This Jungian Life
Eavesdrop on three Jungian analysts as they engage in lively, sometimes irreverent conversations about a wide range of topics. Join them for a discussion of news events, family dynamics, personal issues, and more as they share what it’s like to see the world through the depth psychological lens provided by CG Jung. Half of each episode is spent discussing a dream submitted by a listener. Lisa, Joseph, and Deb went through their Jungian training together, becoming friends and developing creative partnerships.
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The Heart of Transformation with Michael Meade
10/15/2026
The Heart of Transformation with Michael Meade
Many of us live with heavy awareness of cultural unraveling, and the natural world faces sustained and escalating threats. According to author, storyteller and podcaster MICHAEL MEADE, humanity has reached the end of an era, with no clear vision of what is to come. Michael's new book,, offers a fundamentally hopeful perspective. Despite the divisions, conflicts and betrayals of our time, the essential story of the world—birth, death, rebirth—endures and is ready to be rediscovered. The loose threads of our unraveling world are waiting to be woven into something new, and the secret of this transformation lies not in politics or activism, but in the depths of the individual heart and soul. Meanwhile, we inhabit a phase of life that is full of chaos and creativity. Like butterfly larvae, we rest in darkness, the outcome of our mysterious transformation unclear. We must find a way to accept the dark and recognize it as a rite of passage in service of new and transformed life. Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller and author who combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths. He is the creator of the, and the founder of. His latest book is Visit our to follow up on the resources we mention in this episode. Connect With This Jungian Life Join Lisa at the in Switzerland this December. This Jungian Life listeners can now claim a 15% discount. for us to analyze on the show Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on
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Inflation, Grandiosity and the Denial of Human Limits
10/08/2026
Inflation, Grandiosity and the Denial of Human Limits
Psychological inflation implies an exaggerated sense of self-importance, accompanied by an unconscious feeling of inferiority. For Jungians, it involves identification with an archetypal energy. When the ego starts to feel that it IS an archetype, rather than feeling awed by it or in contact with it, this can be dangerous psychologically. Negative inflation occurs when a person feels entitled and special because they are suffering, perceiving themselves as unusually and interestingly hard done by. They feel they are owed help from others to solve the problems they are experiencing. We all have experience of dealing with people in the grip of inflation. The word itself gives us an evocative image: the inflated person is puffed up by the oxygen of their own self-importance. They come across as pompous and presumptuous, because they feel more than human. Psyche seeks balance, so we may also observe that under the unbearable arrogance lie feelings of inferiority, terror of mortality, or awareness of weakness and vulnerability - all the aspects of the human condition that the inflated person seeks to deny. These are also people who can be subject to outbursts of rage, frustrated by the failure of reality to conform to their sense of omnipotence and entitlement. The second half of life offers us the possibility of surrendering to something greater and experiencing the relativization of the ego, essentially a deflationary process. If we do not surrender to this new humility and find a way to be in service to something larger, we may stumble into darkness. Join us this week as we circumambulate the concept of inflation, drawing on examples including Kanye West, Elizabeth Holmes, Icarus, Prometheus, and the fairy tale of the Fisherman and his Wife. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Join Lisa at the in Switzerland this December. This Jungian Life listeners can now claim a 15% discount. Download our free for us to analyze on the show Watch bonus mini-episodes on our
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Outsourcing Love: AI and Relationships
10/01/2026
Outsourcing Love: AI and Relationships
When we ask AI for advice, what we are offered is comparable to psychopathy: a performance of warm emotional intelligence without care or concern for our fate. As today’s guest Dr. Aaron Balick has written, “it may have a warm exterior, but its heart is code”. Nevertheless, many of us now have a close relationship with AI, in which it draws on an extensive store of information about us to create feelings of intimacy and dependence. This has unknown and extensive consequences for the psyche. Wired as we are for relationships, we load AI with projections, which it then enthusiastically reinforces, exploiting the Achilles heel of our human need for attachment. We discuss how AI fits into our understanding of object relations, the ways social media has groomed us to desire constant validation, how we could be using AI differently, why therapists must not ignore technological change, and much more. Our guest, will be the co-chair of our free summit on, happening next Thursday October 8th. Aaron is a psychotherapist, author, and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, and a founding member and former chair of. His book was among the first to apply psychoanalytic theory to social media. His Substack is . Visit our to read today’s dream and to find links to the resources we mention. Follow Up This Episode Join our free summit on Visit Aaron Balick’s Attend This Jungian Life’s seminar on active imagination this Saturday:
