Michael Edwards (2 November 1930 – 13 March 2010) was a painter, pioneer art therapist, analytical psychologist and curator of the picture archive of the artwork of patients of C. G.
Around 1981 he established the first university-based art therapy training program in Canada, at Concordia University in Montreal, which later included a master's degree.
Edwards observed that Jung made art about his inner experiences as a "vivid source of personal insight into his situation; this, in turn, informed the development of his psychological theories.
[5] As a Jungian teacher and practitioner, Edwards influenced the field of art therapy internationally to appreciate the potential of symbols and images to carry multiple and ambiguous meanings.
He taught that approaching a painting or a drawing as if it were "independent and semi-autonomous"[6] would amplify rather than reduce its meanings and allow imaginative dialogue, to the end of deepening understanding of the art for both the patient and the therapist.