Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS

ARAS Connections Issue 2, 2012
Individuation is common to everyone - that is why the myth of the hero's
journey has universal appeal - but each of us relates to it in a different way. We
imagine it as a hero's journey because it is long and hard and it takes courage. I
individuate a little, for example, when I listen to a dream without imposing a
preconceived interpretation, when I ask how it challenges my conscious view and
try to act according to its guidance.
Most works of literature do not describe the hero's journey explicitly. But
every work of art embodies individuation in the sense that it embodies the artist's
exploration of an unconscious realm and the artist's return bearing riches which
he or she shares by sharing the art. Thus one of the functions of art is to make
accessible the individuation journey which, in the personality, is slow and
obscure.
In the patients' vignettes which follow I show that pictorial space
represents a visual model of individuation. While the myth of the journey models
the process of individuation, pictorial space models the structural changes which
are the results of individuation. We are more accustomed to describing
individuation as a process, perhaps because our thinking is informed by the myth
of the journey. When we look for structural changes in the personality, however,
we find some that are characteristic.
Winnicott has described similar structural changes though he emphasized
that, under favorable conditions, these changes begin in childhood. Like Jung,
Winnicott linked these changes to originality and creativity. As mentioned
earlier, Winnicott said that an [individuating] personality acquires “depth” |6|,
“an interior space to put beliefs in” |7|, “an inside, a space where things can be
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