Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Beginnings of
the Intensive Journal
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THE BEGINNINGS OF THE INTENSIVE JOURNAL
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THE BEGINNINGS OF THE INTENSIVE JOURNAL
this point I began to experience the consequences of the fact that the
metaphor of the psyche as smoke is all too correct. To reflect the
psyche posed a problem no simpler than catching something as
evanescent as smoke in
the sky. But the contents of the human psyche are more subjective tan
smoke, more subtle, and therefore even more elusive.
As the image proceeded out of its own nature over a period of time,
it took many shapes and representations. As it varied itself, it continued
to move back and forth between the opposites of the formlessness of
smoke and the definiteness of each particular human life. As I watched
the movement of the smoke with my inner eye, I saw it move into
definite patterns and shapes. It would hold its shape for a brief moment,
become formless again until a new pattern formed, and then quickly
change again. Through this, it was made clear to me that even smoke
takes definite, though fleeting shapes in the course of its movement. It
led me to recognize also that it is very possible for the moving patterns
of these shapes to be described, and that something of their elusive
quality can thereby be captured.
In the course of my exercises in imaging the movement of the
smoke, I had the experience of describing in writing the variations of
the smoky
shapes as they passed before my eyes. When the smoke was gone, my
description of the succession of its changing shapes remained. It
seemed correct to say that the written description made while the smoke
was in motion had captured at least a reflection of the elusive
movement. Recording it while it was happening had the effect of
mirroring the movement of the image. More than that, it reflected the
sequence of the
changing shapes. Thus, in addition to the record of the individual forms
and the totality of the pattern, the written description preserved the
feeling tone of the movement of the smoke. Reading it afterwards, I
found that the inner continuity of the imagery experience was still
present, and that, in fact, I was able by reading it to reenter the image
and to follow the further movement of the smoke on this symbolic
level.
At that point, parallels between smoke and the inner movement of a
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dramatic journals. But more often the journals deal with an area of
religious behavior that is specifically defined by the particular religious
group to which the individual belongs. In those cases, the goals set by
the sect's beliefs are the basis ofkeeping the journals. The individual
uses the journal as a means of measuring his progress along the
particular religious path that he has chosen.
That use of a private journal is exceedingly common, not only in the
religious life but wherever a person has a fixed goal toward which he is
trying to direct himself Journals are used especially in those situations
where a person is having difficulty in attaining his goal. A private
journal is then drawn upon first as an instrument for recording and then
for evaluating how far he has attained his goals and to what degree he
has failed. Such a use of a journal becomes a self-testing device. It is
helpful up to a point in providing a means of reflection for the contents
of the life. Being judgmental, however, it has a tendency to increase
whatever feelings of guilt the person had before he began to keep the
journal.
As I was drawn further toward the conclusion that a private journal
is the essential instrument for personal growth, it was very instructive
to recognize that there are ways and situations in which the keeping of a
journal works against itself and has a negative effect. Since that time, as
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experience.
Of particular significance was the number of times when journals
were used to help a person achieve a goal he had set in advance rather
than to reach forward to new goals and to discover new meanings in his
life. At such times when the framework of the journal was enclosed by
a set of fixed attitudes, it became a static tool. Then it was used not as
an instrument for growth, but for self-justification. In such contexts
individuals have often employed a journal to insulate themselves
against
questions they did not wish to face. This use of the journal has the
effect
of narrowing the scope of a person´s life, and of limiting rather tan
enlarging the possibilities of his personality. A notable contemporary
exception to this is found in the Diaries of Anais Nin, where a person
of great literary creativity used a journal also as a vehicle for her total
life development. The tendency of journals to turn in upon their own
subjectivity, however, and move in circular patterns is a common pitfall
that must be borne in mind.
When I first became aware of the fact that there are limitations in
the use of journals, I thought that the reason for this was to be found in
the way that the journal was used by people in their personal
circumstances and in the situations ofhistory. I thought that the problem
lay in the how of journal usage. It did not occur to me at that time that
there might be alternate kinds of journals which might be used.
All the journals previously used were essentially of one type. They
all were personal chronological records of the movement of events in a.
person's life. They might be rcportings of the outer events oflife, or they
might be introspective and record the inner events. In the latter case,
they would have a tendency to extend themselves with observations and
reflections, and sometimes with imaginings.
In sum, the basic type of personal journal used throughout history
wherever persons have felt the urge to use a journal at all has been an
unstructured chronological journal kept either systematically by dates,
or written in spontaneously from time to time as suited the temperament
of the individual. Accordingly, I made the assumption that this was the
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only fonn of journal that was possible. I assumed further that, if some
additional steps were to be taken and improvements made, it would
have to be in the way the journal was used. I therefore turned my
attention toward devising new techniques, and especially toward
establishing situations in which it would be possible to work with a
personal journal more fruitfully.
In this context I began in 1957 to use a journal as an adjunct to
psychotherapy in my private practice. I merely asked people to keep a
notebook in which they recorded the events of their inner life. Only a
notebook was necessary because the journal at that stage involved
nothing more than a loose, unstructured recording of their experiences
as they were perceived from a particular point of view. That point of
view was provided by the questions I asked them, and by the specific
points in the course of their work with me where I placed the emphasis
by directing their attention and by asking them to make further
elaborations.
This procedure seemed to have a very favorable effect
therapeutically, so I extended it. The kinds of questions that were raised
became more definite, more refined, and more pointed. As I worked in
this way, it became increasingly dear to me that there is a specific
process working
at the depth of a person, and that this process can be evoked more
actively by the use of a journal procedure. Increasingly, then, I directed
my work toward drawing the inner process forward in persons. I did this
by raising the specific questions that seemed most relevant in the
context of the principles of depth psychology which I was using at the
time, enlarging the issues both by discussion and imagination. I then
asked the individual to collect in his journal all the material and
experiences that came to him by these procedures. The cumulative
effect of doing this was very helpful to the clients, and thus I extended
the procedures. I was still, however, using only a blank unstructured
notebook as the journal. At that time I called it a "psychological
workbook," and it was under that name that I described its use in The
Symbolic and the Real.
After that book was published in 1963, I had much larger oppor-
tunities to experiment with the use of the "psychological workbook"
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ideas and feelings, that would be set loose when a person was freed
from the directiveness of a therapist's authority. It would focus all of
these back into the context of each individual's own life. If this were
done, the journal could serve as the required instrument.
The task then was to draw the psychological workbook into the
form of a structured journal capable of rcchanneling a person's energies
in terms of new patterns of behavior which would regroup themselves
in the context of each individual's development. The directive and
reintegrativc factor had to come from within, and not be imposed by a
concept from the outside. It would be possible to achieve this if a
person's life experiences could be fed back and forth within the journal.
What would be necessary, however, was the correct sectional divisions
and a means of active movement within the journal that would have an
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