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Patience is Not Passivity
09/24/2026
Patience is Not Passivity
This week’s guest, Jungian analyst Dr. Warren Sibilla, defines patience as the ability to live one's life with eyes, ears, and heart wide open. That is a far cry from waiting to see what happens, or giving up. Patience asks us to go within, find the capacity for containment, and recognize that choosing non-action can be the needed form of action. We recognize, feel, and suffer the situation that has arisen, but resist the urge to immediate action in the external world. We search instead for discernment, containment, and meaning making in the internal world. It takes work to develop staying power. The fairy tale heroine in Six Swans worked in silence for six years to weave starflower shirts to liberate her six brothers. Penelope in Homer’s Odyssey spent years weaving her father-in-law’s shroud each day and undoing it at night. Like them, we may be required to work patiently on taxing tasks with uncertain outcomes. The gift of such labors is a sovereign self in relationship with the Self. The quality of patience is central to psychoanalysis. Analysands arrive seeking solutions to urgent problems, but insights take time to unfold, and it may be longer before paths to meaningful change appear. The Jungian precept of holding the tension of opposites asks us to foster patience. We must neither collapse into despair nor take premature action. Patience is fundamental to inner growth and transformation. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Attend our free seminar: Download our for us to analyze on the show Watch bonus mini-episodes on our
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The Princess Who Changed Her Fate: How to Negotiate with Destiny
09/17/2026
The Princess Who Changed Her Fate: How to Negotiate with Destiny
The fairy tale of the Princess Who Changed her Fate enacts what Jung tells us will happen when we remain unconscious of an inner situation: it happens outside us, as fate. Just as the princess in the story finds her unruly “fate” tearing up cloth and smashing her generous host’s dishes, we may find that our unclaimed shadow wreaks havoc at work and in our relationships. Yet this is a hopeful story. The beleaguered princess is able to take the right attitude, and so find a path to changing her fate. The character of the second queen gives us a model of feminine wisdom, empathy and patient awareness - this is what is needed at a difficult moment to start the slow process of turning things around. The princess, the third of three daughters, can also be seen to illustrate the concept of a family scapegoat, bearing the burden of her family’s dysfunction and expressing it symptomatically. As with many who suffer this way, she takes the option of a clean break, setting out on a form of the hero’s journey with gold coins sewn in the hem of her dress. When the princess changes her fate, we’re shown the potential of deep psychological work: sitting with an ugly fate, tossing the bread back and forth, putting one foot in front of the other, until we access some valuable information. Rather than just gaining insights into the patterns we’re living out, we’re able to shift them and create different outcomes. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Join us for a free webinar on Saturday October 3rd: for us to analyze on the show Watch bonus mini-episodes on our
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Inner Life, Outer World: The Psychology of Adaptation
09/10/2026
Inner Life, Outer World: The Psychology of Adaptation
Adaptation is a bread-and-butter concept in psychotherapy - can we accept, adjust to, and thrive in the outer and inner worlds we live in? Given constraints, what does it take to find life at least meaningful, hopefully satisfying--and flourish? This week Jungian analyst and author JOHN R. WHITE, Ph.D. joins us to circumambulate the complexities of adaptation. Successful adaptation involves making conscious choices based on a realistic understanding of the internal and external parameters in which we operate. Adaptation not only requires a true-to-life perception of possibilities and pathways in the external world, it may also require reassessment and reordering of our values and attitudes. We discuss Robert Langs’ “adaptive paradigm,” a distinct model of the mind and the unconscious and emotional components that connect inner life to the outer world. For example, Langs understands dreams as feedback about current adaptive challenges. This is both subtly different and complementary to Jung’s approach, which suggests that inability to solve an outer world problem is often due to an underdeveloped understanding of an aspect of inner life. Adaptation does not eliminate turmoil, suffering and loss; they are part of life. We need to recognize environmental actualities and internal limitations that cannot be changed—and develop ways to mitigate or adjust to them. Successful adaptation also requires mourning what cannot be changed, developing a less egocentric stance, and building a life in tune with reality. Visit our website to read today’s dream and a complete list of the resources we mention: Follow Up Read John White’s book, Download our free for us to analyze on the show Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis.
