Remaking the Imago Paterna: A Heuristic Enquiry

Abstract

Jung’s imago encapsulates mythic, internal representations of others, born from subjective experience, culture, and archetypes. Often, psychotherapy analyzes and reconstructs this image. In this article, heuristics were used to explore the first author’s image of his father—assembled from fragmented subjectivity and absence. Following Moustakas’s phases, he engaged archetypal themes, literature, and poetry to confront and reimagine this image. Viewed as a mythic journey, psychotherapy becomes both a creative act and a transgenerational rite of passage. The rewriting of imago through therapy reimagines relationships and narratives, complicating Western ideals of individuality while reframing familial and archetypal connections.