else. In the car i realized that i like guys named eric..(bassist at church, cool goth/punk guy at school)lol but not like like, but i do like. hmm okay prom dresses. We didnt find any at Cherry Hill so we went to Kay’s Bridal and found the most breathtaking dress we have ever seen. I cant describe it, it’s beauty is beyond words. Michelle is going to wear it for her senior prom, but my mom was a bit iffy at first because it was 400 dollars. Ah well, in the end michelle got her way, and its a good thing too because its sooo beautiful. Michelle also got this gold dress which is really nice, but it still doesnt compare to the light pink one. Umm what else??? hmmm…ponder ponder. Mark hasnt been online so i havent talked to him, and i kinda like him so… uhh hmm.. I havent really talked to anyone lately either. I just havent been in the mood to physically talk to someone, but I do feel like typing to miyself, not to others, thus all the away messages. My BIT friends havent really been talking to me either, i mean they have but…not really. The only time they talk to me is when im around Katie Katie because shes soo crazy and they flee to her, only then do they notice me. I dont even feel like i can carry a conversation with them, i feel detatched where I used to be part of something. I kinda like being alone though, its peaceful. I dont even feel like going to church, I’d rather sleep or sit around my room like a lazy bum. Maybe I’ve been being quiet becuase I’m half dead…. ya never know. I’m not sad though, i have been feeling this odd energy that comes and goes as it pleases. When its gone im a vegetable, and when its there….WHOAH im OUT there, im gone, dont even try!! I’m like goin crazy running around and acting like a five year old who just discovered how to sneak into the candy jar without mommy noticing. I am energetic, but not happy, im happy but not like IM HAPPY! im just content and crazy. And then I’m content and a vegetable. Weird world, eh? I sure think so. kay night bye sleep now bye.
Ann
Apart from being entertaining, this extract shows the psychology of diary writing as it is normally practiced. It’s a dialogue with an audience that may or may not exist, but ultimately with oneself. In a dated study of 1965, English teacher David Holbrook noted
The metaphorical processes of fantasy expression are healing and creative in themselves, just as our dreams sometimes have great beauty in their own right, and help develop our relationship with the world…Art is a primary human need, because it is one chief means to understand experience. There are truths about human nature and life it can convey which are different from empirical truth but no less valid. What we are glad to have from psychiatry is confirmation that these things are so – in a world which tends for various reasons to deny them (Holbrook 1965: 5).
Holbrook’s volume investigates and describes the interior world of imaginative culture, particularly the literary efforts of children in English classes. He claims he is in awe of children’s work, when “even in the most unlikely dust-laden classroom atmosphere one may touch the secret places of life” (1). He describes the human condition as living in the “throes of a continual contest to make what we can of living imperfectly with an imperfect nature, in an imperfect world” (4). He gives many examples of imaginative exploration like the poem by Lorna, age 7, of class 1A:
There’s a place that I know
A secret place
That no body knows of
But me that knows, of it:
I go there when I am lonely,
And when I m’am sad
It makes me happy and glad that I m’am alive
Naïve and ungrammatical as this is (does that matter?), it refers to psychologically important facts: that which is deep and important in the imagination, how it is linked with child development, how literature addresses and expresses it, and – implicitly – how our interior life continues into adulthood.
The child’s natural creativity is a source of inspiration for adult practitioners; in her book, Cameron describes 12 stages she defines as recovering safety, recovering identity, recovering power, recovering integrity, recovering possibility, recovering abundance, recovering connection, strength, compassion, self-protection, autonomy and faith. These are encompassed in the wider goal of recovering your creativity. In other words, we had these faculties when we were children, but lost them when we grew up and had to negotiate the tough reality of living adult lives. Psychologist Alice Miller says the same thing in her book The Drama of Being a Child – except in her case, she claims that we lose not only our creativity but our natural and uncorrupted identity, because of the pressures of adult expectations that do not always coincide with the child’s needs. Miller used painting – rather than literature – to facilitate first her own psychological recovery, and then that of her patients. As Jung also found, art allows you to express and integrate hidden or unconscious parts of the psyche.
Diaries, and Progoff’s method in particular, are a means of enhancing creativity; they allow you to express and reconfigure your imaginative and conceptual world. In a sense, all literary and artistic work is a personal diary, expressed in different ways. Virginia Woolf, Allen Ginsberg, Franz Kafka, Anais Nin and Katherine Mansfield kept diaries and these volumes give us an insight into their creative process. A diary is an intellectual and emotional playground, a place where uncensored expression is possible. Progoff’s system utilises this psychological fact, and embeds it into a wider framework that incorporates what Jung would have recognised as his technique of active imagination.
