Imago

Mixed media oil painting on canvas, 24x36. 

Inspired by Jung’s concept of the Imago Dei, the archetype of the God-image which is considered as the wholeness of the personality embodied; it encompasses psyche and integrates and all its parts wholeheartedly, an immanent reflection of the divine imprinted within the unconscious. On the other hand, in Lacanian psychoanalysis the imago is an unconscious, ideal image held in infancy which fills the psychical stratum with a sense of unified self-image. During this mirror stage, one observes their form in the mirror, externalizing a sense of self which marks the arrival of a feeling of ‘self’ versus an ‘other.’ Lacan sees this as an external movement; Jung sees it as an internal process. 

"It might equally be called 'the God within us.' The beginnings of our whole psychic life seem to be inextricably rooted in this point, and all our highest and ultimate purposes seem to be striving toward it." — Carl Jung (From Collected Works 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology)