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ABSTRACTS AND BIOS

Chiara Tozzi

Active Imagination: Going Back to The Origins to Go Beyond

The presentation aims to exemplify how Active Imagination represents C.G. Jung’s special legacy, which differentiates, both in its origins and practice, the substantial differences between the Freudian reductive psychoanalytic method and the Jungian constructive approach. To this end, the perspectives of Jung’s followers, such as J. Hillman, M.L. von Franz, and E. Neumann, will be discussed. The creative value of Active Imagination will also be explored through the works and testimonies of representatives from the world of art, such as Federico Fellini, Giuseppe Tornatore, and others. 

Bio-note: Chiara Tozzi, PhD. (Italy), is a Psychologist and Psychotherapist. She is a training analyst and supervisor for AIPA and IAAP, and she lectures internationally. She is also a writer, screenwriter, and screenwriting professor. She is the Artistic Director of the Mercurius Prize for Films of particular Psychological Significance and Sensitivity to Human Rights. She is the Editor of Active Imagination in Theory, Practice and Training (Routledge, 2024) and Interdisciplinary Understanding of Active Imagination (Routledge, 2024), and she is author of numerous publications in the field of Psychology, Literature, and Cinema.

Angelica Löwe

The Imagining Patient – The Imagining Analyst; Varieties Of Imagination In The Analytical Field

Starting from a classical example of active imagination in the context of an analysis the question of its application is raised. To this end, conditions will be formulated concerning the unconscious communication of the analytic couple.

An example for active imagination in a broader sense is the analyst’s engagement with works of art outside the analytic session in order to approach the patient’s dreams. The active contemplation of paintings can, in an unexpected way, influence the unconscious matrix from which the analytic couple draws its deep connection, and evolve the psychoid in the Jungian sense.

Finally, the author discusses elements of the inner setting, as described in particular by M. Parsons, as a central aspect of the analyst’s inner contribution, which maintains the vitality of the analysis and the stream of images that runs through it.

Bio-note:  Аngelica Löwe studied philosophy, German literature and history in Germany (Heidelberg, Tübingen) and Austria (Vienna). She has lived in Austria since 1977 and trained therapeutically in Vienna (ÖGAP) as a Jungian analyst. Member of C. G. Jung Institute in Munich. Member of DGAP, IAAP. Works as an analyst in private practice in Vienna. Lectures on literature, philosophy and psychoanalysis. Editor-in-chief of the journal. Editor of „Analytische Psychologie“. She has published a number of articles on various expert topics.

Her book „From the Position of the Inner Voice. Erich Neumann – Life and Oeuvre“ („On the Part of the Inner Voice. Erich Neumann – Life and Oeuvre“) was published in November 2014 by Karl Alber Publishing House, Freiburg. It is the first biography of Jung’s most famous student. The book was published in English by Routledge in 2019.

She has been giving seminars and supervision in Bulgaria since 2018. She is currently IAAP’s Liaison Person for Bulgaria.

Antonella Adorisio 

Active Imagination in Movement: A Jungian Way to Bridge Polarities

One of the evolutions of Jung’s theory is Active Imagination in movement, also called Authentic Movement. The experience of Active Imagination in movement allows for the perception of psyche and body as a unified whole, within which a series of bridges enable passage between one and the other.

I will describe how this experience unfolds and how this powerful therapeutic practice can be used both in individual consulting and within the complexity of Authentic Movement groups. Authentic Movement explores the relationship between intention and surrender, as well as the interplay of seeing and being seen. The practice creates bridges between intrapsychic dynamics and interpersonal relationships. Authentic Movement explores inner-directed movement as a way to bridge the realms of conscious and unconscious experience. It promotes healing and the creative process through individual and collective transformative journeys.

Bio-note: Jungian Training Analyst, Teacher and Supervisor at CIPA and IAAP. Registered Psychologist and Psychotherapist in Italy. International Authentic Movement Teacher, Art Dance Movement Psychotherapist. A leader of international workshops on Authentic Movement (recently in China), she has also authored numerous papers published in Italy, UK and USA. She filmed and edited the Jungian docu-film Mysterium, A poetic Prayer, Testimonial on body/spirit coniuncio.  Past Scientific Secretary and Director at CIPA – Rome.  ISAPZURICH Guest Teacher. OAAP Guest Professor, Guangzhou. Romanian IAAP DG Supervisor

Andrea Cadoni

The Symbolic Meets the Narrated (Right and Left Hemisphere in Dialogue)

Too often in Western culture we observe how much the inner world, populated with images and symbols, appears neglected. In his writings, Jung observes how with the increasing development of faith in reason, starting with the Enlightenment thinking, humanity’s scientific capacity has undoubtedly grown, and superstition has diminished, but at the same time neurosis has grown.

Umberto Galimberti (1) speaks of the loss of contact with the symbolic sphere as the ‘disease of the West’. He uses the image of the circumference to depict the psyche, an image that recalls the mandala, a symbol of completeness. In this image, reason is but one point alongside others, an aspect that has nevertheless been overtaken by the ‘monotheism of reason’.

