Depth Psychology Research Articles

Flannery O'Connor's Country of the Soul

O'Connor's Catholicism takes an iconoclastic stand against religion that privileges subject superiority. Using violence as a means to shatter comfort in the separation such superiority presupposes, O'Connor brings her characters into direct confrontation with natural figures and objects--animals, trees, rocks, clay-- to draw attention to their soul energies in God's world. This essay offers a new way to appreciate Flannery O'Connor's spiritual intentions by invoking Neoplatonic ideas of the anima mundi (soul in the world), mythic understanding of the connection among all life forms, as well as depth psychologist James Hillman's re-visioning psychology. According to these strands, the cosmos is alive, sacred, and intentional and has lessons to teach pious Bible thumpers about the breadth of an animating spirit in the surrounding world.

Existential Angst and the Therapeutics of Suspicion

It is often noted that the health of any system is predicated upon a healthy dose of doubt and intrinsic scepticism. This is a requisite for identifying areas of improvement, blind spots and biases as well as culling out weak and diseased variables that might pose an eventual risk to the overall health of a system. Equally applicable to biological and natural systems as well as humanistic branches of epistemology, cosmology, sociology and other defining features of the human condition, suspicion ensures that the operational integrity and guiding principles of a collective are maintained, optimized and differentiated from other like bodies. This paper endeavours to resuscitate the forgotten historical lineage of doubt that constituted the early genesis of therapeutics in depth psychology and psychotherapy through the following question: “How can suspicion facilitate self-awareness and existential clarity within the therapeutic alliance?” Answering this question will be done primarily through a case-study that makes the point that suspicion is not something fabricated by psychology after the fact, but rather, that psyche itself is implicitly guided by contrarian ways that draw out the meaning and messages of symptoms, impulses and unconscious imagery leading people to seek therapy in the first place. Doubt, it is argued, is not something to be reductively paved over in counselling, but is the very therapeutic crucible of transcendence and self-awareness necessary for authentic, embodied transformation to unfold.

Editorial

As a professor and Research Coordinator at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California in the discipline of depth psychology, if I have any giftat all as a teacher of research, it's for profoundly disturbing the peace of my students. There is one fundamental ontological assertion of depth psychology, I share with them - the assertion that we are partially unconscious human beings in the world. If you follow Freud, you work from the premise of the reality of the personal unconscious; if you follow Jung, you work from the premise of the reality of both the personal and the collective unconscious. Either way, the reality of the unconscious posits terrible trouble for researchers, I say. I lean in, and ask, what are the epistemological implications of knowledge that is created by partially unconscious human beings, done with or on partially unconscious human beings, and consumed and disseminated by partially unconscious human beings?In depth psychology, we research the logic of the psyche with our psyche; we are the instrument through which we conduct our research. And again, I ask, what are the epistemological implications for knowledge created by a partially unconscious psyche, a partially unknown and unknowable instrument? My graduate students have long since leftbehind any fantasy of objectivity or they wouldn't have chosen this field, but they aren't quite yet ready for such a radical subjectivity. It troubles them. It troubles me.Not only is psyche the main and unshakeable instrument of the researcher (try leaving your psyche at home when you conduct research in the world), its ontological foundation, but psyche can also be seen as an epistemology, a way of knowing. Depth psychologists know through the products the psyche produces autonomously, through dreams, fantasies, and associations, through intuitions, synchronicities, and hunches, through obsessions, disturbances, and symptoms. A classic example is the dream of German chemist Friedrich A. Kekule in 1865 which led to his insight that the molecular structure of benzene is a closed carbon ring, a discovery that revolutionized modern chemistry. This is a very tidy example; most of us have dozens of dreams a night that produce no such clear insight, no such incontrovertible knowledge. As such, depth psychology is a suspicious epistemology; just as Freud was suspicious of dreams and separated the manifest content from the latent meaning when researching the psyche, so depth psychology offers us a language for the gap between the manifest content of our research and the latent meaning we subscribe, or fail to subscribe to it.This raises an important ethical consideration in a depth psychological approach to research; the notion of the unconscious undermines fundamentalism and absolutism in the researcher's conclusions. As one of my colleagues says, 'I'm right about half of what I say, but I don't know which half it is.' This makes depth psychology an epistemology of not knowing as much as knowing, of unknowing as much as the unknown. And, it makes depth psychology a tiring epistemology.By the time we finish the Foundations for Research in Depth Psychology course, my students are exhausted by everything they won't know and can't know about their own research. I give them an example. One of my dissertation students was researching the topic of home; in particular, how women in transitional housing projects make a house a home. …