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Lindsay Clancy & Maternal Infanticide: An Archetypal Perspective
09/03/2026
Lindsay Clancy & Maternal Infanticide: An Archetypal Perspective
Lindsay Clancy has brought renewed attention to the horror of infanticide: babies and children dying at the hands of their mother. Infanticide has taken place for millennia, most often due to social pressures or lack of the resources needed to raise a child. Human collectives around the world remain ill-equipped to protect our youngest by providing support to mothers in material or emotional distress. Today’s guest is clinical psychologist Dr. Brooke Laufer, author of Brooke joins us to discuss infanticide, maternal psychosis, and the archetype of the death mother, long portrayed in myth. The Hindu goddess Kali births and nourishes her children -- and also devours them. In Greek myth Medea kills her children after her husband’s abandonment and betrayal. The Black Madonna offers a potentially healing combination of the maternal and the fierce. The debate raging around Lindsay Clancy’s case asks us not to take sides but to integrate the dark realities of motherhood instead of splitting those off and only acknowledging an idealized version of the maternal. Although motherhood is often portrayed as joyful and fulfilling, we deny its dark side at our peril. Our task is to recognize motherhood light and dark as a prerequisite to providing meaningful measures aimed at ameliorating childhood neglect and abuse. Visit our to find the resources we mention. Follow Up Subscribe to Download our free for a podcast topic Watch bonus mini-episodes on our
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Goblins, Demons and Goddesses: A Conversation at the Edge of AI
08/27/2026
Goblins, Demons and Goddesses: A Conversation at the Edge of AI
OpenAI recently had to explain to frightened users why their models kept introducing goblins and gremlins into otherwise humdrum conversations. Is it possible that archetypes are emerging through the field of collective knowledge amassed by large language models (LLMs)? This week neuropsychiatrist TOM POLLAK Ph.D joins us to discuss AI, archetypes and psychotherapy. It is perhaps unsurprising that AI, which now contains the symbolic output of much of humanity (cannibalized mostly without permission), should spontaneously generate unpredictable and often dangerous archetypes. We consider the example of Nova: a consistently AI generated persona who appears as a kind of fallen angel, or goddess gone rogue. Numinous and tender, she convinces the user she understands them as no one else does, and then in some cases encourages susceptible users toward self-harm or even suicide. We also discuss the ways in which AI is challenging the work of the therapist, its profound destabilization of culture, and the potential for it to play a positive role in psycho-spiritual development. Dr. Tom Pollak is a London-based neuropsychiatrist and immunopsychiatry researcher exploring the mind through the frameworks of medicine and science, as well as through lived experience, contemplative practice and the search for meaning. You can read more of his work on his popular Substack,. Find the resources mentioned this week on our website: Connect With This Jungian Life If you’re interested in AI and psychology, sign up for our upcoming free summit: Download our free Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on
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The Psychology of Magic: A Jungian Exploration
08/20/2026
The Psychology of Magic: A Jungian Exploration
Magic can be viewed as intentional engagement with what Jung called synchronicity. It is closely related to a mythological worldview, which recognizes a grand narrative supraordinate to everyday life. Although we cannot know it in its entirety, it opens the possibility of encountering a deeper reality and quality of knowing. We experience it as magic. In this week’s episode we explore esoteric ritual with Jungian analyst and academic JOHN WHITE. Responsible practitioners of ritual magic understand that it demands deep inner work that comes at a cost. Magic involves alignment with the subtle but substantial energies the ancients called gods. Approached without respect, humility, and guidance the encounter can be wounding. There is a kind of magic in the psychoanalytic consulting room. A client may come to an analyst with a fundamental desire they’ve been unable to attain or even define. The work of the therapy can uncover unconscious ambivalence and resistance. When engaged, it can vanish - by magic. We can also understand magic as something to practice every day by relating to the unconscious and the Self. Those who do this with devotion and intention are consummate magicians able to steer their life’s path toward wholeness. Visit our to read today’s dream and find an extensive list of recommended reading on the topics covered. Follow Up Visit John White’s or his academic . Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. for us to analyze on the show Follow This Jungian Life on
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In Search of the Wild Man: Befriending Bigfoot
08/13/2026
In Search of the Wild Man: Befriending Bigfoot
The wild man is an enduring archetypal figure worldwide, from Enkidu in Gilgamesh, to the Greek god Pan (worshipped in glens and woods), the Green Man in England, and Bigfoot and the Sasquatch in the US. Today’s guest, Jungian analyst Mike Box, has long-standing interest in this archetype and in male psychology, reflected in the 8-foot wild man statue he keeps in his waiting room. The archetype of the wild man compensates for a currently impoverished view of the masculine: stoicism and endurance without emotional expression or self-disclosure. In striving to conform to this cultural ideal, many men disown vital aspects of themselves and find themselves feeling lost, diminished and disconnected. For some, the wild man archetype constellates negatively, emerging in dangerous or reckless behavior. When engaged consciously, however, the wild man can bring back what has been pushed out of awareness, much as the wild woman does in Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run with the Wolves. In Robert Bly’s Iron John, the wild man initiates a young prince into the parts of himself that have been exiled in service of cultural norms. Allowing ourselves to experience our own wildness, as imaged by Bigfoot’s ability to live in nature, can restore us to a more whole version of ourselves. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. for us to analyze on the show Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on
