When Nise da Silveira meets C. G. Jung

This article examines how the systematic study of analytical psychology was introduced in Brazil by Nise da Silveira. Jung identified the production of mandala-like circular forms in the Occupational Therapy Department workshops, as an attempt to reorganize the psyche, in cases of severe dissociation of the consciousness. It was characteristic of a compensation process between the consciousness and the unconscious realm. These first studies were completed by the recognition of mythological themes (mythologems) in the unfolding of the series of images of the unconscious, making a theoretico-methodological inflection possible in clinical practice, as well as in the research carried out by the team at the Museum of Images of the Unconscious. Nisa da Silveira’s therapeutic method served as the foundation for the creation of teaching processes implemented by the teams of the Jungian Paths Group and the Nise da Silveira Fellowship at the Federal University of São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais, Brazil.