Posts which reflect on social events/trends from a Jungian perspective.
An Ode to Bob Dylan This is the song of Bob Dylan, smoking a cig, leanin’ back and chillin’, a troubadour that knows what’s for, with songs that linger outside your door. A friend of Woody Guthrie he, speaks of life down by the sea, with words that drop you to your knee, loose your…
This post explores the psychology of Donald Trump from a depth psychology perspective. Trump’s behavior offers a clear example of egocentricity and its parallel effects in society.
A man who used to hunt rattlesnakes related to me some of his hunting experiences. He said that one way to gather his prey was to pound on the ground with a wooden post. The percussive impacts would vibrate through the surrounding soil and draw the snakes to him. He once did this in an…
A 34 year-old woman dreamed: I dreamt I died, but really I was still alive, only I had a man’s body. When I looked in the mirror I saw my body, but everyone else saw a man’s body. I was no longer the person I was. I was extremely sad for I would no longer…
When you are dealing with symptoms, especially annoying and irritating ones, you may want to be cured. You want the symptoms, illness, or injury to go away. If you are cured of an infection, the infection is gone. If you are cured of insomnia, you no longer have trouble sleeping. We like cures because they…
In the movie Arrival, twelve space crafts are positioned by an alien race over different countries of the world. The reason for their presence is a mystery. However, every 18 hours they allow a human research/diplomacy team to enter each craft and interact with the alien beings. The aliens communicate using a language of smoke-ring…
Alchemy was the “science” of trying to turn base metals, such as lead, into gold. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung studied alchemy in great depth because he saw in it a symbolic representation of the psychological process of individuation. The writing and drawings of the alchemists reflected universal steps in the development of the personality. One…
An important first step in addressing the problem of evil involves the definition or description you give to it. From my observations, evil is a force that corrodes and eats away at the human spirit in whatever way and to whatever degree it can. It delays, derails, or puts an end altogether to the natural…
This article is the first in a series addressing the topic of evil. It is important for all people, I believe, to strive to give some accounting to evil—what is it, why does it exist, what is its role in our lives, how can we protect ourselves from it, etc.—for unpleasant though the subject may…
I have observed an interesting phenomenon in my psychotherapy practice the past few years. It involves single, older women who have come in for help with depression. Their depression is not the remarkable thing. What has caught my attention is that several of the women share similar stories of a negative relationship with their daughter.…
