Proto Imaginal Activity

Proto Imaginal Activity occupies a liminal and theoretically contested position within the depth-psychology corpus, designating those pre-symbolic, pre-linguistic stirrings of psychic life that precede the consolidation of formed images yet already carry the seed of imaginal meaning. The term draws from multiple tributaries: Bion’s proto-mental system, in which physical and psychological reality remain undifferentiated and from which basic-assumption emotions flow; Damasio’s proto-self, a first-order neural configuration mapping the organism’s bodily state moment by moment and serving as substrate for any emergent knowing; and the Alcaro-Carta neuro-ethological proposition that primary-process thinking enables a ‘psychic rehearsal of possibilities’ antecedent to reflective imagination. Across these voices, a common axis emerges: proto imaginal activity is neither pure somatic reflex nor achieved symbolic representation, but the generative threshold between them. Jungian and archetypal thinkers engage this threshold differently: where Hillman and von Franz press toward the formed, personified image as psychologically primary, Giegerich interrogates whether imaginal psychology’s privileging of image forestalls the soul’s properly logical movement. The clinical stakes are equally real, surfacing in sandplay’s pre-symbolic somatic access, in the waking dream’s bridge between body and metaphor, and in the Alcaro-Carta therapeutic use of affective containment to unfold anoetic awareness into noetic imaginative process. The term thus marks the disputed frontier between neuroscience, psychoanalytic object-relations, and depth-psychological image theory.

In the library 12 passages

The proto-mental system I visualize as one in which physical and psychological or mental are undifferentiated. It is a matrix from which spring the phenomena which at first appear—on a psychological level—to be discrete feelings only loosely associated with one another.

Bion defines the proto-mental system as the undifferentiated somatic-psychic matrix from which basic-assumption emotions—and by implication any proto imaginal activity—arise prior to psychological differentiation.

Bion, W.R., Experiences in Groups and Other Papers, 1959thesis

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The proto-self is a coherent collection of neural patterns which map, moment by moment, the state of the physical structure of the organism in its many dimensions. The proto-self is not to be confused with the rich sense of self on which our current knowing is centered. We are not conscious of the proto-self.

Damasio’s proto-self constitutes the pre-conscious, pre-imaginal substrate—a continuous first-order neural mapping of organismic state—that underlies any subsequent emergence of imaginal or symbolic activity.

Damasio, Antonio R., The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, 1999thesis

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Such primordial form of ‘anoetic’ awareness has been defined as ‘the rudimentary state of autonomic awareness […], with a fundamental form of first-person ‘self-experience’ which relies on affective experiential states and raw sensory and perceptual mental existences.’

Alcaro and Carta identify anoetic awareness—anchored in affective-visceral states and prior to noetic image formation—as the neurobiological ground from which proto imaginal activity first emerges.

Alcaro, Antonio; Carta, Stefano, The ‘Instinct’ of Imagination: A Neuro-Ethological Approach to the Evolution of the Reflective Mind and Its Application to Psychotherapy, 2019thesis

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It seems then very plausible that the primary process of thinking permits a ‘psychic rehearsal of possibilities’ that unfolds a prospective adaptive function, helping to anticipate possible future events or to find solutions to unresolved problems or conflicts.

The authors characterize primary-process thinking as a pre-reflective rehearsal function—a proto imaginal activity serving prospective psychic adaptation before conscious symbolic elaboration is possible.

Alcaro, Antonio; Carta, Stefano, The ‘Instinct’ of Imagination: A Neuro-Ethological Approach to the Evolution of the Reflective Mind and Its Application to Psychotherapy, 2019thesis

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Beyond the many neural structures in which the causative object and the proto-self changes are separately represented, there is at least one other structure which re-represents both proto-self and object in their temporal relationship and can thus represent what is actually happening to the organism.

Damasio describes the emergence of a second-order neural pattern from proto-self interactions, mapping the transitional zone between raw organismic state and imaginal representation.

Damasio, Antonio R., The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, 1999supporting

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The mental events to which tuberculosis is affiliated are necessarily, in my definition, neither cause nor effect; they are derivatives and developments from the same proto-mental phenomena as those from which tuberculosis itself arises.

Bion extends the proto-mental concept to show that somatic and psychological phenomena are co-derivatives of the same pre-differentiated matrix, reinforcing the notion of proto imaginal activity as physiologically embedded.

Bion, W.R., Experiences in Groups and Other Papers, 1959supporting

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The affective-relational atmosphere generated by the strong therapeutic alliance, founded on solid trust, makes it possible for the patient to take the question seriously and it lets him reconnect with the image. (CONTAINMENT).

The clinical vignette demonstrates how therapeutic containment facilitates the patient’s movement from dissociated affective states—proto imaginal activity—into consciously accessible imagery.

Alcaro, Antonio; Carta, Stefano, The ‘Instinct’ of Imagination: A Neuro-Ethological Approach to the Evolution of the Reflective Mind and Its Application to Psychotherapy, 2019supporting

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If a patient’s attention is confined to this inward sensorial focus for some time, this opens up access to deeper layers of the psyche, and the patient can explore not only pre-lingual but also pre-symbolic parts of his or her biography.

Tozzi’s account of sandplay technique locates proto imaginal activity in the pre-lingual, pre-symbolic somatic focus that precedes and conditions the emergence of formed inner imagery.

Tozzi, Chiara, Active Imagination in Theory, Practice and Training, 2017supporting

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Proto-self and second-order maps depend largely on one set of paramidline structures—the brain stem, hypothalamic, basal forebrain, and the thalamic nuclei, as well as the centrally located cingulate cortices.

Damasio maps the neural architecture sustaining the proto-self and its transformation into second-order representations, grounding proto imaginal activity in identifiable subcortical and limbic structures.

Damasio, Antonio R., The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, 1999supporting

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Soul is not only, not primarily, image, and image is not soul as such, but one favorite form of expression or manifestation for the soul.

Giegerich’s critique implies that proto imaginal activity—as pre-imaginal psychic movement—must be distinguished from its eventual imaginal crystallizations, lest psychology reduce soul to image production.

Giegerich, Wolfgang, The Soul’s Logical Life Towards a Rigorous Notion of, 2020supporting

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We dealt, too, with issues such as the expansive or restrictive definition of the method and, critically, the difference between imaginative activity and Active Imagination, their being discrete.

Tozzi notes the analytical community’s ongoing concern with distinguishing spontaneous imaginative activity from the disciplined method of Active Imagination, a distinction that implicates the boundary of proto imaginal activity.

Tozzi, Chiara, Active Imagination in Theory, Practice and Training, 2017aside

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The term ‘active imagination’ is an analytical method (active imagination) based on the underlying image-producing function of the psyche.

Chodorow’s account situates Active Imagination as method built upon an underlying spontaneous image-producing function—gesturing toward the proto imaginal substrate that precedes methodical engagement.

Papadopoulos, Renos K., The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications, 2006aside

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