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...
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Did Jung and Tolkien visit the same psychic realms???
This Jungian Life
How can the shared imaginal realms of Jung and Tolkien empower us to navigate our personal journeys and transform our understanding of self and community? In exploring the uncanny shared imaginal realms of Jung and Tolkien, author Becca Tarnas uncovers a profound intersection of depth psychology and mythopoeic literature, revealed in their seminal Red Books. Amid the early 20th century's upheaval, both authors undertook personal and universal journeys into the psyche, employing active imagination to engage archetypes such as the shadow, anima, and hero. Their works, brimming with symbolic...
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Can Art Heal Us? The role of imagery in Jungian Analysis.
This Jungian Life
Can spontaneous art-making harness the power of imagery and symbols to promote emotional healing and self-discovery? Mark Dean, Jungian analyst, professional artist, professor, and art therapist, helps us explore the profound connection between art-making and psychological growth, using imagery, metaphors, and symbols as bridges between our conscious and unconscious minds. Rooted in Analytical Psychology, this approach helps us identify and process complex emotions, experiences, and foundational attitudes, promoting positive change in our relationships and psyche. This work emphasizes the...
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SELF-SABOTAGE: Why we do it and how to stop it.
This Jungian Life
Can understanding self-sabotage empower you to overcome hidden barriers and transform your life? Understanding Self-Sabotage is crucial for unlocking our true potential and overcoming barriers to personal growth. We can identify the unconscious complexes that hinder our progress by exploring internalized negative beliefs, fear of success, unresolved inner conflicts, and defense mechanisms like avoidance and self-handicapping. Through dream analysis, active imagination, and creative expression, we can transform self-sabotaging behaviors into opportunities for growth. Prepare to discover what...
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Does AI Dream Interpretation Really Work?
This Jungian Life
TRY OUT THE TEMENOS DREAM INTERPRETATION APP FOR FREE: Can the synergy between AI technology and human expertise revolutionize dream interpretation, promote personal growth, and ensure ethical considerations in the age of digital psychology? John Temple's AI dream interpretation app TEMENOS decodes dreams, providing insights into the unconscious. The app captures and analyzes dreams, offering immediate detailed feedback, relevant myths, images, and information on specific symbols while highlighting recurring themes. AI's ability to process large datasets allows a swift comparison of...
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MALIGNANT NARCISSISTS: they're closer than you think
This Jungian Life
How can recognizing and mitigating the psychological effects of toxic leadership protect people from regressing and aligning with dangerous leaders before it's too late? Understanding the effects of toxic leaders is crucial for fostering healthy organizational and societal dynamics. Malignant narcissism and large group regression can lead to destructive leadership, but by integrating psychological insights into leadership training and policy formulation, we can create environments that resist such toxicity. Education, ethical leadership, and community engagement are powerful tools that can...
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Can mythology really save our kids?
This Jungian Life
Can myth-based storytelling transform urban youth? Kwame Scruggs joins us to discuss how mythology can save our kids. He discovered urban youth development thrives through the transformative power of mythological storytelling. He engages young minds by connecting their experiences with universal themes. His programs incorporate myths that foster emotional healing, personal growth, and a sense of community, guiding youth to see themselves as heroes in their stories. These initiatives offer a holistic approach to education and empowerment by integrating analytical psychology and relevant...
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Psychodermatology: How Skin Communicates Unconscious Conflicts
This Jungian Life
How do skin conditions give voice to silent suffering in our souls? Our skin serves as a canvas for our emotional and psychological states, manifesting internal conflicts through visible conditions. The symbolic meaning behind skin conditions can reveal deep-seated emotional issues. Self-inflicted lesions highlight an individual's internal turmoil, serving as a cry for help. We all understand how blushing and sweating provide outer clues about our psychological landscape. Skin, a boundary between ego and the external world, exists as a threshold organ where experiences enter us and...
info_outlineThe 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 all but three children and takes them away forever.
Historians wonder if the account is an artifact of a devastating plague. The Lueneburg manuscript from about 1440 CE records the following event: “In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul on June 26, by a piper, clothed in many kinds of colours, 130 children born in Hamelin were seduced, and lost at the place of execution near the koppen.” But tragedy was common in the middle ages, and death a constant companion, so why has this account remained vital?
The enduring interest in the Pied piper lies in its symbolic resonance with psyche. When we place the events in our imaginal world, our curiosity is liberated, and our questions become more interesting. What are the pestilential rats inside us? What happens when we ask another person to solve our inner problems? How does the unconscious react when we trick and devalue the inner and outer figures who help us along our way?
Rats populate our inner and outer world. We use them as pharmacological proxies and share about 69% of the same DNA. We keep them as pets even as others work tirelessly to exterminate them from our buildings. In some cultures, they represent prosperity and are tended to as the reincarnation of family members. But foremost, they are survivors and adaptors living side by side in every human endeavor.
We project much shadow on rats accusing them of spreading disease and taking our food without permission – those ratfinks. They hold our unsavory instincts; like all shadow-invested objects, we want them gone! But why are we thankless when someone helps us achieve that? Freud’s Taboo insights suggest anyone associated with our ‘filth’ becomes impure, so degrading them engenders relief.
Complications with money play another part. We’re quick to promise payment when our need is aroused but grim when it’s time to write the check – our mounting credit card debt bears witness to that. Paying the piper evokes dread when we fail to imagine the complete cycle of exchange, and our inner infant is indignant being charged for restoring comfort. Shouldn’t it be free?!? We project our psyches into money and use similar terms for its fluctuations – inflation, depression, and devaluation. Handing over our cash feels like we’re sacrificing an inner potential, surrendering it to our creditors.
This may be a key that unlocks the fairytale.
Perhaps it’s warning us that there’s a cost to banishing our shadow. Strangely, rats, money, and children carry a similar symbolic valence. They all suggest unrealized potential. The vitality in our rat-shadow could have fueled a midlife renewal. Money could have turned our desires into realities. And our children could have carried our hopes into the future.
Perhaps demonizing any aspect of our potential puts all of it at risk, and banishing it to the unconscious may trigger strange, irresistible compulsions that can lead us astray.
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