Bring your own values into the scene

Set limits as yourself when a figure demands something inhuman or tries to take over your life.

Warum es wirkt

Johnson's third step, The Values, rests on Jung's view that the figures of the unconscious behave like forces of nature, without human ethics, and that it is the conscious person who must bring fairness, protection of the vulnerable and practical sense into the exchange. Johnson quotes Jung's memoir to the effect that insight into the images has to become an ethical obligation, or it slides into a power game. In practice that means answering a figure as a person with values, not handing yourself over.

So gehst du vor

1. After a dialogue, reread it and ask: did I go along with anything that betrays my values or my everyday life?
2. If a figure asked for control of your choices, your resources or your relationships, return to the scene and decline, saying why.
3. If someone in the scene was in danger or being harmed, go back and act to protect them inside the imagination.
4. Write down the value you stood for, in one sentence.

Evidenz

The ethical step is Johnson's, set out with a case in which a powerful inner figure demanded a woman's purse and keys and he urged her to refuse, and with Jung's example of a man told to rescue a drowning figure inside his imagination rather than watch. It is a clinical teaching, not a measured technique. (anecdotal)

No controlled outcome trial of active imagination was found (PubMed search, 2026-10-14); the evidence is clinical writing and case reports from Jungian analysis. Inner figures that are persistently threatening or commanding are a reason to work with a trained therapist rather than alone.

Quellen

• Johnson, R. A. (1986). Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth. Harper & Row.
• Jung, C. G. (1997). Jung on Active Imagination (J. Chodorow, Ed.). Princeton University Press.

Häufiger Fehler

Treating whatever a powerful figure says as wisdom to be obeyed. Johnson's point is the opposite: the figures bring energy and insight, and the conscious person supplies the human limits.