Fig

Within the depth-psychology corpus, ‘Fig.’ functions not as a substantive psychological concept but as a documentary apparatus — the figure reference system through which visual evidence, symbolic imagery, and alchemical iconography are integrated into theoretical argument. Its prevalence across Jung’s major works, particularly Psychology and Alchemy, Symbols of Transformation, and The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, reveals that depth-psychological scholarship operates in two registers simultaneously: discursive and imaginal. The figure citation is thus epistemologically significant: it marks the point at which argument yields to image, where the symbol must be seen rather than merely read. In Jung’s alchemical writings, figures are not illustrations in the decorative sense but primary evidence — woodcuts, manuscript illuminations, and dream paintings that carry the symbolic cargo of the collective unconscious. McGilchrist similarly deploys extensive figure sequences in The Matter with Things, employing visual geometry and natural pattern to demonstrate right-hemispheric modes of knowing that resist verbal capture. Campbell’s mythological compendiums use figures as cross-cultural witnesses. Across these authors, the figure apparatus collectively enacts a methodological conviction: that depth-psychological truth is irreducibly imagistic, and that the theoretical text is incomplete without its visual complement.

In the library 11 passages

Fig. 52 Corporal Trim’s flourish, from Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne (Bk IX, 1767) Fig. 53 The plot structure of Tristram Shandy (Bk VI, 1761) Fig. 54 Variations on the serpentine curve, by William Hogarth, 1753 Fig. 55 Golden ratio

McGilchrist’s figure sequence demonstrates how natural mathematical forms — spiral, golden ratio, Fibonacci distribution — are marshalled as visual proof that organic pattern transcends left-hemispheric linear abstraction.

McGilchrist, Iain, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, 2021thesis

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Fig. 39 Early post-traumatic drawings of car wheel and balloon, by Jason Padgett (Brogaard et al 2013) Fig. 40 Vortex in water Fig. 41 Black hole, drawing by Jason Padgett, 2008

The sequence of figures documenting Jason Padgett’s acquired savant drawings serves as McGilchrist’s visual argument that geometric perception of underlying reality is neurologically latent in all human brains.

McGilchrist, Iain, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting

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The completion of the process Mutus liber (1702), p. 15. (M. C. A. O.) 216. The artifex as priest Frontispiece to Melchior Cibinensis, Symbolum; from Maier, Symbola aureae mensae (1617)

Jung’s figure list for Psychology and Alchemy constitutes a visual canon of alchemical iconography in which each image functions as empirical evidence for the projection of unconscious content into matter.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Alchemy, 1944thesis

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The nigredo standing on the rotundum Mylius, Philosophia reformata (1622), p. 117, fig. 9. (C. G. J.) 35. A medieval version of the ‘wild man’ Codex Urbanus Latinus 899 (15th cent.)

Jung’s cited figures from medieval manuscripts and alchemical treatises supply the imaginal vocabulary through which the stages of the opus — nigredo, coniunctio, lapis — are grounded in historical symbolic tradition.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Alchemy, 1944thesis

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metals; the renewed king (filius philosophorum) worshipped by the six planets Kelley, Tractatus de Lapide philosophorum (1676), pp. 122, 125. 156. The Dyad (day and night)

This figure entry links the filius philosophorum and planetary imagery to the psychological drama of wholeness, treating alchemical illustration as symbolic rather than technical documentation.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Alchemy, 1944supporting

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Fig. 14 The Separation of the Elements Fig. 15 The Hand of God Fig. 16 The Magician (Waite Deck) Fig. 17 La Papesse Fig. 18 Astarte Fig. 19 The High Priestess (Waite Deck)

Nichols’s figure roster for Jung and Tarot demonstrates how archetypal figures from the Major Arcana are positioned as visual carriers of depth-psychological content requiring imaginal rather than purely verbal analysis.

Nichols, Sallie, Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey, 1980supporting

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Osiris in the cedar-coffin Relief, Dendera, Egypt. Drawing from Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, I, Pp. 5. Nut giving birth to the Sun Relief, Egypt.

Jung’s figure list in Symbols of Transformation assembles cross-cultural mythological imagery as comparative evidence for universal libidinal transformation symbols operative across the collective unconscious.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Symbols of Transformation, 1952supporting

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Figure 33. Portrait of a Priest (carved limestone, Pakistan, c. 2000 b.c.). Figure 35. The Goddess of the Tree (terracotta, Pakistan, c. 2000 b.c.). Figure 37. The Serpent Power (terracotta seal, Pakistan, c. 2000 b.c.)

Campbell’s figure apparatus in Oriental Mythology mobilises archaeological artefacts as cross-cultural visual witnesses to the mythological constants underlying his comparative mythology.

Campbell, Joseph, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God, Volume II, 1962supporting

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This mandala was done by a middle-aged man (cf. Figs. 6, 28, 29). A picture like this is not unknown in Christian symbolism. The Heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation is known to everybody.

Jung’s cross-referencing of patient mandala paintings via figure numbers demonstrates how clinical imagery is placed in dialogue with historical symbol systems to validate its archetypal character.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1959supporting

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The Buddha in Meditation ad. 3rd-4th century. Stone statue. Anuradhapura. Ceylon. Deity with Worshipers and Serpents, ca. 2000 b.c. Faience seal. Indus Valley.

Campbell’s detailed figure captions in The Mythic Image function as a comparative mythological atlas, treating visual artefacts from disparate civilisations as converging testimony to shared symbolic imagination.

Campbell, Joseph, The Mythic Image, 1974aside

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