O problema da imagem na obra inicial de C.G. Jung (1906-1921) : das associações à hipótese de um inconsciente coletivo

Abstract

This work aims to explore the problem of the image in the theory of the unconscious proposed by Jung, in the transition between his interest in Psychoanalysis and the consolidation of his Analytical Psychology. In order to do so, we mainly focused on some of the author’s first writings, from 1906 to 1921, aiming to show how this context outlines the first traces of the project that followed him into his later work, that is, the attempt to conciliate the collective foundation and the subjective aspects that constitute the psyche. In the first moment, based on what is exposed in Experimental Studies (Experimentelle Untersuchungen, 1904-1907), Transformations and Symbols of the Libido (Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido, 1912), and Instinct and the Unconscious (Instintkt und Unbewusstes, 1919), we analyzed how the “inner image” is first highlighted as a problematic in the author’s thought, and how his adamant position against the parallelism between psyche and material reality leads Jung to recognize a complex dimension of unconscious transmissions. In a second moment, based on The Transcendent Function (Die Tranzendente Funktion, 1916) and Psychological Types (Psychologische Typen, 1921), we elucidate the conceptual instruments mobilized by Jung to deal with this new horizon: that includes the attempt to comprehend the unconscious expressivity; the characterization of the concept of image and its foundation in the phantasy activity. Finally, we put in evidence how the problem of the image in The Red Book (Das Rote Buch, 1913-1930) deepens the contradictions already observed since the first questions pertaining oneiric images, procedure by which Jung tries to explain how the image is constituted inside of a field of forces or tensions, which includes not only that what appears but also always presuppose the potentiality of a counterpoint with its background. Throughout this work, we hope to contribute to a better elucidation of the problem of the image in the wider scope of Jung’s theory and, at the same time, shed light upon a possible acknowledgment of its potential for the comprehension of the formation and transposition of images between the subjective and intersubjectivity fields.