Research Cluster for Academics and Change Practitioners in Aesthetics, Emotions and Arts Based Approaches to Inquiry

Workshop 3 Friday, 18 March 2011

Sue Congram: Releasing the metaphoric through art and mask

a gold painted face mask We live in a world today where the rational dominates over the metaphorical. The more that we polarise into rational, linear ways of thinking and doing, the more that life becomes out of balance. It isn’t that the metaphorical does not exist, we simply do not recognise it, or value the contribution that the metaphoric brings. The rational is structured, organised, measured and controlled, bringing literal meaning. We have learned to trust it and use it to give direction and structure to our work. The metaphoric draws on a different kind of knowledge that informs us through imagery, intuition, dreams, nature, the body, bringing metaphoric meaning. Rarely is this side of human capacity trusted in the workplace.

A painted face mask and head dress How do we bring these two sides of ourselves into balance in our work and lives? Can we trust the metaphoric alongside the rational which we have deeply embodied in our culture? How often do we betray ourselves when we neglect or discount what we naturally value?

My work has been informed by Lewinian Field Theory, a non-linear way of bringing together the rational and the metaphoric, and by the ideas of Carl Jung in the practice of active imagination (Congram 2008). Field theory teaches us that if we engage with the unknown in a respectful way new meaning comes through, it also teaches us how to live with the paradoxical. Lewin identified a number of core principles that enable us to understand the acausal nature of ‘the field’, these include the nature of organisation, change and contemporaneity (when the past precipitates in the present).

Jungian ideas work with imagery and the body to access deeper parts of ourselves that are full of potential. Working with mask provides a powerful form through which new self understanding can be achieved. In this case it is a representation of yourself, a symbol of that which is not yet fully alive. Jung differentiated between two forms of imaginative practice. He related imaginative activity to the personal and conscious expectations, linking fantasy and invention, to ‘the surface of personal things and conscious expectations’. He related active imagination to the deeper unconscious where images have a life of their own and where symbolic events develop according to their own logic. A distinction between surface activity and depth leads to a differentiation between sign and symbol. This differentiation is particularly significant for arts-informed learning. Motifs, such as a heart, tree or house, which are signs, are closer to life experiences and involve personal memory. Whereas symbols, which are more abstract and indefinable, touch depth, do not require explanation, are not dependent on personal memory, and are understood to be deeply held in the body.

Through this study I will work with the symbolic mask as a way of getting in touch with the metaphoric self (the unlived life). I will then look at what it means to become informed through the metaphoric, and ways of engaging both the metaphoric and the rational in everyday life.

Congram, S. (2008) Arts-informed learning in manager-leader development. Chapter 10 In: Education and Imagination: post-Jungian perspectives. Edited by: Jones, R., Clarkson, A., Congram, S, Stratton, N. Routledge: London.

Sue Congram works with the language of the arts for inspiration. Sue is a Chartered Psychologist and has been working independently in organisational learning and consultancy for over 20 years. She is researching a PhD on leadership as a property of the field at Cardiff University. Her portfolio centres around the praxis in leadership. She has delivered development initiatives to leaders in a wide range of organisations. Sue teaches organisational and leadership psychology to managers and professionals in institutes in Europe. She has recently co-edited a book on 'Education and Imagination' Routledge 2008. Sue is particularly interested in the role of imagination in leadership development and the psychology that underpins imaginative learning methods.