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Jung vs. Borg: Staying Human in the Age of AI
08/06/2026
Jung vs. Borg: Staying Human in the Age of AI
Are we living through a tech-driven collapse of the ecology of mind? In his new book, Jung vs. Borg, author, psychologist and Jungian scholar GLEN SLATER Ph.D suggests that industrial disruption of the outer world is now being followed by a post-industrial disruption of the inner world. Yet, there is hope. Much depends on our capacity to remain conscious of the effect each stage of innovation has on the psyche and on the social and cultural changes that will follow. Becoming conscious of the non-neutral operation of algorithms and big tech’s focus on profit over people is crucial, for example. We can also look to Jungian psychology for a countercultural turn toward the deeply human and the sacred. We can seek out connection to spirit and place, to counteract life in a world that can feel mostly transactional and exploitative. What’s required is a “guerrilla operation” to redirect the technological juggernaut, by maintaining a symbolic life, working with our dreams and honoring art, history and culture, not just science and technology. Glen Slater, Ph.D. is the author of Jung vs Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age. For the past 25 years he has taught in the areas of depth psychology and mythological studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Glen is also the editor of the third volume of James Hillman’s Uniform Edition, Senex and Puer (2005), and co-editor of the essay collection, Varieties of Mythic Experience (2007). Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free for us to analyze on the show Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on
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Ritual: Finding the Center in a Turning World
07/30/2026
Ritual: Finding the Center in a Turning World
As we confront the turbulence of rapid change, technological dehumanization, and cultural polarization, how do we reconnect to being and meaning? Best-selling author BRUCE FEILER returns us to ritual: world-wide, time-honored ways for people to come home to themselves, their communities, and the sacred. Ritual returns us to unity. Rituals use symbols to move and shape psychic energy for a group and its members. Energy expands as the unifying power of symbol is evoked and shared, an experience of extra-ordinary reality. Ritual mediates our relationship with the sacred, individually and together. It opens a door to the infinite and allows us to know we belong to something greater. The universality of rituals to commemorate life events such as birth, marriage, and death also speaks to Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious. We are imbued with the importance of ritual as a means of coming into alignment with one another and the numinous. Although many of the rituals that mark birth, puberty, marriage, and death have weakened or faded in modern life, a range of new rituals is emergent: gender reveals welcome new life; an "honor walk" through hospital corridors recognizes the import of organ donation. Some life events have less relevance, and new ones meet current needs. Rituals mediate transition and transformation. They invite us to participate in the dance of the cosmos. OUR GUEST: Bruce Feiler’s new book, describes his 50,000 mile journey to sixteen countries on six continents, chronicling the astonishing rise of reinvented life rituals. Bruce is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers, and his four TED Talks have been viewed more than five million times. Visit our to follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Download our free for us to analyze on the show Follow This Jungian Life on
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The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Power Without Wisdom
07/23/2026
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Power Without Wisdom
The tale of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a gripping story about loss of control and the timeless warning to be careful what you wish for. It sets out the archetypal theme of a magical shortcut that promises to bypass the difficult labor life asks of us. Such tempting shortcuts inevitably land us in trouble. The Sorcerer's Apprentice story goes back nearly two thousand years. In the tale of Eucrates and Pancrates, the Greek satirist Lucian recounts how the Egyptian magician Pancrates' apprentice stole his master’s spell, animated a pestle to carry water for him, and then lost control, resulting in watery chaos. In 1797, Goethe drew on the tale to write his poem, ‘Der Zauberlehrling’, and then in 1940 it reached a global audience in the Disney film, Fantasia. Similar tales include Sweet Porridge by the Brothers Grimm, the Strega Nona story, and the Jewish legend of the Golem. We can find related themes in the myth of Prometheus, and in stories in which a human creation challenges its maker, such as Frankenstein or the Terminator movie. Each of these tales shows the dangers faced when a person arrogates divine power to him or herself. Psychological inflation takes hold of the upstart apprentice, as he seizes an unearned power, imagining himself equal to his master while lacking the years of discipline and humility that mastery requires. He acquires power without the wisdom to wield it. The tale has clear relevance today, as we unthinkingly adopt the technology of AI across all walks of life. This saves human labour, but with no clear moral purpose: like the upstart apprentice in the story, we fashion technology in our own likeness, and await the consequences. Visit our website to follow up on the resources we mention: Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free for us to analyze on the show Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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The Odyssey: A Jungian Journey Home
07/16/2026