‘Teaching’ depth: Reflections on the challenges and rewards of integrating depth psychology into research methodology

AbstractThis article discusses how students enrolled in graduate level methodology courses can integrate key depth psychological values into the research process. As Coppin and Nelson (2005, p. 101) suggest, inquiry centered on the psyche asks researchers ‘to be fully involved with the opus on every level,’ both personal and archetypal, which ‘makes the work especially meaningful and especially arduous.’ This is equally true when teaching depth research and conducting depth research. To illustrate, we describe the personal challenges and rewards of being instructors and discuss three models, composite case examples, of integrating depth that have emerged in the classroom. In the first model, students begin by actively, rigorously separating their intellectual research pursuits from their depth experiences, either due to prior research education in non-depth oriented settings or due to a lack of understanding of how depth psychology applies to the research process. In the second model, the student chooses ...

Realizing a research ethic of solidarity: The role of the unconscious and an ontology drawn from Zen Buddhist teachings on nonduality

In this manuscript I explore the moral dimensions of epistemological traditions in human science research. I contend that depth psychology’s focus on the unconscious and core teachings from Zen Buddhism provide complementary ontologies to help manifest solidarity in research. I examine the philosophical foundations of modernist and postmodernist research methods and explicate their underlying values and assumptive worldviews. I argue that research has its own moral trajectory and review research examples to demonstrate the oppressive effects of unexamined researcher bias and epistemological assumptions. I further assert that moral and impactful research ought to embody an ethics of solidarity. Accordingly, I discuss the ethical importance of engaging both unconscious processes as well as an ontology of nonduality to realize an ethic of solidarity. Subsequently, I present my view that Zen Buddhism’s teachings on nonduality and the all-inclusive Self suggest a valuable understanding for realizing this emergent ethic.

Institutional learning: Transcending two distinct approaches by integrating core values into inquiry

Institutions of higher education are under increasing pressures to validate the very process of learning. These forces often emphasize education as a product meant to produce a specific end result for consumers, rather than as a transformative process in which a person engages with an unknown outcome. The tension between the values and dangers of these divergent approaches to learning presents a particular challenge for the institutional research approaches at a specialized graduate institute oriented in the principles of depth psychology. In this article I explore how inquiry that is framed as institutional learning synthesizes two distinct approaches of education by incorporating principles of depth psychology with accreditation-defined best practices of assessment and institutional research. I explain how six core values of the institute guide our processes and present a model called the regenerative cycle of inquiry with a mixed methods example of its implementation. Additionally, I discuss how our revisions to a course evaluation survey incorporate the core values of the institution. I conclude that an ongoing and vibrant dialog between polarized perspectives can result in mixed and multiple approaches that transcend the limitations of a singularly exclusive practice.

Conducting research in an animated world: A caseforsuffering

In the particularity of suffering, a case is made for new approaches in research which extend beyond the methods which are common to social science and educational research. In looking at the cosmological and ontological positioning inherent in an imaginal paradigm, characteristics of what it means to live in an animated world are outlined. By elaborating what such a world looks like, epistemological and axiological differences are considered in relation to the importance of suffering. By approaching suffering as a gift from the perspectives of depth psychology and Zen Buddhism, one can gain a richer and more critical understanding of the ways new approaches open up apparently familiar issues.

