Healing and the Collective: Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies VIII Annual Conference -- Life Lines as a Relational-Aesthetic Project

I wrote this proposal in January 2009; it focuses on Life Line's relationship to the Jungian approach to healing, the body and scars. It was accepted. I got strep throat the day before the conference, but if it fits with the conference theme, I will re-submit for next year.


Proposal:


Life Lines: The Scar as Site of Transformation is a multimedia photography and audio exhibition that explores the relationship of psyche and soma. Since 2006 I have interviewed and photographed over 50 people willing to expose their scars and tell their stories of wounding and healing. In this installation, I will present photographs and audio-recordings of five participants whose narratives demonstrate the integration and transformation of physical disfigurement. I will introduce this exhibit with a talk on the subject and its implications for Jungian psychology.

This project finds its roots in my practices as a psychotherapist and a visual artist, as well as my study at the University of Toronto’s Paradigms and Archetypes programme. I believe that while we may find our scars unsightly and shameful, they can be re-narrated as evidence of growth and transformation. Jungian interpretation provides rich ground for the exploration of these issues.

We can look to the analysis of fairytales for a template upon which to reconstruct our stories of wounding. Just as a life-saving surgery will transform both body and mind, fairytale transformation is symbolic of the psyche and demonstrated by change in the body. In fairytales, however, the act of cutting or severing is commonly understood as a differentiation of the unknown, a first step toward individuation.

To some thinkers, the body represents this unknown, or unconscious; it is opposed to the outside world in which conscious actions take place. Erich Neumann posits that the skin and orifices form the locales for exchange between these two realms and thus are tinged with the numinous. Jungian analyst and dermatologist Anne Maguire echoes this reading, seeing a rupture of the skin is a breakdown of order, the wound a place over which chaos reigns.

One way to gain comfort with this chaos is through the telling of stories – personal fairytales. Like cultural fairytales, the usefulness of these stories does not depend on their factual veracity. Some of the most positive scar stories do not conform to an external understanding of reality. For example, one woman believed herself to be the survivor of an almost fatal industrial accident for the greater part of her childhood. Only as an adolescent did she realize that this story was impossible, given the small scar it detailed. This fairytale, however, had given her strength and faith in her survival abilities through several childhood diseases.

I wish to exhibit these photographs and narratives in an attempt to spark dialogue and personal reflection on the part of conference participants. Discovering our personal fairytales brings us closer to understanding and meaning. In our collective healing process, we must gain comfort with the unknown, which includes our bodies and their numerous, numinous imperfections.