The Quest: Vision in an Age of Crisis. Jungian Psychotherapy

Jung did an enormous amount to breathe the spirit back into alchemy after the cold hand of the Western scientific enlightenment had extinguished its flame. He was a pioneer in re-interpreting the alchemical symbols into the language of archetypal myths as well as psychology allowing them to live again. He was convinced it provided a missing link between the modern analytical psychology that he had...

From his disintegration, his descent to the underworld, Jung brought creative treasures, not simply as theoretical ideas but as practical tools that could be inserted into the living tissue of our times. Jungian psychotherapy is a potent tool of transformation. " The years ... when I pursued the inner images were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. My en...

The depths of the psyche irrupted in Jung with tremendous force. But he found that ore from which he alchemised the gold of his creations. It came from an inexhaustible seam where psyche means cosmos and buried so deep and under such pressure that it was dangerous to approach. But his daemon drove him and he unravelled the secret of bringing it to the surface, at first hot white and liquid but the...

We examine Chapters 8 and 9 of Memories,Dreams, Reflections which tell of the building of his Tower at Bolligen, Lake Zurich, and his travels to find a non-European perspective on himself and Western civilization.

Jung and the recovery of the soul: the first of a series on Carl Jung, his life, thought, formation of a school of psychotherapy, and contribution to Western civilization.

We critically explore a humanist vision that argues there is almost certainly no God, that evolution and natural selection are the only plausible explanations for the universe and ourselves, that religions have caused enormous damage, and that our ethical systems should be forged from reason.  "When one person suffers a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer a delusion it is calle...

"If it be now, tis not to come;  if it be not to come, it will be now;  if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all." (Hamlet: Act 5 Sc.2)

The first of two podcasts on James Lovelock. The evolving ecological crisis is of such gravity as to constitute collective suicide by humanity. This first podcast looks at the theory and evidence.

This is the first episode in a series that explores great visionaries from across the ages who have changed our history and contemporary world. This episode examines Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - an obscure Jesuit priest of the 20th century who gave a blazing vision of the miracle of evolution and offers an alternative view to the materialist world paradigm which has led us, sleepwalking, into our...

The Quest Season about to begin will examine the great visionaries across the ages in order to seek vision for the crises of our times. These are termed the eight horseman of the apocalypse: the conflict of ideas, the economic, political, military, social, ecological and spiritual crises as well as the alteration of human consciousness as it becomes fused with artificial intelligence. The human ra...

We explore the connection between this ancient Taoist meditation text and the school of Carl Jung. Despite it being an esoteric text it contains a wonderful meditation guide and an entrance into the philosophy of the Far East. It has much to offer modern psychotherapy and those who seek healing in so far as it has a transpersonal dimension and takes seriously the proposition that spiritual practic...

The history, metaphysics, and spirtual position of this ancient Taoist text is described. It has an ancient Chinese style which is inherently mysterious, symbolic, and elusive yet it has within its pages a secret of spirtual transformation that is inherently facinating and has stood the test of time. The Tao (the Way) is that which exists through itself; it is the one essence; there is nothing abo...

THE NATURE OF HEALING INTELLIGENCE Can religions be integrated with a spiritually orientated psychotherapy? Are there psychological skills favouring healing? What is the role of the psychotherapist in this healing process? Is psychotherapy necessary for healing  to take place? Can psychotherapy block the healing process? Can all wounds be healed? What is the wounded healer? Can psychotherapy benef...

My initial question (how does healing work in psychotherapy?) and subsequent search has really turned into a longer series of other questions each of which could be broken down into further questions themselves. Let me add the obvious. The ultimate answer will never be given; but like the pearl of great price it might be intuited, approximated, and hopefully lived. Our knowledge in this field is n...

The sweetness of the desert breeze You can’t grasp in your hands. She’s like the waters of the Nile, She comes from other lands.                 The Sower and the Seed - Isis poem    

There may emerge unusual features once the inter-subjective field is activated. A field is an area of influence and a shared field is where two psyches, apparently separate, have temporarily dropped their boundaries and a non-verbal sharing of experience, sometimes in the form of images, sometimes with voices, takes place. This is a manifestation of healing, not belonging to an individual psyche;...

The cosmic principle of the opposites of creation and destruction, life and death as illustrated in Hindu metaphysics with the dancing Shiva is played out in psyche in many ways of which healing intelligence versus the forces that undermine it is one manifestation. Six ways in which healing works in the psyche are described. There are also numerous impediments in our psyche to this wonderful intel...

The role of the therapist in the healing process is rarely one of distance and anonymity. It is one respecting proper clinical boundaries but there are important times when there is co-evolution and mixing of psyches at a deep level and healing intelligence is activated, stimulated and shared. It is useful to think of the Self, the inner directing centre of an individual, as having shared-field pr...

Healing intelligence is integral to the complete functioning of the healthy psyche. It requires the cooperation of consciousness itself, which, when orientated towards healing, is aligned to the deeper psyche, learns from it, but can question it and engage in a healthy dialogue which is transformative for both consciousness and the unconsciousness. The practitioner needs to be aware of the crucial...

The vitality of healing intelligence determines the capacity of a wounded area to heal itself. This energy may be thought of as potency two characteristics of which are: Expressiveness - the capacity of the psyche, suffering a wound, complex or trauma to express its pain in a healthy and effective manner. Receptivity - the capacity of the wounded psyche to listen and be open. While healing intelli...

Therapy is not always successful; the deep psyche is not always accessible and even when it is, healing is not guaranteed. Transpersonal vision may be possible but the psyche may not have the capacity to integrate its meaning and energy. Sometimes, parts of the emotional structure are damaged and cannot heal, no matter how heroic the efforts. 

Integration implies character re-formation, a change in identity structure. This requires greater access to the underlying emotional structure underpinning the ego, which undergoes change thereby stimulating character reform and development. What begins and sustains this change is the power of awareness. Self-reflectivity is the essence of the process. This is the normal but extra-ordinary process...

Eight dimensions of the capacity to work psychologically are examined. These are: the capacity for introspection; the ability to express emotion and their truth; to see oneself and others more objectively; acceptance of self-responsibility; awareness that one’s psyche consists of different but inter-related parts; the conscious attitude is aligned to the unconscious but is also relatively independ...

Here we deal with the second part of the integration process - the capacity to work psychologically with the material from the unconscious. Case studies of the varying capacities to work psychologically are given. An unfavourable psychological attitude thus prevents the process of integration even beginning. So what then is a favourable psychological attitude?  The book upon which these podcasts a...

Integration is the least developed stage in the theory and practice of psychotherapy. Here we examine the first of three steps in this process: the evaluation of healthy or unhealthy material from the psyche.