Game of Lives! and the universality of images: The search for the self during adolescence through symbolic play

Journal title STUDI JUNGHIANI
Author/s Valerio Colangeli
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/63
Language Italian Pages 18 P. 11-28 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/jun63-2026oa22847
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Working with images has always been a distinctive feature of the Jungian method. The images through which the unconscious expresses itself are rooted not only in the individual psyche but also in the collective dimension, in the universality of mythical and archetypal structures. Likewise, the culture of every society is the product of a creative exchange of languages, symbols, and images, shaped over the centuries through the stories and encounters of individuals and communities.

In therapeutic work with adolescents attending a semi-residential community mental health service, symbolic play and creative writing provide a bridge between reality and imagination, making it possible to gradually engage not only with the young people’s individual inner worlds but also with the cultures they embody and carry within them. The group workshop setting thus becomes a container for “shared and individuative experiences of the reality of the psyche” (Berruti, 2018), as well as the birthplace of an emerging culture in which each participant is simultaneously author and witness. Symbolic play, for children as well as for adults, is always narrative, social, and cultural; it tells us something about the individual and about their experience of the external world (Croci, 1998).

This paper describes and examines the workshop “Game of Lives, between creative writing and role-playing”, through the stories of two young women with histories of violence, abuse, and social marginalization. Particular attention is given to the characters they created and to their journeys of exploration, growth, and transformation through shared adventures, meaningful choices, and play in its sacred and universal dimension. Drawing upon archetypal images and narrative structures, the workshop fosters the co-construction of a new culture grounded in acceptance, mutual understanding, integration, reciprocal knowledge, and respect for the uniqueness of every human being as part of the Universal.

Keywords: analytical psychology;inner setting;role playing;creative writing;myth;archetypes;adolescence;Hero’s Jurney

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Valerio Colangeli, Game of Lives! e l’universalità delle immagini: la ricerca del Sé, in adolescenza, attraverso il gioco simbolico in "STUDI JUNGHIANI" 63/2026, pp 11-28, DOI: 10.3280/jun63-2026oa22847