loader from loading.io

Bipolar Disorder: A Jungian Perspective

This Jungian Life

Release Date: 01/19/2023

CAN JUNG’S HOME WITHSTAND REPURPOSING? show art CAN JUNG’S HOME WITHSTAND REPURPOSING?

This Jungian Life

It seems that an intrepid consortium of impact investors, real estate developers, and the Swiss Tourism, Farming, and Dairy Products Oversight Authority have created a juggernaut heading for  in Kusnacht and his famous tower in . The enterprise called Große Böse Wölfe Hinein Unterwäsche has announced its plans to finalize the acquisition of Jung’s estate and transform it. The modernization of revered sites is familiar across the world. Saddled with mounting maintenance costs and increasing government regulation, British Estates have been repurposed as luxury...

info_outline
SCHADENFREUDE: Why do we enjoy seeing others fail? show art SCHADENFREUDE: Why do we enjoy seeing others fail?

This Jungian Life

Schadenfreude, the joy in someone else’s misfortune, is a common human experience. We often feel it when someone we believe deserves it embarrasses themselves or is caught in a scandal. Nietzsche once said, “Humor is just schadenfreude with a clear conscience.” This is true, as many comedic scenes involve some form of hilarious undoing. However, when this pleasure becomes malicious, it can be troubling. Some rules govern schadenfreude. We feel pleasure when an envied person is shamed because it tarnishes their status, making them seem less superior. We delight in the failure of...

info_outline
The PIED PIPER & the terrible costs of rejecting shadow show art The PIED PIPER & the terrible costs of rejecting shadow

This Jungian Life

The Pied Piper story holds a dark secret that has repelled and fascinated us for over 500 years. It asks, "What does it cost to banish our shadow?"  At its surface, it looks like a simple morality tale cautioning us to be prudent and fair. Rats overrun a town, and the locals are beside themselves. A magical piper vibrantly dressed offers a solution too good to be true. His pipe weaves a tune that leads rats to their doom – and they drown in the ocean so neatly. Thrilled at first, then cunning and foolish, the town leaders refuse to pay the piper for his service. In turn, he entrances...

info_outline
The ORPHAN: symbol of eros, pathos, and hope show art The ORPHAN: symbol of eros, pathos, and hope

This Jungian Life

The archetype of the orphan, closely related to the hero, evokes powerful feelings of abandonment, deprivation, and hope. From Harry Potter to Little Orphan Annie from Daenerys Targaryen to Cinderella, orphans who triumph over adversity remind us that healing the inner child is possible. The factual history of orphans is frequently heartbreaking. In the ancient world, unwanted infants were subject to abandonment or death through exposure. In the US,  moved 200,00 children from NE coastal cities to live with farm families between 1853 to 1929. Journalists exposed the nightmare...

info_outline
PASSING THE TEST: embracing the refiner’s fire show art PASSING THE TEST: embracing the refiner’s fire

This Jungian Life

The word test originally referred to an earthenware vessel in which metals were smelted to separate ore from dross. Like ancient vessels holding the heat of the refining fire, our task is to contain the tension of the test. Tests smelt fantasy from the ore of reality and force us to adapt. If a test feels arbitrary or unfair, we may be failing to dissolve the dross of inadequacy, limitation, or shame. Tests require us to develop the ego strength to put our courage, morals, and perseverance on the line—and withstand the ego wounding of failure. Ultimately ego itself is put to the test. Jung...

info_outline
AWAKE TO THE WORLD: Jung’s Ethical Stance show art AWAKE TO THE WORLD: Jung’s Ethical Stance

This Jungian Life

Despite volumes written on morality and ethics, how do we determine what’s right? Values distilled over time by family, faith, and nation define and denounce wrong, but the effort to banish shadow only allows it to emerge as projection onto others. We decry in ‘them’ what we deny in ourselves. Jung says, “The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality…for to become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects [of oneself]…as present and real.”  We have all faced a moral dilemma at some point in our lives, questioning our own judgment and...

info_outline
IRRESISTIBLE INVITATIONS: the powerful seduction of possibilities show art IRRESISTIBLE INVITATIONS: the powerful seduction of possibilities

This Jungian Life

Invitations are a subtle siren song, tapping into our primal human need to be chosen combined with our thirst for novelty, making them an irresistible force. When you receive an invitation, it is a moment of recognition, an invitation to be a part of something greater, to feel wanted, valued, and accepted. In the hierarchy of human needs, the sense of belonging takes a top priority, surpassed only by our basic requirements for survival. There is power in inviting and being invited. The myth of Baucis and Philemon, who innocently invited Zeus and Hermes to dine in their humble cottage, and were...

info_outline
APHRODITE’S SHADOW: Drowning in Beauty show art APHRODITE’S SHADOW: Drowning in Beauty

