The Underrated Spiritual Function of Art.

The artist comes to meet the spiritual need of the society in which he lives, and for this reason their work means more to them than their personal fate, whether they are aware of this or not. Being essentially the instrument for their work, they are subordinate to it, and we have no reason for expecting them to interpret it for us.

A dream never says: “You ought”, or “This is the truth..”

It presents an image in much the same way as nature allows a plant to grow, and we must draw our own conclusions.

If a person has a nightmare, it means either that she is too much given to fear, or else that she is too exempt from it; In a subtle way both meanings come to the same thing, as we perceive when we are able to let the work of art act upon us as it acted upon the artist.

Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.

The unborn work in the psyche of the artist is a force of nature that achieves its end either with tyrannical might or with the subtle cunning of nature herself, quite regardless of the personal fate of the human who is its vehicle.

The psychological interest of the present time is an indication that modern human expects something from the psyche which the outer world has not given them: doubtless something which our religion ought to contain, but no longer does contain, at least for modern human.

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References:

C.G. Jung,The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man in Search of Soul, 1933

Abt, T. (2005). Introduction to Picture Interpretation According to C.G. Jung. Living Heritage Publications.

Brutsch, P. (1999). Images, Meanings and Connections, Essays in Memory of Susan R. Bach. Daimon Verlag.

Jung, C. J. (1961). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Random House.

Kast, V. (1992). The Dynamic of Symbols: Fundamentals of Jungian Psychotherapy. Fromm International.

Mills J. Jung as philosopher: Archetypes, the psychoid factor, and the question of the supernatural. Int J Jungian Studies. 2014;6(3):227-242.

Roesler C. Jungian theory of dreaming and contemporary dream research — findings from the research project 'Structural Dream Analysis'.

Dinan TG, Stilling RM, Stanton C, Cryan JF. Collective unconscious: How gut microbes shape human behavior. J Psychiatr Res. 2015;63:1-9.1

Dabos P. The exclusion of others on Facebook: The technological unconscious, the orientalist unconscious, and the European migrant crisis. Digital Geography Soc. 2022;

Bastos, A. G., Guimaraes, L. S. P., & Trentini, C. M. (2013). Neurocognitive changes in depressed patients in psychodynamic psychotherapy, therapy with fluoxetine and combination therapy. Journal of Affective Disorders., 151, 1066-1075

Bell, C. E., & Robbins, S. J. (2007). Effect of art production on negative mood: A randomized, controlled trial. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 24(2), 71-75.

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