The unconscious as a creative force: A look into the depths behind the visible
- alinaniedermark
- Apr 17
- 3 min read
How much of what we think, feel and do every day are we actually aware of?
What happens inside us when we are creative? Where do sudden inspirations, vivid visions, or the deep feeling that a work of art emerges "on its own" come from? To explore these questions, it's worth taking a look at the part of our mind that usually remains hidden from us—the unconscious.
In everyday life, we experience ourselves primarily through our conscious thoughts: we analyze, plan, evaluate. But this conscious part of our psyche is far smaller than we often believe. The majority of our inner experiences—including emotions, memories, physical sensations, images, and deeper patterns—operate in secret. According to studies by Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman, around 95% of our decisions are made unconsciously (see Zaltman, 2003). Neuroscientific research by Berlin brain researcher John-Dylan Haynes also shows that our brains become active several seconds before a conscious decision is made, without us noticing (see Soon et al., 2008). These findings shed new light on the question: How strongly does what we cannot see control us?
For me as an artist and art therapist, the unconscious is a place of depth, intuition, symbolism, and creative energy. It is not only the site of repression, as Freud once emphasized, but—in the spirit of CG Jung—also a source of creativity, transformation, and inner growth. Jung spoke of the unconscious not only as a look back into the past, but also as a future-oriented, creative force: as a movement between regression and progression. While regression confronts us with our roots, inner conflicts, and early imprints, progression can reveal new paths, give rise to visionary images, and lead the self to individuation—to the unfolding of one's own inner potential (cf. Jung, 1960).
This potential becomes particularly evident in the creative process. Thoughts dissolve, images arise, and sometimes it seems as if something is flowing through us. In such moments, the conscious self fades into the background, while a deeper, often inexplicable dynamic unfolds. Artistic creation thus becomes a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious—a dialogue between light and shadow, control and surrender, structure and intuition.
These processes fascinate me not only personally but also academically. During my master's degree in art therapy, I was able to experience how powerfully artistic work can be understood as an expression of unconscious processes – and how healing it is to make them visible, to engage with them, and to get to know oneself better through them. Colors, shapes, and symbols have the power to express the unspeakable. They provide a platform for inner parts that often lack direct space in everyday language.
Dreams also arise from this depth: manifestations of inner movements, often full of riddles and metaphors. They, too, are among those forms of expression through which the unconscious speaks to us—rich, ambiguous, and full of clues to what wants to work within us. They will be given their own space in a later post.
The unknown, the deeply hidden—both in relation to ourselves and to other people and events in the world—can seem very diffuse, initially confusing, and uncanny. This "not knowing," which we often fear, actually contains a treasure. It allows us to discover new connections, recognize inner patterns, and think beyond the familiar.
For me, artistic work is one of the ways to connect with this in depth. It's a quiet inward exploration, an experimentation with forms, colors, symbols—always a dialogue with something that cannot be expressed in words, yet still speaks. I would therefore like to encourage people to see the unconscious not only as something distant and unfathomable, but as a living, creative space. A space that holds not only personal but also collective images full of wisdom and unimagined fascination—and that can unfold its full depth in the creative process.
Sources:
Zaltman, G. (2003). How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market . Harvard Business School Press. see pp. 45–47.
Soon, C.S., Brass, M., Heinze, H.J., & Haynes, J.D. (2008). Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain . Nature Neuroscience, 11(5), 543–545. see pp. 544–545.
Jung, CG (1960). Psychological Types . In: Collected Works, Vol. 6. Olten: Walter Verlag. See pp. 126–130.
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