Soul-Making

'An interest in painting and poetry, and the particular slant on them that might be called the 'philology of the emotions', has preceded and to some extent shaped, even more than my medical studies, my approach to psychoanalysis, for it has been my means of access to the soul, or rather, to 'soul-making'. In more recent years, following the work of my painter friends, watching the appearance of unexpected images or the alteration of familiar ones, seeing their pictures before they are fi nished, recognizing in them the uncertainties, the changes of mind, sometimes even the signs of failure, and talking quietly about the teaching of the masters, cherishing their memory with devotion, has been a powerful lesson. This intimacy with the gestation of their paintings and with the dramatic aspects of their work has introduced me, in an almost tangible way, to the action of the 'Imaginal ego', as Hillman has called it, of that aspect of the ego complex that shares the life of images. In fact the imaginal ego is, like the artist, a mediator of images. It takes in their value and significance, translates them into the awareness of the ego, and allows this to look at the reality of the soul as a living entity, to experience it with the emotional warmth of the imagination.' - From the Author's Introduction 'Donfrancesco's book presents the reader with interwoven dimensions of scholarly, imagistic and analytical perspectives which produce a unique approach to the basic nature and functions of the psyche which, at the same time, has clinical relevance. The different themes culminate in the emergence of a fresh definition of analysis as the activity which dissolves fossilised structures so that they would die a natural death; only then new and more appropriate images may be reborn to facilitate the development of personality.' - Renos K. Papadopoulos, PhD, Jungian psychoanalyst, professor of Analytical Psychology, the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, and consultant clinical psychologist and systemic family psychotherapist, the Tavistock Clinic, London