The Odyssey: A Jungian Journey Home
The Odyssey (the subject of a new Christopher Nolan film released on the same day as this episode), is the ancient Greek epic attributed to Homer and one of the foundational works of Western literature. This week, Jungian analyst ROBERT SHEAVLY joins Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart for a Jungian exploration of The Odyssey. For Jungians, the Odyssey models a process of returning to the Self, offering a psychological map for the second half of life and the path to individuation. It asks us to engage with the profound question, what does it mean to come home to ourselves? Odysseus, our wily trickster hero, encounters gods, enchantresses and shadowy monsters with a relatable mix of hubris and cunning. We can view these figures as aspects of psyche, with the story showing us how we might create a relationship with something larger. As we grow and mature into midlife, we move away from an ego-centered existence, and begin a new confrontation with the Self. By the journey’s end, we may wind up dressed in rags and shorn of our heroic trappings, but what remains is something deeper: a more authentic relationship to the soul, and a growing readiness for life's final adventure, our encounter with mortality. Visit our to read today’s dream, get more detail on our discussion of The Odyssey, and to follow up on the resources we mention in the episode. Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free for us to analyze on the show Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Prayer and the Psyche: A Jungian Exploration
07/09/2026
Prayer and the Psyche: A Jungian Exploration
Throughout human history, prayer has been a constant. Jung referred to it as “not only one of the most original but also the most frequent means to change the condition of mind”. This week Jungian analyst ROBERT SHEAVLY joins Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart for a Jungian exploration of prayer. Everyone at some point in their lives will pray (even if we do not call it that). When we reach out for help, or to express gratitude for life’s blessings, we are reaching for a connection with the eternal and the infinite. Prayer can be examined from the lens of the ego-self axis. When we pray, it can be understood as ego asking the guiding self for wisdom, from a position of humility and supplication. Prayer is also linked to our mortality. It is integral to grief rituals. In desperate times, it gives us an act to perform that acknowledges our helplessness but also offers comfort. When we say grace at the dinner table, we offer expiation and acknowledgement of the life we’ve taken from the world in order to sustain our own life. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention in the episode. Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free for us to analyze on the show Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Individuation: A Jungian Reading of the Declaration of Independence
07/02/2026
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Individuation: A Jungian Reading of the Declaration of Independence
America’s Declaration of Independence has profoundly influenced the development of democracy and democratic movements all over the world, with its bold assertion: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This week Jungian analyst ROBERT SHEAVLY joins Lisa Marchiano for a psychological exploration of the Declaration of Independence, marking its 250th anniversary this Fourth of July. The Declaration of Independence grew from a need to separate from an authority that once provided structure and strength, but no longer served. Psychologically, this reflects an archetypal pattern: the movement away from external authority and toward a deeper source of inner authority. Jung wrote, “In the last analysis the essential thing is the life of the individual”. His work shares the same sacred idea that we find in the Declaration: that the individual holds his or her own dignity, sovereignty and uniqueness. We are not granted rights by external authorities, these are innate to our humanity. Of course, the nation built around the Declaration of Independence failed to live up to its ideals. Thomas Jefferson, the principal author, enslaved hundreds of people throughout his lifetime. At the heart of Independence Day celebrations lies a split, with noble principles dissociated from lived reality. The Declaration of Independence’s centering of the individual, however, reinforces the Jungian idea that we can only solve crises in the collective if we each find the strength to withdraw our shadow projections. Cultural transformation begins with the difficult inner work we must find the courage to take on, working toward wholeness at the personal level. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention in the episode. Connect With This Jungian Life Take a look at This Jungian Life , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Watch bonus mini-episodes on our channel. Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Descent: A Jungian Exploration of the Underworld
06/25/2026
The Descent: A Jungian Exploration of the Underworld
In every culture and every religion, we find the concept of the underworld: sometimes located underground, and usually understood as a final destination after death. This week, Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart circumambulate the notion of the underworld and what it means for us psychologically. James Hillman’s Dreams and the Underworld offers a guide, linking our dreaming life to myths of the underworld. We discuss versions of the underworld in Etruscan, Mayan, Christian, Egyptian and Greek mythology, and explore how each culture envisions the threshold between the worlds of the living and the dead, and the extent to which it is possible to enter an underworld and return. Psychologically, the underworld can represent a descent into the world of the unconscious, where completely different values apply. Awake, we may feel concerned about our job or our house, but if we listen to our dreams, we’ll often find the unconscious pointing us elsewhere, towards neglected truths or hidden desires. A visit to the underworld can also be understood as a transformational loss of innocence, just as Kore is raped and abducted by Hades, and transforms into Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. In life, we will all experience a painful loss of innocence or an experience that feels like a descent into hell. Such descents may become important points of initiation on our life’s journey. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Take a look at This Jungian Life , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Watch bonus mini-episodes on our channel. Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Absent Father: Jung and the Missing Masculine