This Jungian Life

When the goddess Aphrodite claims us too fully, over time, our bodies become abandoned temples of physical perfection, sexual allure, and romantic passion.   Her seductive archetypal power has captivated us for eons, but in today’s world, the enhancements of fashion, beauty, and physical appearance have intensified veneration of this goddess. However, her enchantments can have profound consequences, particularly when it comes to aging and the pressures of perfection.  In this episode, we delve into the mysterious realm of the archetype with guest Arlene Landau, Ph.D. - a...

info_outline
Sacred Marriage: A Fusion of Instinct, Spirit, and Grit show art Sacred Marriage: A Fusion of Instinct, Spirit, and Grit

This Jungian Life

Marriage is a mystery woven into the fabric of time. A 4,000-year-old contract etched in stone bears witness to its timeless significance. But what is the meaning behind this union of two souls? Jung saw the definition of marriage as an alchemy of instinct and divinity, a blending of the physical and the spiritual. It is a bond that extends beyond legal and familial ties into the realm of the sacred. The purpose of marriage is a journey of individuation, a chance for each partner to grow and flourish within the embrace of a supportive union -  it is a crucible of transformation. Tempered...

info_outline
The Schizophrenia Complex: How Do We Love Those in Chaos? show art The Schizophrenia Complex: How Do We Love Those in Chaos?

This Jungian Life

Guest Eve Maram, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst in Orange, CA. Her book, The Schizophrenia Complex, presents a clear-eyed and compassionate understanding of our encounters with severe mental illness. The submergence in unconscious chaos that defines schizophrenia triggers negative emotions in others—yet Jung on psychosis showed that we are different from those patients only in degree. Significantly his Word Association Test proved that the unconscious influences everyone’s daily life in multiple ways. Moreover, Jung’s psychiatric work with psychotic...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

Imprisoned by the sea with his son Icarus, mythological craftsman Daedalus constructed wings to escape. Beeswax held feathers in place, so Daedalus told Icarus not to fly too high or too low: the sun’s heat would melt the wax and sea spray would weigh the wings down. Elated, Icarus flew too high--and fell. Like Icarus, the moods of people with bipolar disorder swing from soaring into mania to sinking into depression. This disorder affects at least 2% of the population worldwide, with genetics by far the major contributor. BP is a major cause of disability and can also be a factor in creativity; it often brings with it anxiety, substance abuse, migraines, and more. Treatment includes medication, attention to lifestyle, and psychotherapy that includes relating to archetypal polarities. Jung says, “It is not a matter of indifference whether one calls something a ‘mania’ or a ‘god.’ To serve a mania is detestable and undignified, but to serve a god is full of meaning and promise.” Bipolar individuals soar between opposing archetypes leaving them exhausted and confused. Myths help ground the ego in a larger perspective.

Here's the dream we analyze:

“I am in a restaurant busy with people standing and moving around. I too am standing and have been given a seafood dish in an opaque glass (at first like a fancy stemmed glass for cocktail shrimp) and I slurp some of it down. Looking into the vessel I realize I've been eating raw seahorses. I continue to eat, one and then another, not wanting to be rude. They are slimy, room-temp, and gray. I look again into the vessel, which now is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom as if the seahorses, barely submerged in a grey liquid, are in a dark pit that I have to peer into, and I do realize that some of them are still moving, puckering their lips trying to breathe. I decide I cannot keep eating them. I go to where murky puddles have formed in the cement by the melting ice and crab parts of the kitchen's seafood prep. I assume the puddles to be brackish, or at least can provide a more bearable end of life for the seahorses, so I throw them in by flicking the glass. There are still more seahorses stuck to the bottom of the glass, my flicking hindered by its strange shape. People are standing and talking around the puddles now, so it's discreetly that I quickly flick the rest of the seahorses out, not wanting to be seen doing it and not wanting the seahorses to be seen in the puddles.” 

 REFERENCES:

Buzz Aldrin. Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon. https://a.co/d/j1IQZID

Jason Thompson. A Jungian Approach to Bipolar Disorder: Rejoining the Split Archetype. https://a.co/d/fZS821Y

Kay Redfield Jamison (multiple books): An Unquiet Mind; Manic-Depressive Illness; Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament; Exuberance: The Passion for Life. 

S-town podcast. https://stownpodcast.org/

Werner Herzog (film). Grizzly Man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Man

GIVE US A HAND!

Hey folks,

We need your help. Please become our patron and keep This Jungian Life podcast up and running: https://www.patreon.com/ThisJungianLife

JUMP IN THE POOL - THE WATER’S FINE!

We’ve created Dream School to teach others how to work with their dreams. A vibrant community has constellated around this mission, and we think you’ll love it. Check it out: https://thisjungianlife.com/enroll/

RESOURCES:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisJungianLife/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisjungianlifepodcast/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisjungianlife/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThisJungianLife

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe8QSBLNlv765pT097FDeLA  

Enroll in the Philadelphia Jungian Seminar and start your journey to becoming an analyst: https://www.cgjungphiladelphia.org/seminar.shtml