Carl Jung's "Art Complex"

Jungian Psychology has increasingly informed my artwork as I have gone deeper in my practice of dream recording and reflection. Jung focused on the concept of the collective unconscious, as reflected in myth, alchemy, religion, and most all, art. He had a complex relationship with art. He held the conviction that artists' work did not belong to them, that they did not originate simply from the artists' own lives or neuroses, but that it originated in the unconscious, containing ages-old wisdom and experiences that go beyond the individual. Obviously this is a controversial position, but a fascinating one. He references the experience of many of the world's greatest artists, which is of being at the mercy of the "creative process", an often relentless experience not always controlled by the will of the artist. He referred to art as a reflection of the times, and is contextualized by past collective experience and stories. I attached a quote from Jung as found in this article that uses metaphor to explain his position:

"Personal causes have as much or as little to do with a work of art as the soil with the plant that springs from it…The plant is not a mere product of the soil; it is a living self-contained process which in essence has nothing to do with the character of the soil. In the same way, the meaning and individual quality of a work of art inhere within it and not in its extrinsic determinants. One might almost describe it as a living being that uses man only as a nutrient medium, employing his capabilities according to its own laws and shaping itself to the fulfillment of its own creative pattern."