STUCK IN THE COMFORT ZONE: When Wrong Feels Right, and Right Feels Wrong
This Jungian Life
Too often, we cling to what feels familiar, even when it harms us or others. We shy away from what’s better because it feels odd or awkward. Understanding the tension between Ego-Syntonic and Ego-Dystonic behaviors is essential for personal growth. Often, we cling to familiar patterns that feel comfortable (ego-syntonic), even when they increase our suffering, while the changes that can truly transform our lives feel unsettling (ego-dystonic). By embracing the discomfort of novel actions and confronting the parts of ourselves we have long rejected, we can align with our authentic Self. True...
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PARENTAL COMPLEXES: How They Shape Your Child’s Future
This Jungian Life
Our parent's complexes influence their behavior toward us, causing unintended consequences. It's as if we were raised by their unresolved emotional issues. Parental complexes shape our emotional and psychological development, influencing how we relate to others and perceive ourselves, often in ways we aren’t fully aware of. These feeling-toned webs of unresolved emotional struggles unconsciously shape our parent’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors. To some degree, we are raised by our parent’s complexes rooted in generational trauma, cultural pressures, and societal expectations. As...
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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...
info_outlineWhat is “I’m sorry” as a habitual response really about? There’s the preemptive apology that is offered to forestall possible criticism, the apology that evokes reassurance from others, the apology for falling short of perfection…and more. This episode explores developmental, interpersonal, and intrapsychic dynamics of various kinds of habitual apologizing. We’ll be sorry if it falls short of your expectations.
The Dream:
I'm at a holiday "work party" for the very exclusive private school where I work, but it's in a big, old, rather shabby hotel that reminds me of a firehouse where my family used to have annual holiday gatherings. I'm mingling among all of the people and (as is true in my conscious life) can't seem to find a group with which I feel completely comfortable or myself. I feel like a lonely misfit in disguise, feigning conformity and pleasant attitude. I go upstairs to where the bathroom is supposed to be, and it feels very far away from the party--the second floor is creepily empty and quiet, with several large, empty rooms. I don't remember actually going into a bathroom, but as I'm about to go back downstairs to the party, I see an infant boy teetering at the top of the staircase on the landing. He is far too small to be walking. I immediately pick him up to save him, and he looks up at me, clearly distressed, and begins speaking as a much older child would. I ask him where his mother is, and he says he doesn't know, and is crying.
I don't remember all of what he says, but he tells me that he is in kindergarten. I hold him to my chest and he begins to calm down, eventually falling asleep. I feel affection for him and give him a kiss on the cheek, but I'm alarmed and unsure of what we will do. I go downstairs to the bartender of this party and ask where this boy's mother might be. He says, "probably in the party upstairs." No one at the work party seems to notice or care that I have this lost baby. I go back upstairs, and as before, there is no one there--just an open door exposing a room with these creepy, industrial looking blue closet doors (almost like storage spaces) underneath a fluorescent light. I feel a deep sense that this situation is not right, and a strong determination to get myself and the baby out of there. The dream ends with me standing on the landing, baby still pressed against me.