Gegenstände in einer flüchtigen Wirklichkeit

The author's main concern is to trace how a person's musical formations allow insights into his or her subjective reality. Based on the concrete use by the player of the instrument with its specific features, a perspective on musical improvisation is opened which makes it comprehensible both as a complex operative structure with numerous effective factors and in its psychological depth dimension. With the term »aesthetics of world towardness« of a person, the author draws out physical aspects of the personality which become especially apparent when a person produces music.

Conducting research in an animated world: A caseforsuffering locating depth psychology within worlds of research

Conducting research in an animated world: A case<i>for</i>suffering locating depth psychology within worlds of research

‘Teaching’ depth: Reflections on the challenges and rewards of integrating depth psychology into research methodology

‘Teaching’ depth: Reflections on the challenges and rewards of integrating depth psychology into research methodology

Reply to Thomas Singer

In reply to Dr. Singer, I question whether clinicians have a monopoly on understanding the unconscious. I reiterate the contention that if clinicians are to engage in cultural analysis, they need to be aware of the epistemology and methodology of disciplines whose sole purpose is to understand culture. Singer unwittingly acknowledges that the discipline of history is an unrecognised, albeit central, component of the theory of cultural complexes. To emphasise the importance of historical research, I challenge the widely held belief that the notion of a cultural unconscious should be attributed to Joseph Henderson. I clarify that my initial aim was to show that there are competing ways in which the term cultural complex has been used within depth psychology and accordingly, it is not a purely Jungian contribution. The current Jungian understanding of cultural complexes is in danger of becoming an uncritical meta-narrative promoting a laissez-faire approach, to which I take exception.

Wspomnienia, sny, myśli. (Nie)świadoma biografia C. G. Junga

Memories, dreams, thoughts is an autobiographical book by Carl Gustav Jung in which the author deliberates on his life not only as a famous psychotherapist, but also as a protestant, psychiatrist, traveler, philosopher and mystic. Jung shows the paths that lead him to creating his own analytical branch of depth psychology and to revolutionizing the approach to the mechanisms of working with patients of mental hospitals. Although the book could be read as an autobiography only, we can also find a part of the history of psychiatry, journeys diaries, analyses of dreams and even some philosophical and mystical reflections.

Distributive Justice, Narcissism, and the Future of the Welfare State: A Tribute to Mario Jacoby (1925-2011)

This article combines disparate ideas from political philosophy, depth psychology, and political economy to understand better the current backlash against globalization. More specifically, this backlash includes attempts to restore the welfare state, to increase social equality, and to resist the negative influence of narcissism. After presenting these three sets of ideas, the conclusion offers a prognosis about the future of welfare state. In the conclusion, the author quotes Mario Jacoby, a Jungian analyst, whose writings bring together these three sets of ideas. In each of the three domains of inquiry there is a pair of alternatives. Equity and equality are alternative principles in the philosophy of distributive justice. Conditional love and unconditional love are alternative modes of mothering in the psychology of narcissism. The neo-liberal state and the welfare state are alternative perspectives on political economy. The author aligns the first member of each of the three pairs of alternatives; likewise with the second member. What new insight does this alignment yield about current controversies over globalization? What psychological issues arise in the choice between a welfare state and a neo-liberal state? The modern state, in psychological terms, conjures up the image of a mother figure. But, in the imagery of the modern state, what kind of mother fig. is this, a nurturing (positive) mother or a devouring (negative) mother? The public policies of the welfare state, emphasizing the principle of equality, correspond to the behavior of a nurturing mother. The neo-liberal state, on the other hand, by implementing public policies consistent with the principle of equity, corresponds to a devouring mother. The essay concludes with some comments on the future of the welfare state. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Exploring the Sacred Medieval Psyche: The Flowering of Feminine Mysticism, 1200–1350