The ‘point’ referring to verbal, rational thought, proper to the left hemisphere, has become the centre, sacrificing dialogue with the submerged world of images and affects. Neuroscience today show the scientific evidence of that thought that Jung, many years earlier, had clearly expressed: “The essential foundation of our personality is affectivity. Thought and action are, so to speak, but a symptom of affectivity”. (2)

Understanding the healing process, in the Jungian vision, necessarily passes through the creation of greater dialogue between the inner parts. A dialogue that places the conscious ego in confrontation with the symbolic world. The left hemisphere, thus meets the right hemisphere, the part most closely connected with the emotional and visceral nuclei, with the limbic system and the autonomic nervous system, the regions that determine our ‘being’ and which are more difficult to control by consciousness.

We are made of the same substance as dreams, said Shakespeare, intuiting a fundamental aspect for the totality of the human being. And, as Jung teaches, active imagination and dreaming are two processes that evoke each other, bringing us into contact with the symbolic world. A possible and fruitful dialogue, if we allow the images emerged and fixed outside of us to speak to us. The temptation to entrust our lives entirely to conscious control can make existence tiring. To dialogue with the images of the deep, with the representations that our Shadow, our Self allow to appear through dreams and active imagination, can make everything suddenly more fluid, letting things sometimes happen together through unsuspected synchronicity.

In the talk we will go through two experiences of active imagination together, one conducted on a personal level by the personal level by the speaker during his training in IAAP, the other shared with a patient, in the course of her psychoanalysis.

Bio-note: Andrea Cadoni, analyst psychologist, member of Aipa-IAAP, has been working for many years in the field of pathological addictions, he currently holds the position of General Director of Ceis-Livorno ONLUS entity that manages three residential facilities for people suffering from psychiatric pathology and pathological substance addiction, in his free-professional activity he deals with developmental and adult age.

Diana Petrova

Therapy Writing for Beginners

The presentation will delve into the core formats of therapeutic writing, encompassing diaries, lists, diverse types of letters, tables, dialogues, questions, and fairy tales, with a special emphasis on their role in the Jungian framework. Practical exercises will be provided to illustrate how these formats can be effectively used in therapy from both the client’s and therapist’s viewpoints, as well as for personal growth. Key themes such as trauma, self-realization, change, addiction, death, mourning, and dreams will be explored, with a focus on how writing can be leveraged to address these areas. The presentation will also highlight therapeutic techniques like repetition, active imagination, group work, and temporal displacement.

Bio-note: Diana Petrova is a university teacher in Therapy Writing with bestselling books of therapeutic fairy tales (over 40 editions). Her writing work includes a book of epistolary prose that has sparked discussion in academic circles and another one – a fiction story exploring a psychologist practice. She has publications in international magazines and frequently serves as a jury member in the prestigious National Writing Contest for teenagers, „Petya Dubarova.“ This year she is invited to the national round table on writing for children in the Bulgarian Academy of Science.

Yoana-Magdalena Iltcheva

Music and Imagery

Yoana-Magdalena will present a workshop with Music and Imagery. There will be a short presentation followed by an experiential part. It will involve both visual and body imagery supported and contained by music. The participants will have the chance to consciously get in touch with what Jung called the psychoid.

Bio-note: Yoana-Magdalena is a clinical social worker, who was trained in the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music by the Therapeutic Arts Institute, San Francisco. She continued her psychotherapeutic training in the Bulgarian Society of Analytical Psychology whereby she was certified as a Jungian psychotherapist. Following that she completed the router programme at the International Association for Analytical Psychology to become a Jungian analyst. She has published in the Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery and has lectured internationally. She is a training supervisor and analyst. Her main interests revolve around the life-long journey of inner work and the mental states of the psychotherapist / psychoanalyst. She does individual and group work with imagery processes using music as her co-therapist.

Krasimira Baytchinska

Mysterium Coniunctionis in a Bulgarian Ritual

In this presentation, I will explore how, each year on March 1st, Bulgarians symbolically open the door to the archetypal world of the Wise Old Woman, called Baba Marta—the Bulgarian folklore equivalent of the Great Mother. Each year, she performs the Mysterium Coniunctionis by intertwining two threads—white and red—creating a white-red serpent that represents the vital and transforming force, much like Mercurius in alchemy. From this primal union emerge countless martenitzas—archetypal images that unify above and below, spirit and matter, left and right, inner and outer, male and female. These images express both a personal and collective need for renewal and inner growth, facilitating psychic transformation.

I will also examine the striking parallels between the images of coniunctio in this Bulgarian tradition and in alchemy—such as the ouroboros, the red and white roses, androgynous figures, mandalas, and various depictions of the red woman and white man. Special attention will be paid to the purpose of this ritual, which, much like alchemy, appears to provide archetypal images that stimulate and facilitate the individuation process on both personal and collective levels.

