tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post639165482747784316..comments2024-03-28T12:56:13.118+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Understanding by imagination - a personal example from psychiatryBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-60227275867313963812015-09-15T00:45:03.832+01:002015-09-15T00:45:03.832+01:00There are a number of people who have used variant...There are a number of people who have used variants of your approach. C.G. Jung pushed himself into great distress and creativity through his use of Active Imagination. see http://realitysandwich.com/56857/jungs_active_imagination/<br /><br />On the fringe there is John C, Lilly who always insisted on being his own test subject, and who realized that unconscious programs could play out that could be fatal. He relayed such an instance where he almost "accidentally" killed himself in his book, "The Centre of the Cyclone".<br /><br />Variations on the theme also involve the ways in which the imagination can symbolically encode a discovery. August Kekulé's discovery of the benzene ring comes to mind.<br /><br /><i>The new understanding of benzene, and hence of all aromatic compounds, proved to be so important for both pure and applied chemistry after 1865 that in 1890 the German Chemical Society organized an elaborate appreciation in Kekulé's honor, celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his first benzene paper. Here Kekulé spoke of the creation of the theory. He said that he had discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule after having a reverie or day-dream of a snake seizing its own tail (this is an ancient symbol known as the ouroboros).[10] This vision, he said, came to him after years of studying the nature of carbon-carbon bonds.</i> - from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekulé<br /><br />A researcher who discounts and ignores some of his own mental faculties, (e.g. imagination), when exploring the operation of the mind places himself at a severe disadvantage. Not only does it mean that these faculties are not explicitly brought to bear, but they may also insinuate themselves without the researcher being aware of them. Nicholas Fulfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15779171820370486921noreply@blogger.com