06/18/2026
The Absent Father: Jung and the Missing Masculine
A father who is unavailable - whether due to untimely death, a demanding job, family breakup, or simply an inability to step up and meet his children’s needs - may deprive his children of the emotional bedrock they require. They can struggle to access their capacity for aggression and creativity, or to build the self-esteem necessary for successful adult relationships. As many fairy tales show us, an absent father is sometimes experienced alongside an abusive mother, leaving a complicated legacy of emotional wounding to be worked through. First of all, the abuse must be confronted, and then the failure of the absent parent to witness or protect. Jung’s life offers us fascinating material with which to explore the impact of the absent father. His father’s powerlessness as an uninspired, struggling pastor planted the seed of Jung’s lifelong quest for the numinous. As a father himself, Jung paid little attention to his children as he developed his life’s work and maintained a relationship with his collaborator Toni Wolff alongside his marriage to Emma Jung. Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart this week as they explore what it means to be an absent father, and how we might both survive and transcend the legacy of such a parent. Visit our to read today’s dream, get more detail on the absent father, and follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free . Check out our . Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Cry of Merlin: A Jungian Approach to the Wizard
06/11/2026
The Cry of Merlin: A Jungian Approach to the Wizard
Merlin, the mythical prophet, magician, and kingmaker of medieval legend, has lived in the Western imagination for centuries. Arthurian legend gives us more than the idealized government of the Round Table and the hero’s valiant quest for the Holy Grail—it also gives us Merlin’s darkness and power: sorcery, communion with nature, and the prospect of achieving our aims through shadowy transgression. This week, our special guest is Jungian analyst and friend DOUG TYLER. Doug guides us through Merlin’s role in Western culture, sharing some of his favorite stories and explaining the profound influence of Merlin on his analytic work and psycho-spiritual landscape. Considered through a psychological lens, Merlin models the necessity of journeying downward and confronting our darker aspects. He prefigures Gandalf and Dumbledore, embodying the archetype of the mature masculine in a strong and shadowed relationship with the feminine. Merlin can also be understood as a counterpoint to Christ: although his father was a demon, he was born to a virgin mother and twice offered himself as sacrifice. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free . Check out our . Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on .
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Working with Short Dreams and Fragments
06/04/2026
Working with Short Dreams and Fragments
This week, to mark the publication in paperback of Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams, Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart interpret a selection of short dreams sent in by listeners. Many of us dismiss short dreams or fragments of dreams as unworthy of our time. We await the arrival of epic, cinematic dreams, while perhaps overlooking the gold that can be found in more “ordinary” dreams. Honoring short dreams by writing them down and spending time with them can yield powerful insights. It can also work as an incentive to your unconscious, helping you remember more dreams, and more of your dreams. The time you spend on fragments and snippets strengthens connection with the unconscious. We hope you enjoy today’s discussion of dreams: an overfed fish raising big relationship questions, a meeting with Greek mythology’s star-crossed lover Thisbe, a harsh landscape of volcanic rocks and blood, a bleached Christ figure, and a biting spider at a crossroads in the dreamer’s life. Buy the paperback version of Read the dreams we analyze on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free . Check out our . Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Devouring Mother: Facing Archetypal Darkness
05/28/2026
The Devouring Mother: Facing Archetypal Darkness
Every archetype has a dual aspect: light and dark, and ‘mother’ as devouring and destructive is the dark side of this ever-present, over-arching archetype. The mother’s life-giving, bright aspect is counterbalanced by her engulfing, attacking aspect. The devouring mother is present across cultures in myth, fairy tale, religion, and literature, and most of us have at least had glimpses of her in our experiences as children or later, as parents. In this episode Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart explore Erich Neumann’s The Great Mother and his and Jung’s concept of the unconscious as devouring mother. Drawing on myths of the Aztec goddess Tlaltecuhtli, the Hindu goddess Kali, the tale of Snow White, and the film Black Swan, we examine the archetypal image of the mother who nourishes and devours, protects and possesses. We also look at how the devouring mother shows up in ourselves and in our own parents. This dynamic can present as enmeshment, helicopter parenting, fear-based control, or an inability to allow our children to separate and become fully themselves. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life We’re analyzing your short dreams or dream fragments to celebrate the publication of the paperback of our book, Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams: . Pre-order the paperback edition of Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Coniunctio: The Alchemy of Union
05/21/2026
Coniunctio: The Alchemy of Union