Within the writings and teachings of three 13th-century female mystics, Hadewijch of Flanders, Mechthild of Magdeberg, and Marguerite Porete of Hainault, we discover a new beginning in Christian mysticism, where the unio mystico is brought up to a new level of relationship. While simultaneously redeeming and strengthening the feminine, both within the God-image and within medieval Christian society, this new relationship is now characterized as reciprocal, in that the mystic can influence God as much as God can influence the mystic. Jung suggested that instead of imitating the spiritual techniques of the East, it would be better to find out whether an introverted tendency exists in the unconscious that is similar to this guiding principle so that “we would be in a position to build on our own ground with our own methods” (1958, par. 773). Jungian dream analysis and active imagination are methods of achieving this, and the roots of these methods in the West link back to Christian mysticism. The similarities between Christian mysticism and depth psychology are numerous, but in particular it is the practice of sacrificing and withdrawing projections from the outer world that allows the internalized libidinal energy to activate the inner God-image. This leads us to the critical understanding that just as the mystics knew that God was within them, so we too in the modern age, thanks to Jung's work, understand that the Self exists within the individual psyche.

Romance, Distraint, and the Gentry

Scholarship of the previous century adopted an ambivalent approach to Middle English romance. On the one hand, efforts to edit so many romances implicitly recognize this genre’s central place within medieval English literary culture. Editions of romances, for example, have been a staple of the Early English Text Society since its inception, as well as, more recently, composing a large proportion of TEAMS editions. Yet in spite of the proliferation of editions and thus ready access to such texts, literary critics throughout the twentieth century consistently registered unease with most romances, objecting to their lack of psychological depth, oversimplified characters, cultural chauvinism, and seemingly naive recourse to magic and supernatural prowess. L. F. Casson, the editor of Sir Degrevant for EETS, remarked in his edition that “the ending is unduly hurried, as though the author had tired of puppetry,” while George Kane, in an attempt to justify the study of a select group of romances on aesthetic grounds, commented that “[m]ore than twenty of the surviving romances must be called artistic failures.”1 As a result, in 1986 Stephen Knight could justifiably quip that the verse romances were “the ugly ducklings of medieval English studies.”2 Yet the last twenty years witnessed a renewed interest in the verse romances qua literature. As formalism gave way to historicism, Middle English romance offered itself as an ideal vehicle for understanding medieval literary culture as practiced outside the exclusive circles of court and nobility. As such scholarship recognized, romance is a wide, diverse genre—in terms

The Brain and Its Relationship to Mind

Margaret Wilkinson and Katherine Olivetti discuss the development of Margaret's professional background, how she became interested in the new research into neurobiology, attachment, and trauma, and its relevance to depth psychology and clinical practice.

The Veil between Ordinary and Nonordinary Reality: Working with the Objective Psyche in Shamanism and Depth Psychology

This article is a personal journey integrating Jungian depth psychology and Inca shamanism through an understanding of the objective psyche as it relates to shamanic experience. Parallels between experiencing energetic connection with the land and altered psychic states are explored. Developing a bridge between the experience of shamanism and Western culture, into the veil between ordinary and nonordinary reality, has been a process of weaving indigenous mountain traditions of ceremony and ritual into the context of an analytic framework. The author's hope is that imparting the knowledge received from the Q’ero medicine people will contribute to keeping the understanding of native tradition alive.

In a secular age: Weber, Taylor, Jung

Sociologists engaging with depth psychology have rarely drawn on the work of C. G. Jung. Part of the reason for this, I suggest, is Jung’s seeming tendency to credit, and be informed by, religious and non-rational perspectives. In this article I first highlight what sociologists might find problematic in Jung by comparing his views on the desacralisation of the modern world with Max Weber’s views on disenchantment. I then argue that Charles Taylor’s recent alternative account of disenchantment and secularity provides a framework within which Jung’s thought becomes more sociologically creditable despite, and even because of, its approach to matters of religion.

