Jung returned to childhood play and creativity at the beginning of his “confrontation with the unconscious” that lead to and through The Red Book. Childhood can be seen as the formative experiences of our own childhood as individuals but also as a species—the childhood of humanity in which we lived in closer proximity and harmony with nature and animals.

 

This historical childhood is characterized by creative fantasy and it allows us to reimagine, review or revision, and recreate a new future. This childhood perspective of creative play is at the heart of Jung’s art-based methodology, representing a return to a more creative approach to art as both creation and education.

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