Authenticity
If creativity is an extension of the self – conscious or unconscious – then self-understanding must be linked to creative process. This is not an attempt at control, but an awareness of how to manage and facilitate creativity however it works for you. This might mean that you appreciate how you cannot analyse or control the process. There are two routes here: the superficial level, and the deep level. The Artist’s Way is superficial, and there are elements of self-promotion in Cameron’s book; it is peppered with references to her own creativity, name-dropping by mentioning her relationship with film director Martin Scorcese etc. This is entirely absent in Progoff’s book. He could have mentioned his PhD dissertation, or his private study with Carl Jung, but never does this in his 422 page volume. This is the deeper route, the non-commercial and more mature approach. It’s a method of self enquiry rather than a collection of ideas and techniques, with insights like the following:
We should not place ourselves in the position of talking about a process that we do not actually know as facts of our inner experiences, for that leads to intellectual chatter rather than to… reality (Progoff: 12).
And the journal method allows people to:
Discover within themselves the resources they did not know they possessed. It is to encourage them to draw the power of deep contact out of the actual experiences of their lives so that they can recognise their own identity and harmonise it with the large identity of the universe as they experience it (Progoff: 13)
When journal keeping is not related to the larger development of one’s life, it lacks a sustaining principle. Progoff’s method helps us see the movement of our life history as a whole, from the vantage point of the present moment. It helps us position ourselves between the past and the future, encouraging us to look particularly at four dimensions of experience which he called Life/Time, Dialogue, Depth and Meaning, and within these categories find threads of continuity. It is a gentle framework for evoking new ideas and contexts, i.e. a new perspective. At the heart of the method is the metaphor of a well which is connected to an underground stream. You learn how to reach into this well to find new and refreshing resources.
Conclusion: Photography and Jung
I think in some respects, you can make parallels here with a sustained photographic practise. Imagination and creativity underlie it, much as they do with painting or literature. If you can pursue it free from the demands of clients, for yourself, essentially you are engaging with a long-term psychological dimension with some of the logic of a diary, and what Holbrook called the ‘secret place’, accumulating into a meaningful dimension of your autobiography. Within myself, I can sense this creative dimension that I practise and express photographically. I know when I encounter an interesting candid moment, or a beautiful mountain scene, an emotional and intuitive part of me engages with it at the level of composition, drama and aesthetics, and ultimately that of meaning. There is no Romantic equivalent, photographically, to compare to Wordsworth, or Keats, or even WB Yeats; there are a few examples where photographers tried to work at a psychological level: Minor White (influenced by Gurdjieff and Theosophy), Steiglitz, and to some extent Ansel Adams, who probabably fits into what we now regard as the American Transcendent. But that aspect of their work was incidental, in relation to public appreciation of their photographs (except perhaps with White, who taught photography and encouraged students to use psychological exercises). However, as Carl Jung said
To the extent that I managed to translate the emotions into images – that is to say, to find the images that were concealed in the emotions – I was inwardly calmed and reassured.” (1961, p. 177)
Image-making, as an expression of psychic health and a cumulative personal resource, lies at the heart of photography with psychological rather than technical significance. It would be interesting to develop this as a psychological methodology, and a personal activity.
References
Brande, Dorothea (1996) Becoming a Writer; Macmillan, UK
Cameron, Julia (1995) The Artist’s Way; Pan Books, London
Holbrook, David (1965); The Secret Places; Methuen, London
Jung, Carl (1989) Psychological Reflections; Ark Paperbacks, London
Jung, Carl (1961) Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Miller, Alice (1987) The Drama of Being a Child; Virago, LondonProgoff, Ira (1992) At A Journal Workshop; Tarcher/Putnam, New York
Hi James,
It’s been such a long time, and I was speaking with Richard Webster this morning, and pointed out the topic about ‘coarse language’ that transformed into a beautiful memorial for Gemini’s mother, thanks to you, so I thought I’d send you a note to say hello, and let you know I’m thinking of you and wishing you well. (And also a new season of Sopranos started here, and I never think of Sopranos without thinking of you.)
Hope you’re well and thriving, would be great to hear from you anytime, should the spirit move.
best always,
M.
— Margreta · Sep 11, 08:10 PM · §
Hi M, thanks for the kind words.
Yes, there’s a new Soprano series here also; must be a massive and concurrent worldwide presentation. I still enjoy it, and I’m still reflecting on why that is so, ie. what messages and themes it explores. Not sure if series 3 will be as good as the others, but let’s see….
— James · Sep 15, 11:53 AM · §