Podcasts by This Jungian Life Podcast
Eavesdrop on three Jungian analysts as they engage in lively, sometimes irreverent conversations about a wide range of topics as they share what it’s like to see the world through the depth psychological lens provided by Carl Jung. Half of each episode is spent discussing a dream submitted by a listener.
Further podcasts by Deborah Stewart, Lisa Marchiano, Joseph Lee
Podcast on the topic Mentale Gesundheit
All episodes
SURVIVING MASS TRAUMA: How did Jung process catastrophic events? from 2023-12-07T09:23
The great catastrophe of Jung's generation was the rise of Nazi Germany and WWII. His insights into the collective psyche of nations remain relevant today as we grapple with wa...
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NIGHTMARES: How do I stop awful dreams? from 2023-11-30T09:20
"The monsters that chase you in dreams are not trying to hurt you. They just want to reunite with their creator………...… that...
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DO WE INHERIT OUR PARENT’S FEARS? from 2023-11-23T18:10
What wisdom do fairy tales hold about childrearing in our modern world?
DUMBO'S FEATHER: Are there hidden messages in Disney cartoons? from 2023-11-16T07:25
What hidden messages make Disney cartoons so impactful and enduring?
...
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Aaron Balick – Why does social media weaponize our reactions? from 2023-11-09T08:22
Aaron Balick is a psychotherapist, speaker, consultant, educator, and author of The Psychodynamics of Social Networking.
Soci...
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FAME: Why Do We Create Icons Then Destroy Them? from 2023-11-02T16:49
Today's technology allows us to be seduced by the possibility of fam...
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JUNG'S PARANORMAL ENCOUNTERS: Why did strange events follow him? from 2023-10-26T04:33
If we lean into strange experiences with gentle curiosity, we may discover a level of psyche that acts directly on objects.
Many of us have uncanny coi...
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LOW ENERGY: Where can we source the drive to take action? from 2023-10-19T03:07
Lisa, Deb, and Joe, Jungian analysts and co-creators of This Jungian Life podcast, have introduced thousands of clients to ...
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REUNIONS: Is there value in remembering our younger selves? from 2023-10-12T06:57
Deb and Joe are Jungian Analysts, authors, training analysts, and co-creators of This Jungian Life Podcast. [Lisa was away lec...
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Donald Kalsched – Can running our minds like a democracy save us? from 2023-10-05T05:19
Don Kalsched is a Jungian Analyst, an expert on treating trauma, author of two books, The Inner World of Trauma and Trauma ...
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Why Do We Push People Away? Understanding our Defenses from 2023-09-28T20:13
Defense mechanisms function as unconscious psychological strategies we...
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SELKIE FOLKLORE: Should we force soul to serve us? from 2023-09-21T06:25
The Selkie swims ...
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INITIATIONS: universal processes that spark transformation from 2023-09-14T05:48
The archetype of Initiation is primordial, and its force guides our transformative transitions. For Jung, this change re...
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From SHAMANISM to JUNG: Understanding 'Loss of Soul' from 2023-08-31T05:10
As Jung’s anthropological studies expanded and his international travel exposed him to new cultures and ideas, he was ta...
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HAGITUDE: Sharon Blackie on the power of aging from 2023-08-24T04:35
Sharon Blackie calls us to the ancient archetype of the Hag as a figure of unapologetic emergence from cultural pressure...
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THREE VOICES, ONE SONG: Lessons in Friendship from 2023-08-17T05:09
The essence of friendship is visible in its linguistic root: ‘to love....
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You're Not A Fraud: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome from 2023-08-10T05:06
Imposter syndrome constellates the gut-wrenching fear of being exposed as a fraud no matter how much we have learned or the su...
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FRIEND or FOE: The AI Debate with Michael L. Littman, PhD from 2023-08-03T03:56
The uses and abuses of ChatGPT artificial intelligence language model have taken the collective imagination by storm. Apocalyp...
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The Conjunction of Art and Life with Peter Kramer from 2023-07-27T19:12
"Death of the Great Man" by Dr. Peter D. Kramer offers a glimpse into ...
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Meeting Shadow on the Spiritual Path with Connie Zweig from 2023-07-20T11:53
Award-winning author, depth psychotherapist, and guide Connie Zweig sh...
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REVIVING TOLERANCE in Cancel Culture from 2023-07-13T05:15
In a world reduced to digital exchanges and swift judgments, reviving tolerance has become vital. Toleration comes from the...
