Noise and the Inner Life

“Noise protects us from painful reflection, it scatters our anxious dreams, it assures us that we are all in the same boat and creating such a racket that nobody will dare to attack us. Noise is so insistent, so overwhelmingly real, that everything else becomes a pale phantom. It relieves us of the effort to […]

Work without a sense of destiny

Work and the Soul: Cultivating a Sense of Destiny

The Soul of Work One of the fundamental problems with our experience of work today is that we do not have sufficient complexity in the way we imagine this central human activity. Too often, when we ask questions of our work, they touch on issues of security, stability, and predictability, but not at all on […]

As We Are: Psychological Fantasy and Personal Growth

“We do not see things as they are,” goes a saying attributed to Anaïs Nin, “we see them as we are.” The origin of this saying is in doubt — some, including Nin herself, attribute it to the Talmud — but it expresses an important truth.  Psychological Fantasy and the Creation of the World The world does […]

Wisdom of the Dream, pt. 5: Dreaming of the Future

This is the final part in the series of postings examining the Wisdom of the Dream conference put on by the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston this past fall. The discussions of the other speakers and presenters in this series can be found by clicking these links: William Ventimiglia, Robert Stickgold, Erik Goodwyn, Jill Fischer, […]

Wisdom of the Dream, pt. 4: Dreams and the Body

In this post I continue my look at the Wisdom of the Dream conference put on by the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston. To read the previous posts in this series just click on the following links:  Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. In this fourth part I will discuss the experiential dream group […]

Jungian Therapy and the Restoration of Meaning

The Undiscovered Self In 1957, Carl Jung wrote an essay titled The Undiscovered Self which addresses “the plight of the individual in modern society.” It is a powerful and important work that, in many ways, incorporates and outlines many of the main insights of his whole life’s work. The heart of Jung’s thesis is that the […]

Inner Vision: How Paying Attention to Images Heals

Attention to Images in Jungian Therapy   One of the elements that distinguishes Jungian therapy from some other forms of psychotherapy is its respect for and attention to images. In Jungian psychology, images are understood to be the primary mode through which the activity of the psyche is revealed. Images are not simply reflections of […]

Love Even This: The Road to Self-Acceptance

“I just wish I could stop feeling this way.” Nicole often struggled with bouts of anxiety that were not only a cause for frustration but a source of deep shame. She hated that she had these experiences and considered it a weakness. For Nicole, the concept of self-acceptance was as foreign as they come. Therapy […]

The Perils of the Unlived Life

The Unlived Life of the Parents  One of the most potent forces upon the psyche of the individual, according to C.G. Jung, is the unlived life of one’s parents. By this he means the potentials of the parents that have remained unrealized and the personal qualities that have never been developed or expressed.  Jung, however, […]