Carl Jung and the mytho-poetic layer of the psyche

From episode 75 of the podcast series SPEAKING OF JUNG:

Jung had a unique record of self-investigation, self-inquiry, and self-scrutiny—in which he is attempting to explore his fantasies through the visionary method of active imagination, visual images in a waking state, and then writing them down. He determined that these fantasies came from the mytho-poetic layer of the psyche, which he later came to call the collective unconscious.

This transcription came from Professor Sonu Shamdasani and host Laura London in dialogue on The Black Books. These were the personal journals of Jung from 1913 to 1932, and much of the ideas and introspection later became The Red Book.

The reason I am posting it is because I absolutely love the phrase: mytho-poetic layer of the psyche. This is beautiful, and I resonate so strongly with how it frames my own experiences and research.

The opening text is a quote of sorts, it was actually spoken by both Sonu and Laura, and they read nicely as one flowing paragraph. The term “fantasy” is used because this was how Jung framed his internal narratives. 

Below is the Amazon description for the boxed set of 

THE BLACK BOOKS

In 1913, C.G. Jung started a unique self- experiment that he called his “confrontation with the unconscious”: an engagement with his fantasies in a waking state, which he charted in a series of notebooks referred to as The Black Books. These intimate writings shed light on the further elaboration of Jung’s personal cosmology and his attempts to embody insights from his self- investigation into his life and personal relationships. The Red Book drew on material recorded from 1913 to 1916, but Jung actively kept the notebooks for many more decades.

Presented in a magnificent, seven-volume boxed collection featuring a revelatory essay by noted Jung scholar Sonu Shamdasani―illuminated by a selection of Jung’s vibrant visual works―and both translated and facsimile versions of each notebook, The Black Books offer a unique portal into Jung’s mind and the origins of analytical psychology.

The Black Books 1913-1932: Notebooks of Transformation by C.G. Jung, Edited and introduced by Sonu Shamdasani

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