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HEALING the RIFT: Anima Mundi in a Disenchanted World from 2023-07-06T08:00
Is every object alive? Are wind, oceans, and mountains sentient? Jung,...
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Hypochondria’s Havoc and the Quest for Reassurance from 2023-06-29T04:25
Illness anxiety disorder (IAD), formerly hypochondriasis, is characterized by excessive worry about a severe illness, persisting despite medical evaluations and reassurances. I...
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OUR MORAL COMPASS: Understanding Guilt, Remorse,&Atonement from 2023-06-22T04:56
A sudden pang in the chest, a quie...
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BEAUTY, her BEAST, and the BLOSSOMING SELF from 2023-06-15T06:22
The tale of Beauty and the Beast is at least 4,000 years old, perhaps second in popularity only to Cinderella. It has gener...
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EMBRACING THE OUTCAST: Understanding Homelessness from 2023-06-08T05:56
Homelessness, as a stark and multifaceted symbol of disconnection, extends beyond the mere absence of...
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UGLY DUCKLING COMPLEX: the painful path of transformation from 2023-06-01T08:10
We all understand the Ugly Duckling complex because we lived it at one...
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SHADOWS&HIGH STAKES: understanding gambling from 2023-05-25T05:02
Understanding gambling illuminates the amalgam of desire, risk, and reward that defines our interactions with a capricious world. The lure of gambling, entwined within the fabr...
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WHISKERS of WISDOM: A Jungian Analysis of ‘Puss in Boots’ from 2023-05-18T04:58
Something about a cat wearing clothes has captured our imagination for over 500 years, so it’s about time we tackle a Ju...
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ARCHETYPAL IMAGES: the soul's language from 2023-05-11T04:04
Thomas Singer, M.D., Jungian Analyst and president of The Archive...
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MEDUSA’S MANY FACES: The Evolution of a Myth from 2023-05-04T04:03
The symbolism of Medusa, one of three Gorgon sisters in Greek mythology, has fascinated artists, writers, and philosophers for...
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The DARK TRIAD: tracking wolves in our midst from 2023-04-27T06:28
Understanding the Dark Triad can help us navigate mysteriously troubled relationships in all spheres of life....
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SYMBOLIC MEANING of HAIR: what's your look saying? from 2023-04-20T06:39
The symbolic meaning of hair is both personal and cultural. It serves as an exp...
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THE WHALE: a film about trauma, obesity, and the undying hope to connect. from 2023-04-13T04:00
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PAN: archetypal source of panic disorder from 2023-04-06T06:51
Piping through mountains and glens, the great god Listen
CAN JUNG’S HOME WITHSTAND REPURPOSING? from 2023-04-01T04:00
It seems that an intrepid consortium of impact investors, real estate developers, and the Swiss Tourism, Farming, and Dairy Products Oversight Authority have created a juggerna...
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SCHADENFREUDE: Why do we enjoy seeing others fail? from 2023-03-23T04:00
Schadenfreude, the joy in someone else’s misfortune, is a common human experience. We often feel it when someone we believe deserves it embarrasses themselves or is ca...
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The PIED PIPER&the terrible costs of rejecting shadow from 2023-03-16T04:00
The Pied Piper story holds a dark secret that has repelled and fascina...
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The ORPHAN: symbol of eros, pathos, and hope from 2023-03-09T05:00
The archetype of the orphan, closely related to the hero, evokes powerful feelings of abandonment, deprivation, and hope. From Harry Potter to Little Orphan Annie from Daenerys...
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AWAKE TO THE WORLD: Jung’s Ethical Stance from 2023-02-23T06:00
Despite volumes written on morality and ethics, how do we determine what’s right? Values distilled over ...
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IRRESISTIBLE INVITATIONS: the powerful seduction of possibilities from 2023-02-16T05:00
Invitations are a subtle siren song, tapping into our primal human need to be chosen combined with our thirst for novelty, ...
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APHRODITE’S SHADOW: Drowning in Beauty from 2023-02-09T05:00
When the goddess Aphrodite claims us too fully, over time, our bodies become abandoned temples of physical perfection, sexual allur...
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Sacred Marriage: A Fusion of Instinct, Spirit, and Grit from 2023-02-02T05:00
Marriage is a mystery woven into the fabric of time. A 4,000-year-old contract etched in stone bears witness to its timeless significance. But what is the meaning behind this union of two souls?...
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The Schizophrenia Complex: How Do We Love Those in Chaos? from 2023-01-26T05:00
Guest Eve Maram, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst in Orange, CA. Her book, The Schizophrenia Complex, presents a clear-eyed and compassionate und...
