Carl Jung: “Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”
Carl Jung, on the Importance of Drawing and Painting
It does not suffice in all cases to elucidate only the conceptual context of a dream content.
Often it is necessary to clarify a vague content by giving it a visible form.
This can be done by drawing, painting, or modeling.
Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.
So true! I have a house full of multi-media art I have created to heal my inner child. As an elementary arts integration teacher I have shared that avenue with my students. I have found that different mediums illicit different ways of knowing. Clay communicates differently from charcoal and so on. And then of course there is music, dance and drama with various modalities to offer voice and choice to gain access to the psyche. I have worked on compiling my dreams, my art, and my daily experiences to write a creative memoir. It is coupled with fictional characters of seven generations past to depict the passage of abuse throughout time—while offering compassion through understandings. All this has been a strong healing source that came forth even stronger when I changed my text to prose. The space on the page between the short lines gave my psyche more breathing room. I am in the editing phase and plan to submit my story, The Daimon, for publication. I could not have done this withou art reinforcing my free will, to create, and to share—while feeling safe.
This quote is found in Vol 8 The Practice of Psychotherapy in the essay The transcendent Function and is in Paragraph 180