Rising on the mountain top: Individuation by transforming animus through dreams and art making

by Yu-Hsuan Ko

The capstone project, Rising on the Mountain Top: Individuation by transforming animus through dreams and art making, is the testimony of the researcher’s personal growth, or in Jung’s word, the individuation, by exploring dreams and making art. The researcher approached dreamwork following the four steps suggested by a Jungian psychologist, Robert. A. Johnson, including associating the words, connecting to the inner dynamics, interpreting and making art as rituals. This project reflects that through the process of exploring dreams rooted in the unconscious and grounding oneself with the distilled interpretation of the dream by making art, hidden parts of the psyche were revealed, and a wider self was expanded. The project consists of 16 dreams written over 16 months, from July 2020 to October 2021, and 16 response art to the dream interpretation and is manifested in the format of a video integrating with different expressive art modalities. It is the researcher’s intention to bring her wholesome presence to the world with these subtle elements and share her invaluable individuation process with the art therapy field through the self-guided Jungian dreamwork interwoven with ritual art making.