Bio-note: Prof. Dr. Krasimira Baytchinska is a psychologist, scholar, and author with a special interest in alchemy, mythology, and Bulgarian folklore. She graduated summa cum laude in Psychology from Moscow State University (1972), where she also earned her PhD (1978). Prof. Baytchinska is the founder of the Sofia Seminar on Jung Text Reading (1992) and co-founder of the Bulgarian Society of Analytical Psychology “Carl Gustav Jung,” serving as its first chair (2001). A certified Jungian psychotherapist (2007), she was also the first Chair of the Society’s training program, launched the same year. A prolific writer, lecturer, and supervisor, Prof. Baytchinska is the author of four books, including The Golden Girl, dedicated to Bulgarian women’s fairy tales. She has also published numerous papers on analytical psychology, among them Active Imagination – a Method for Self-awareness and Self-transformation.

Murray Stein

The Use of Active Imagination for Individuation

Why did Jung feel that active imagination was so important for analysis and individuation? It is because he discovered that it is a way to engage the unconscious directly. Dreams give us information about the unconscious; active imagination gives us a means for relating directly with the unconscious. It is a method for discovering and creating a sense of the inner world.

Active imagination is a type of meditation that uses the material offered by the unconscious for the development of an inner space. Such an inner space is critically important for individuation. In fact, individuation in the second half of life as Jung writes about it is not possible without active imagination.

The lecture will include directions for engaging in active imagination and suggestions about when to use it and when not to use it in psychotherapy.

Bio-note: Dr. Stein is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. and M.Div.), the University of Chicago (Ph.D.), and the C.G. Jung Institut-Zurich (Diploma). He is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. He has been the president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (2001-4), and the President of The International School of Analytical Psychology-Zurich (2008-2012). He is a training analyst at the International School for Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland. His most recent publications include The Principle of Individuation, Jung’s Map of the Soul and Jungian Psychoanalysis (editor). He lectures internationally on topics related to Analytical Psychology and its applications in the contemporary world.

Henry Abramovitch

Jewish Traditions of Dreaming and Active Imagination

Laner Cassar

Imaginative Movement Therapy (IMT): A neo-Jungian approach to Active Imagination

The purpose of this presentation is to give participants a general overview of the principles and methods of Imaginative Movement Therapy (I.M.T.) Imaginative Movement Therapy, through its use of imagery, offers a portal to the unconscious and is extremely useful when words are not enough in therapy. Continental Europe has had a strong therapeutic legacy of working dynamically with the imagination. In fact, Imaginative Movement therapy (I.M.T.), pioneered by Cassar in 2014, honours this therapeutic heritage, whose roots can be found in the beginnings of Jung’s active imagination and Desoille’s directed waking dream.

I.M.T offers a facilitative-relational approach to active imagination emphasizing the visual sensory modality in contrast to other Jungian approaches who underline other senses e.g. tactile sense in the case Sand Play therapy, and the kinaesthetic sense in Authentic Movement therapy and Jungian Psychodrama, amongst other creative Jungian approaches.

Bio-note: Laner Cassar Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst (I.A.A.P.) and Imaginative Movement Therapist (S.I.T.E) He is also a registered clinical psychologist and psychotherapist working and currently heads the Psychology Department at the Gozo General Hospital, Malta. He hails from the ‘Essex school of analytical psychology’ of the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, UK from where he earned his Ph.D in Psychoanalytic Studies in 2016.  Dr. Cassar is engaged in various local and international educational institutions. His 2020 book published by Routledge, is entitled ‘Jung’s Technique of Active Imagination and Desoille’s Directed Waking Dream Method – Bridging the Divide’ and has been short-listed for the international Gradiva award.

He is also director of S.I.T.E (Malta) (www.imaginativemovementtherapy.org)) and the president of the Malta Depth Psychological Association (MDPA) – a developing group of the IAAP.

The „Chinari“ Ensamble

Bulgarian Traditional Circle Dance

The „Chinari“ Ensemble intricately weaves together the concept of active imagination and the power of art. Through their performances, they revive archetypes, narrate stories, and resonate on a profound emotional and symbolic level. Watching Chinari is more than simply seeing dances; it’s experiencing our collective memory, the symbolism of rituals, and the myths and beliefs of our people.

The dancers act as mediators between the archetypal and the real, conveying not only movements but also the deep cultural archetypes of masculinity, femininity, fertility, and transition. In this way, the ensemble’s art becomes a form of active imagination, not only preserving tradition but also reviving it within us, stimulating our inner world to create new meanings and associations. We eagerly anticipate the opportunity to present our artistic interpretation of Bulgarian culture and to enrich the conference program.

Bio-note: („Chinari“ means Sycamores.) The Ensemble „Chinari“ is a unique folklore dance ensemble dedicated to the study and popularization of Bulgarian folklore heritage through innovative and inspiring musical and stage interpretations. Its leader, Asen Pavlov, is a producer, choreographer, and director. The ensemble was founded in 1993 based on his vision. „Chinari“ comprises only proven professionals: dance artists, musicians, and singers, all with excellent training in their respective fields. Chinari’s performances, with their unique approach to contemporary staging, offer an intimate glimpse into the heart of Bulgarian folklore. „Chinari“ is a laureate of numerous national and international awards.

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