Episode 104 - Therapist Disclosures: Withholding or Overloading?
Release Date: 03/26/2020
SHADOWLAND: Relentless Pain - the story of Jean Campbell
This Jungian Life
JEAN CAMPBELL is a supermodel who from the outside looks to be living a fairy tale life. Stunningly beautiful, she has modeled on the international stage for brands including Alexander McQueen, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton and Burberry. Of course, nothing is ever so simple (especially in fairy tales). After experiencing a traumatic injury at a young age, Jean had to learn how to live with chronic pain. She underwent multiple surgeries, and confronted despair induced by the extreme physical and emotional challenges she faced. Shadowland is our This Jungian Life forum for exploring...
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Demure Social Media Trend: Elegant or Oppressive?
This Jungian Life
Does the Demure social media trend offer a path to true elegance or reinforce restrictive norms in an extroverted world? The Demure social media trend has become a countercultural movement that seems to promote elegance, modesty, and introspection in stark contrast to the flamboyant exhibitionistic behaviors often seen online. It forces us to question whether its rise signifies a return to refined values or a subtle form of oppression, as it compensates the extroverted behaviors that dominate modern society. By prioritizing simplicity, restraint, and authenticity, the demure trend resonates...
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Loyalty to Self and the Death of Illusion
This Jungian Life
Loyalty is deeply tied to our identity and evolves unconsciously, shaping our relationships and expectations. This evolution is influenced by attachment styles and can be manipulated in political contexts, distorting our sense of fairness. Disillusionment occurs when our loyalty to people, institutions, or ideas meets harsh reality, leading to the painful but necessary process of individuation. Mourning the loss of illusions requires taking responsibility for our lives and listening to the wisdom of the unconscious. Choosing Self over the system—whether through personal decisions like coming...
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VOLCANO: ARCHETYPE OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION
This Jungian Life
Volcanoes appear in our myths, movies, and dreams. Their awesome destructive power fascinates us and serves as a reminder that we are not in control of nature’s primordial forces. Offering access to the earth’s molten core, volcanoes have been believed to be the entryway to the underworld or Hell. The Greeks believed that the fiery bursts from volcanoes were the sparks flying from Hephaestus’ forge, thus underscoring the creative aspect of volcanoes – Hephaestus created items of incredible beauty and power in his underground workshop. Volcanoes create new rocks and new land mass. Their...
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The Secret Life of a Woman's Soul
This Jungian Life
What is unique about the evolution of consciousness in the female psyche? Hilary Morgan, filmmaker and granddaughter of Christiana Morgan, created the documentary "Tower of Dreams" to lift up her grandmother's significant contributions to analytical psychology and her exploration of the feminine psyche. Christiana's visionary art and collaboration with Carl Jung, particularly her influence on the Vision Seminars, were pivotal in clarifying how archetypal forces emerge in the psyche and eventually adopt human forms. Her tower embodied her individuation process and created sacred space to...
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UNLOCK THE POWER OF SYMBOLS
This Jungian Life
Author, teacher, and Jungian analyst Murray Stein helps us unlock the power of symbols. Symbols, as the keys to unlocking psychological forces, have the transformative potential to heal our suffering and restore our relationship to the center of our being. These images connect our waking minds to the unconscious reservoirs of creativity and emerging potential. From historical religious practices to modern everyday life, symbols evoke powerful emotional and psychological responses that can guide or manipulate us. Whether through dreams, visions, or cultural contexts, symbols bridge the...
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LUXURY BELIEFS: Has social class shaped your mind?
This Jungian Life
What unconscious beliefs alienate us from those who are less privileged and what can we do about it? Rob Henderson, author of the best-selling book "Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class," explores the concept of "Luxury Beliefs." Raised in poverty by a drug-addicted mother and navigating a series of painful foster care homes, Henderson found outward success through the military, Yale, and Cambridge but never resolved his inner suffering. His self-reflection led him to identify "Luxury Beliefs," attitudes prevalent among his affluent peers that serve as social status...
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Is it Love or Abuse of Power? Shadow and Archetype in TELL THEM YOU LOVE ME
This Jungian Life
Can we protect ourselves and others from powerful projections that confuse reality and make us vulnerable in ways we cannot imagine? In honest and open discussion, we meet with director Nick August-Perna, whose controversial documentary, "Tell Them You Love Me," has set off a firestorm. Rutgers professor Anna Stubblefield claimed to unlock Derrick Johnson through facilitated communication. Debate erupted about whether Johnson, a nonverbal Black man with cerebral palsy, could give consent. Was this true love, or an abuse of power? Race, informed consent, the personal autonomy of people with...
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ARE YOU TRACKING TWISTERS? The reckless charm of creating tornados in our lives.
This Jungian Life
How can understanding the symbolic power of twisters help us navigate and transform the chaotic forces in our lives with resilience and wisdom? Twisters symbolize the spontaneous upheaval in the ordinary affairs of life that can be annihilating or transformative. These swirling vortexes are manifestations of the sacred, expressions of celestial and generative power that were communicated to the terrestrial realm. From Kiowa legends to Jungian analysis, tornados personify an aspect of the unconscious capable of volatility and violent acts of destruction, yet the same forces provided...
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PERSONAL SHADOW WORK: Where is your dark twin hiding?
This Jungian Life
Where are our lost talents and disowned powers hiding? PERSONAL SHADOW WORK: Where is your dark twin hiding? Helps us identify parts of ourselves pushed into the unconscious due to conflicts with our family of origin and misalignment with cultural and family norms. We first encounter shadow by projecting it on others. The despicable traits we cannot stand in others point to similar qualities we refuse to acknowledge in ourselves. Self-confrontation and honest introspection can help us say, “I am the one who hides this terrible flaw inside myself. I am the one who rejects my inner dark...
info_outlineShould an analyst share personal information with clients? Freud believed that the analyst should be devoid of personal presence, so he sat unseen behind his famous couch. Jung realized that regardless of theory, psychotherapy entailed two people in a room interacting.
He likened two personalities to chemical substances: as they combined both would be altered. Jung and his patients interacted face to face, for Jung welcomed the complexities of human relationship. Relational dynamics are the bedrock of the therapeutic process; we invite them into the consulting room.
Vulnerabilities, friendliness, power dynamics, humor, and shadow’s many manifestations appear in body language, facial expression, and feeling tone as well as language. Humans are wired to read one another, so disclosure is inevitable. The crucial concern for the therapist is that disclosures serve authentic relationship, including the deconstruction of isolation and shame when we as therapists are seen in our humanity.
Dream
It’s the middle of the night and pitch black outside. I am in a car with my therapist; she is driving slowly and talking to me. I listen and reply in a quiet voice with a rather trivial statement; I also use pretentious wording like ‘sine qua non’, which is not like me. She nods in agreement. I move closer but she raises her eyebrows and I pull back to my seat, concerned that I might have seemed inappropriate.
We start hearing a man in the distance, singing a beautiful operatic aria. His voice is mesmerising and sad. All of a sudden, I and my therapist are in the back seats and I cannot see who is driving the car. The voice is getting louder and I get more scared by the minute. The man is now forcing the front door opposite the driving seat, and has attached to the car. I am aware he is breaking in and I am terrorised.
I wake up with my heart beating and check on my husband who is sleeping, then go listen at my son’s door. By this point, my consciousness has fully returned and I know it was just a dream. I have a certain name in mind, a man I knew briefly but who was important in my life, but I am wise enough to realise the man could also be a part of myself.