The Janus-faced archivist: Reflections on 4500 colorful pictures sleeping in grey boxes.

The picture archive of the C. G. Jung Institute Zürich/Küsnacht contains nearly 4,500 original works by Jung’s patients from 1917-1955, and another 6,000 works of patients from the collection of Jolande Jacobi.  Jung frequently asked his patients to paint and draw their inner images as he himself did, as a means of amplifying unconscious material, a technique which he called Active Imagination.

This unique collection offers an opportunity to study the evolution of an analytic process from numerous patients over the course of decades. Until recently, these images “slept in grey boxes”, hidden away.  In this talk, the archivist of this unique collection will offer an overview of the Archive including her reflections on the meaning and effect of painting in the context of the analytic process.  A case study will be used to illustrate how psychological growth and development are evidenced in a progression of paintings by one patient.

Ruth Ammann is a Jungian analyst and architect in private practice in Zürich, Switzerland.  She is on the faculty of the Jung Institute in Küsnacht, where she serves as a training analyst, supervisor, and sandplay therapist.  In addition to serving as the past-President of ISST (International Society for Sandplay Therapy) she is currently the curator of the C. G. Jung Picture Archive.  Author of Healing and Transformation in Sandplay:  Creative Processes Become Visible, and The Enchantment of Gardens:  A Psychological Approach, her work can be viewed YouTube:  Speaking of Jung, episode 61, which features the Picture Archive.