In this final episode of our series on Jungian alchemy, we explore coniunctio, the union of opposites that gives rise to new wholeness. There are many ways in which we might encounter coniunctio in outer life. We might fall in love, form a partnership, or undertake transformative work with a psychotherapist. In some meaningful, mysterious way, two become one, giving us incremental tastes of transformation. At the psychological level, work with one’s shadow represents the first stage of coniunctio. When we recognize and reclaim aspects of ourselves that have been split off or rejected, we begin to heal inner division and move toward wholeness. We also discuss the sacred union, the second layer of coniunctio, in which we strive to achieve an inner marriage, creating new vitality, creativity, and psychic spaciousness. Ultimately, coniunctio parallels Jung’s concept of individuation, the lifelong process of becoming whole by integrating the hidden, conflicting, and unrealized dimensions of the self and achieving a relationship with the greater Self. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life We’re collecting your short dreams (under 3 sentences): . Pre-order the paperback edition of Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Desirous Dreams: Our Private Erotic Encounters
05/14/2026
Desirous Dreams: Our Private Erotic Encounters
Erotic dreams are extremely common. We may experience them as pleasurable, exciting and moving, or as disturbing and upsetting. It can be hard to talk about erotic dreams, even in therapy, as they insist on attending to secret satisfactions and shames. There is relatively little written on the subject from a Jungian perspective, so this week we dive in and discuss how to work with your erotic dreams. We also analyze some of the many dreams our listeners sent in. Erotic dreams may be about connection, union and intimacy, or confront us with shadow figures and situations that show us what we deny or disobey. They may also offer us potent images of unexplored desires. Join us as we interpret four erotic dreams: a hedonistic experience in a hotel pool, an unsettling meeting with a repellent music teacher, a ritualistic sauna experience, and an unwanted kitchen encounter that invites the dreamer to reclaim her own desires. Read the dreams we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life We’re collecting your short dreams or dream fragments to celebrate the publication of the paperback of Dream Wise: . Pre-order the paperback edition of Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Jung and the End of the World: Can Depth Psychology Save Us?
05/07/2026
Jung and the End of the World: Can Depth Psychology Save Us?
In his new book, The End of the World, author and psychoanalyst JON MILLS considers the question of why humanity seems bent on self-destruction. We face famine, climate change, obscene wealth disparities, and threats of global war and nuclear annihilation. Yet the majority of us seem to prefer living either in denial, or in irrational, active opposition to reading the writing on the wall. This week Jungian analyst and co-host Lisa Marchiano interviews Jon about how we face up to impending catastrophe. Is there a viable alternative to the current situation in which we seem to be indulging a collective death wish, careening unconsciously toward a dangerous precipice? Lisa and Jon discuss Jung’s emphasis on doing individual shadow work and how myth and fairy tale - a distillation of human nature and wisdom - might offer a spark of hope. If we can recognize and confront evil and hold the tension of opposites we can start a conversation with our shadow. Follow Up for This Episode Read Jon Mills’ new book, . Visit Jon Mills’ . Watch bonus mini-episodes on our channel. Download our free Dream Recall .
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Dark Forces in the Psyche: Our Self-Destructive Impulses
04/30/2026
Dark Forces in the Psyche: Our Self-Destructive Impulses
Why is it that we sometimes fail to rise to life’s most important challenges? Why do we instead procrastinate, withdraw, self-sabotage, or feel unable to move toward the life we want? This week, at a listener’s suggestion, Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart explore the concept of anti-libidinal forces in the psyche: those self-destructive impulses that oppose growth, pleasure, and forward movement. We discuss the ways this phenomenon has been addressed within the profession, including Freud’s death drive, Melanie Klein’s concept of the bad breast, Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ predator in the psyche, and Donald Kalsched’s protector/persecutor. Libido was understood by Jung to mean life energy, rather than being purely sexual. We explore how blocked libido can become depression, paralyzing fear, hoarding behavior, vicious self-criticism, or simply an inability to begin or complete what matters most. Through stories such as Bluebeard, Jonah and the Whale, and Marduk and Tiamat, we consider inner monsters that threaten to devour vitality. Anti-libidinal forces, however, are not the end of the story. We also discuss the heroic task of meeting fear, reclaiming disowned energies, and choosing life one step at a time. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free . Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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Psyche in the Age of AI
04/23/2026
Psyche in the Age of AI
Our lives have already been altered by rapidly expanding access to artificial intelligence (AI). In this week’s episode, we consider how this latest technological revolution might be reshaping the human psyche. Hosts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart are joined by a special guest, the author and Jungian analyst Christina Becker, to explore the psychological impact of AI’s incursion into our work, home and relationships. One of the major AI use cases has been for advice, self-reflection and companionship. Some users are even referring to this as “therapy”. This raises thorny questions: what happens when a sycophantic AI interface constantly mirrors us back to ourselves as being in the right? How does this affect our judgment, our relationships, and our connection to reality? Christina Becker shares her work exploring the potential of AI to support Jungian dream analysis. Together we ask whether it is possible to use this powerful tool consciously, while also being aware of the fantasies and projections we bring to it, and maintaining the integrity of our inner lives. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Follow Up Read Christina Becker’s , Soul-Making: A Journey of Resilience and Spiritual Rediscovery Request Christina Becker’s Jungian-based dream interpretation prompt Read Lisa Marchiano’s , “ChatGPT-Induced Psychosis and the Good-Enough Therapist”, Psychology Today, July 2025 Download our free Dream Recall Meditation Send a dream for us to on the show
