Category Archives: Depth Psychology

Metaphors Light Up The Brain

Imagination and the Brain

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There is a report of an interesting study on Psych Central about how metaphors are processed in the brain. The main point is that when someone hears a metaphor with a textural quality,  the parietal operculum,  the region of the brain that senses texture through touch, is activated . This is an interesting study for depth psychology for, as […]

Don’t Hide Inside Anger

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A video of James Hillman reading this poem from Rumi:

The light you give off did not come from a pelvis.
You're features did not begin in semen.
Don't try to hide inside anger,
radiance that cannot be hidden.

Hillman's take away quote from this clip for me is "It's easier to be angry than to think."

Here is the video:

The Path of Therapy

The Goal of Analysis

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On The Path I saw a post on the PsychCentral website this morning titled: Is There a Goal to the Psychoanalytic Process? In it the author, Leigh Pretnar Cousins, describes her original image of Psychoanaylsis as the endless “rehashing of every real or imagined detail of childhood, in a fruitless internal quest for The Answer to one’s […]

The Invisible Within The Visible

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Here is a video of James Hollis speaking at Andover Newton Theological School and giving an overview of his understanding of Depth Psychology.  According to Hollis, Depth Psychology is a means of addressing the question, "What is it that moves the soul?" It is a dialogue with the invisible world that "courses through the visible" and an effort to open ourselves to, and come to terms with, the "other," both within  and without--an other that is ultimately mysterious.

Here is the video:

More on Depth Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

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I'm following up my post about Jonathan Shedler's work on psychodynamic psychotherapy with a promotional video that he made for Pacifica Graduate Institute. In it he discusses his research and the value of this therapeutic approach.

One of the points Shedler makes in the video is that therapeutic success is, in large part, due to the quality of the therapeutic relationship. He suggests that this relational factor is central to a psychodynamic approach. And while there are certainly high quality relationships that form in other treatment modalities, it is psychodynamic therapy which makes the understanding of transference and countertransference dynamics a primary focus of treatment. 

Shedler makes other interesting points about learning to think psychologically and about the distinction between two kinds of practitioners--the clinicians and the technicians. He says:

"I think in the future there will be two kinds of therapists. There will be technicians who follow instruction manuals and there will be real clinicians who are able to understand their patients deeply and help them live more authentically."

Here is the video:

Psychotherapy

The Evidence For Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

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The therapeutic approach of Depth Psychology is psychodynamic in its nature. That is, it takes into account the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors in human experience. In many circles, psychodynamic approaches are seen as relics of the past. They have been replaced by quicker, cheaper, and presumably more effective “evidence based treatments,” such […]

Approaching The Numinous

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One aspect that differentiates Jungian Depth Psychology from other forms of therapy, is the importance that is placed on religious or numinous experiences.


For Jung, the experience of the numinous is the essential element of psychotherapy. In one of his letters he wrote: 

"You are quite right, the main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neurosis but rather with the approach to the numinous. But the fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character." 

Here is a video of Jungian Analyst Lionel Corbett, discussing the importance of such numinous experiences:

What is Depth Psychology?

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I am planning a series of posts about Depth Psychology, exploring what it is, the people who practice it and write about it, and how a depth-oriented psychotherapy understands and seeks to effect healing. 

I'm kicking off this series with this video in which Stephen Aizenstat, the founding president of Pacifica Graduate Institute, offers his attempt at a definition of Depth Psychology: