Writing Songs from Dreams: A Musical Approach to Archetypal Image Work

Abstract

This study addresses the marginalization of the acoustic image in depth psychology and the gap in existing research on the value of musical modalities to the practice of archetypal image work. It employs a Jungian arts-based method to research the process of transforming dream imagery into songs. Following an extensive review of theories pertaining to the relationship between music and the psychology of the unconscious and its archetypal forms, the researcher engages an augmented version of C. G. Jung’s technique of active imagination, selecting dream images that are revisited and represented in musical-lyrical forms. The thematic content of the dream-based songs and the process of their creation are then carefully reviewed. Mythopoetic amplification is employed when working with dream figures and also in reflecting on the Jungian arts-based research process itself. Jung’s technique is augmented by emphasizing musical modalities as a means of dialogue with the psyche. The archetypal psychological approach of James Hillman, particularly the processes of “close noticing,” “sticking to the image,” and “soul-making,” are also utilized. The differentiation of affect and personality functions, as evidenced, affirms and extends Jung’s work, furthering an understanding of how individuation expresses itself in “feeling-toned images,” “quaternities,” and mandalas, demonstrating how acoustic images can elicit psychoid and acausal experiences. The transdisciplinary cross- fertilization of ideation with direct experience shows how music can cultivate archetypal perspectives in the world, while the practice of archetypal image work can enhance the musician’s craft