Sobowtórowość, bliźniaczość, podwójność – „ja” wobec „ja” w małych formach prozatorskich Stefana Grabińskiego

Look -alikeness , twin-ness , duality – “me” versus “me” in Stefan Grabiński ’s short storiesAbstractThe article discusses look-alike creations in six short stories by Stefan Grabiński – Zez [Strabismus], Problemat Czelawy [Czelawa’s Problem], Czad [Fumes], Kochanka Szamoty [Szamota’s Mistress], In Sarah’s House [W domu Sary] and Przypadek [The Case]. The category of duality – understood as multiplication and dividing – becomes the basis for reflection on the identity type ipse and the search for subjectivity. It is analysed in the context of the dynamic concept of being, as well as the psychology of depth, androgyny and parapsychology.

The Weight of the World

The Weight of the World John Kinsella (bio) Red Shed 1 Who built our red barns so admired as emblems . . . —Hayden Carruth, "Marshall Washer" People hereabouts distinguish our placeby the massive red shed that pronouncesa ledge hacked into the hillside. Erectedby the previous owner, it yells culturalanomaly across the valley: I know howmuch she loved horses and dedicatedit as a stable, but I am not sure if she evervisited America and drew inspirationfrom the red barns of folklore and utility.After years living in red-barn mid-Ohio,we knew what red barns said to localsand visitors alike. Here and now, they say:sticks out like a sore thumb! Or: hey,you know the place, the one with the dirtygreat red shed! The air force uses it to sightfor bombing runs. Pure terror. In truthit's a placid red, though the horrorof hunkering down in bush, of wantingnot to be noticed, makes it anathema.Each day it holds sunlight betweenitself and an imaginary horizonthat curves with the hills overlookingthe greater Tooday valley. Imaginethe structure of what would have grownthere if the red shed hadn't stakeda claim? The runoff from its gentlypitched roof, the red music it makes [End Page 362] in high winds, bleeding arteriesthat feed reservoirs we drink from.This memory of America won't depart,and the red Colorbond steel that holdsa postcard portrait, the folklore that makes workand horses and a shelter for all weatherspeaks resistance: in the worst firesit will buckle and melt, but the sumof history, its loud declaration, remains. Red Shed 2 But let me tell you how it is inside those barns. —Hayden Carruth, "Marshall Washer" Steel red shed that inside looks like wooden stablesbecause of the amount of wood that is useful and willful, wooden framework masking metal with high eavesthat could have been turned into a loft but holds electrics, hay pitched and packed in a corner, and stalls,wooden and symmetrical and just communal enough, where mares are favored, the equipmentof horse-keeping a metaphor for being kept by horses. This is no longer a horse property, the whispersare of rodents and snakes, and to open the grand doors of the red shed is to wonder what to make of it, spiritsso imbued, no matter how skeptical you might be. Conjure no horses and no horse activities and nohusbandry of horses, washed and rubbed down [End Page 363] fresh from their workouts. Strange how you hearBeethoven's Ghost Trio at work on the senses, its hidden and never spoken air of horses, undertones and palpitationsof ghostly hormones. Last year I reviewed a performance of Equus. Last year one of my students did a pieceof creative autobiography on horses by horses. She knew how much she couldn't say. The Greek letters of horseshoesare still imprinted in the soft floor of the shed's theater, text colorless. What went on in there still goes on;deny it if possible. I wish this red shed were gone, hillside restored to its pristine apparitions of priornative vegetation holding and hiding animals that refuse to be shod, that refuse to envisagethe properties of a shed-stable, its cares and investments. Red Shed: "Psychological Depth" Red shed sealed for weeks but the dry—the dry compels me in, takes me by the noseand draws me to the pump, the compressor(more accurately) that will slug a two-strokepiston in its oily cage, its vacuum-makerand oxygenator, to spark and push airalong hoses far across the block, hundredsof meters to the boreheads, down pipes,down layers of Van Eyck oils, as if exhalationis a first-timer here, to puff into the aquiferand drive water up the contrary pipe,forcefeed the great tank, which is downto muddy leftovers. So turn to groundwater?All farms around us suck up any way they can, [End Page 364] draining and dragging the aquifer that will "neverempty," though we sense its cavity...