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Bipolar Disorder: A Jungian Perspective from 2023-01-19T05:00
Imprisoned by the sea with his son Icarus, mythological craftsman Daedalus constructed wings to escape. Beeswax held feathers in place, so Daedalus told Icarus not to fly too high or too low: th...
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Inside the Mind of the Scam Artist from 2023-01-12T05:00
Conned, swindled, or bilked, about 50 million Americans were ripped off by scammers in 2020. What deadens a person to preying on another? Tricksters commit crudely constructed fraud. Jung said t...
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Best of This Jungian Life 2022 from 2023-01-05T05:00
New Year is a global time of celebration and self-reflection. We let go of what’s worn out and cheer on what’s new and emergent. Here at TJL, we raised our glasses in gratitude. We crested 8 mil...
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SEX and its Undeniable Power to Fascinate from 2022-12-29T05:00
Sex fascinates us. Whether we turn toward it, flushed and excited or away from it, tense and disquieted. Archetypal images of sex adorn the thresholds of ancient ...
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HOLIDAY HAUNTINGS, or Who are these people?!?! from 2022-12-22T05:00
Holiday homecomings kindle hopes of achieving a domestic ideal, though family gatherings are also likely to evoke old roles and emotions. Families open a portal into the patterns of the past, an...
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THERAPISTS on the SILVER SCREEN: fantasy or fact? from 2022-12-15T05:00
In psychoanalysis, a screen memory covers up a deeper, more emotionally charged issue. Similarly, movie and television screens both shield and open us to human complexity through fiction. The op...
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REVOLUTION: the way of radical renewal from 2022-12-08T05:00
We tend to think of revolution as a people’s push-back against perceived oppression—a reaction to rulership that has rejected fairness, change, and accessibility. When a rigid power structure re...
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MELANCHOLY: the exquisite ache of life from 2022-12-01T05:00
Melancholy evokes images of poets and artists for whom suffering and giftedness go hand in hand. Creative ability as compensation for affliction is depicted in Greek myth by the god Hep...
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GAMES: a metaphor for life from 2022-11-24T05:00
Humans have played games since prehistoric times. Games bring us together and pit us against each other. We agree to rules, take turns, develop tolerance for frustration, and learn to win and lo...
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STAY-AT-HOME DADS: Emerging Potentials in the Father Archetype from 2022-11-17T05:00
As our bonds to historic roles loosen, fathers are finding new ways to express themselves within the family dynamic. In 2014 Pew Research Center identified two million ...
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SEWING: Stitching a Life Together from 2022-11-10T09:00
Humans moved from stitching animal hides to sewing cloth, from necessity to fashion, and from handwork to factory. To sew is to repair, alter, and create. If a rip or tear is sewn unthinkingly, ...
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Matthew Quick on Jung, heartbreak, and healing in his new novel We Are the Light. from 2022-11-03T04:00
Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook, shares himself and his new book, We Are the Light. Writer’s block led Quick to This Jungian Life podcast, Listen
Zombies: a call to consciousness from 2022-10-27T04:00
Zombies have recently risen from mythological depths to menace modern-day culture. Zombies image the horror of vulnerability to dehumanized existence. They exist in a meaningless void marked onl...
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The Problem with Problems: solve or avoid? from 2022-10-20T04:00
Problems can pester, persist and plague. They range from short-lived to chronic, bothersome to heart-wrenching, resolvable to unalterable. Problems cause what Jungian analyst and author James Ho...
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OCD: The Distress of Repression from 2022-10-13T04:00
Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts; compulsions are unwarranted, involuntary behaviors. Though different, they often go together, for compulsions pose as protection from the imagined ba...
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CREATION AND DESTRUCTION: Archetype of the Volcano from 2022-10-06T04:00
Volcanoes appear in our myths, movies, and dreams. Their awesome destructive power fascinates us and serves as a reminder that we are not in control of nature’s primordial forces. Offering acces...
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The Inferior Function: Opening to the Interior from 2022-09-29T04:00
There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in. LEONARD COHEN
Jung’s system of typology—our characteristic way of orienting to the world—led to the creation of the...
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Theory of Enchantment: Chloe Valdary from 2022-09-22T04:00
Could the antidote to racism be enchantment? Chloe Valdary thinks so. Theory of Enchantment is a radical approach to anti-racism rooted in understanding that celebrates the complexity of the hum...
