A Teacher
Frances Wickes
The inner world of childhood and the unconscious
The transmission
Frances G. Wickes was an American Jungian analyst and author, a close associate of C.G. Jung, best known for The Inner World of Childhood (1927, with an introduction by Jung) and The Inner World of Man.
Working at the intersection of education and depth psychology, she explored the autonomous life of the unconscious, the symbolic inner world of children, and the role of imagination and the “inner figures” that shape psychic life.
Wickes’s relevance to the mind-power lineage is as a depth-psychological counterpoint to the New Thought stream within this lineage: rather than directing thought to produce outcomes, she illuminates how the unconscious, imagination, and inner imagery operate largely beyond conscious control yet profoundly shape experience.
Her work connects the manifestation cluster to the Jungian understanding of the imaginal and the autonomy of the psyche, offering a more psychologically cautious account of “inner creation” that complicates simple mind-over-matter claims while affirming the formative power of inner imagery.
What they gave
Inner world mapping: Detailed the symbolic, semi-autonomous inner life of children and adults.
- Imagination as formative: Emphasized inner figures and imagery as shapers of lived experience.
- Jungian transmission: Carried Jung’s depth psychology into education and the study of childhood.
- Psychological counterweight: Provided a nuanced, unconscious-centered alternative to deliberate mind-power claims.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: C.G. Jung; analytical/depth psychology; studies of imagination and the inner life.
- Influenced: Jungian child psychology; creativity and inner-world work; depth-psychological approaches to imagination.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- The Inner World of Childhood1927
- The Inner World of Man1938
- The Inner World of Choice1963