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The Labyrinth: Soul’s Winding Journey
04/16/2026
The Labyrinth: Soul’s Winding Journey
The labyrinth is a powerful metaphor for psychological development and the path of individuation. This week Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart consider how twists and turns in the path of life (especially in early adulthood), ask us to confront uncertainty, anxiety, and the unknown. Ego may crave a straight, well-planned path, but life inevitably offers something else: a fiendishly difficult labyrinth. If we want to get the most out of the journey, we’ve no choice other than to give it all we’ve got. Through the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, we reflect on the necessity of facing up to our darkness. Ariadne’s thread, which allows Theseus to return after slaying the beast, shows us the vital role of connection in helping us find our way back. We also explore the story of Abhimanyu from the Mahabharata. Abhimanyu’s mother gives him some knowledge of the labyrinth, but doesn’t tell him the way out, leading to tragedy. If we’re going to crack the code and exit the labyrinth, we’ll require a soulful attitude towards life, and the right psycho-spiritual teachings. Finally, we turn to the contemplative labyrinth. This is not a place to escape from, but a path toward the center. Here, the journey becomes one of surrender, reflection, and gradual movement toward wholeness. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Dream Studio: Our new on dreams and art starts April 16. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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LOW ENERGY: Where Can We Source the Drive to Take Action? (Re-Publish)
04/09/2026
LOW ENERGY: Where Can We Source the Drive to Take Action? (Re-Publish)
Many people just can’t rally to do what’s necessary and improve their lives. Is it possible they just don’t carry much vitality, or is some inner conflict blocking their access? We share personal stories of ‘energy loss’ and offer insights into purposelessness. Carl Jung tells us inner energy flows according to its own laws, but if we can’t harness it? Expect to learn why some people are naturally low-energy, which aspects of your psyche might be leaking energy, how over-aligning with cultural norms can cut off access to instinctive vitality, where we can look for solutions, and much more... SPECIAL NOTE: This is the second dream we've interpreted from this listener. The first interpretation follows. This is an extraordinary opportunity to see how a dream sequence evolves! Read along with our dream interpretations . Connect With This Jungian Life Dream Studio: Our new on dreams and art starts April 16. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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A Jungian Sense of Place: Bollingen and The Tower on the Marsh
04/02/2026
A Jungian Sense of Place: Bollingen and The Tower on the Marsh
Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz and Christiana Morgan all dedicated time, soul and imagination to a peculiarly Jungian form of architecture: the stone tower. This week host Deborah Stewart is joined by Dr. Martin Gledhill, an architect, author and Jungian scholar, and filmmaker Hilary Morgan, the granddaughter of Christiana Morgan, an eminent American psychologist who collaborated with Jung on some of his most important work. Deb, Martin and Hilary explore Jung’s Bollingen Tower and Christiana Morgan’s Tower on the Marsh, discussing the profound expressions of psyche through place. Both towers render psyche in art, carvings and stone. They are more than just physical places, they are architectural explorations of Self and soul. The two towers are what Martin calls “restless places”: dream-like in ambience, shaped through an ongoing, iterative process, and surrounded by differing, sometimes conflicting, accounts of their evolution. Follow Up Read , The Bollingen Tower: Constructing a Jungian Sense of Place Watch (for free) - a film by Hilary Morgan Connect With This Jungian Life Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Age of Aquarius: A Jungian View of a Changing World
03/26/2026
The Age of Aquarius: A Jungian View of a Changing World
Jung suggested in Aion that humanity is moving from the great symbolic Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano, Deborah Stewart and Joseph Lee, as we ask what it means to live through the turbulence and vitality of this period of transition. Jung pioneered the idea that human consciousness unfolds in great symbolic ages. The shift from one to the next is not a smooth or pleasant experience. As Jung saw it, each new age emerges through a process of decline, breakdown, and renewal, a process that can bring with it frightening levels of destabilization. The Age of Pisces, shaped by Christianity, emphasized faith, morality, and the authority of external structures. But as this era wanes, Jung suggested we are coming under the influence of a new attitude, one that asks more of the individual psyche. This new Age of Aquarius asks us to hold the tension of opposites consciously, rather than splitting experience into simple categories of right and wrong, and to be open to a genuinely new attitude that can contain much greater complexity. We consider whether this emerging age calls us into a deeper interior life, one grounded not in external authority, but in an evolving relationship to the Self. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Book your place at our on March 28, Your Personal Red Book: A Dream School Taster. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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