Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper applies a Jungian analysis to drawings by university students in a cultural enrichment humanities art class over a period of four semesters during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through this review, it is possible to gain insight about the emotional and developmental health of students under individual and societal stress, which can benefit both the teacher and the student in their individual roles. Sharing these images in the context of a Jungian interpretation with other teachers may aid in their understanding of their students’ mindset and inform their approach to teaching during a pandemic. The analysis presented here is a combination of art pedagogy and psychological interpretation of the resulting images. Given a general prompt that included one specific element, students from all areas of campus created drawings which were intended to measure their technical competency in drawing but also to engage their creative abilities. The work was then analyzed by identifying common and repeated archetypes throughout the work. Individual students reacted to this collective event in similar ways since their shared experience is informed by archetypes in the collective unconscious that are activated by the event. The drawings illustrate archetypal images that demonstrate the psychic process of individuation and can be interpreted as normal coping mechanisms that illustrate the challenges of coming of age during a time of individual and societal stress. A Jungian analysis of the artwork of college students can aid teachers in understanding the emotional and mental state of students during a stressful collective event.