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THE QUEEN: Archetype&Individual from 2022-09-15T04:00
Queen Elizabeth II is mourned around the world. The world saw stages of life live in and through her: from maiden to mate, mother to matriarch, elder to aged. She inherited her title but grew in...
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ROAD TRIP: outer journey, inner mission from 2022-09-08T04:00
The open road beckons: bigger, better, boundless. To see and to seek is a mythological theme with an American stamp, from wagon trains to memoirs and movies. Progress and mobility have long been...
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HATRED: a way to hide our secrets from 2022-09-01T04:00
Hatred is a universal human emotion related to distancing and destroying. Hatred is anger, disgust, judgment, and contempt cemented into implacable permanence. Obsessive and inflating, hatred du...
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Donald Kalsched: Trauma&the Informed Heart from 2022-08-25T04:00
Dr. Donald Kalsched, Jungian analyst, teacher, and author, discusses his acclaimed work on childhood trauma; (see www.donaldkalsched.com for upcomin...
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COMPARTMENTALIZATION: Coping with Contradiction from 2022-08-18T04:00
Compartmentalization is like a home electrical panel that separates power into different zones. It allows us to separate the charge carried by ideas, feelings, and actions without risking system...
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Episode 226 - HERMES: Divine Trickster from 2022-08-11T04:00
Karl Kerenyi collaborated with Jung in demonstrating the psychological meaning of Greek mythology. Kerenyi found in Hermes a representation of “a third way of living life, besides the Apollonian...
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Episode 225 - Archetype of the Wave: image of energy and motion from 2022-08-04T04:00
Images of earth’s perpetual restlessness waves gently rock us, lift us up for an exhilarating ride – or inundate us in the terrifying phenomenon of a tsunami. Surfers surrender to the rhythm of ...
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Episode 224 - The Way of Kabbalah: ancient map of the psyche from 2022-07-28T04:00
Kabbalah is an ancient Jewish mystical tradition that has captured the imaginations of people from widely diverse backgrounds, including Jung himself. Three weeks after his heart attack in 1944,...
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Imp of the Perverse: struggling with our fiendish shadow from 2022-07-21T04:00
A fiendish inner spirit can prompt behavior that defies self-interest and even common sense. In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, the protagonist acts on his diabolical urge to commit murder, followed by...
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Episode 222 - Hansel and Gretel: Overcoming Trauma from 2022-07-14T04:00
Fairy tales are fierce narratives of human shadow and its transformation. Hansel and Gretel depicts raw childhood trauma: parents abandon their children in the forest in order to feed t...
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Episode 221- DAIMON: Demon or Destiny? from 2022-07-07T06:00
The daimon, a guiding spirit of individual destiny, was discussed by ancient Greek philosophers and still surfaces in books and movies like The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Daimons...
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Episode 220 - Can We Consider Abortion? from 2022-06-30T04:00
The word consider derives from Latin considerare, “to look at closely, observe.” Con means “with, together,” and sidus refers to “heavenly body, star constell...
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Episode 219 - Archetypal Aspects of School from 2022-06-23T04:00
Schools have existed across cultures and throughout time; the knowledge they transmit leads us out of childhood, shapes our values and world view, and grooms us for citizenship. Schools help us ...
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Episode 218 - Dream Incubation with Machiel Klerk from 2022-06-16T04:00
Guest Machiel Klerk has worked with dreams and healing traditions worldwide; his new book is Dream Guidance: Connection to the Soul through Dream Incubation. Religions, shamanic practic...
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Episode 217 - DEATH: A Jungian Perspective from 2022-06-09T04:00
Awareness of death can help us create an intentional life—one that serves the movement of soul toward wholeness. Jung realized that although we experience death as “a fearful piece of brutality,...
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Episode 216 - Hans Christian Andersen: Persona&Personhood from 2022-06-02T04:00
While many of Hans Christian Andersen’s 19th-century stories have moralizing motifs, their universality and depth places them among ageless fairy tales. Although The Princess and ...
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Episode215 - POISON: Toxic or Transformative? from 2022-05-26T04:00
Pharmakon, the ancient Greek word for drug, can mean both “remedy” and “poison.” There is a close connection between poison and cure. Poison is stealthy, and takes us by surprise, wheth...
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Episode 214 - HOMESICKNESS: Longing&Belonging from 2022-05-19T04:00
From Homer’s Odyssey to the Wizard of Oz our native soil draws us home, whether home is a small Greek island or a simple Kansas farm. The soul has a natural longing to return to the place of its...
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Episode 213 - VOCATION: Answering the Call from 2022-05-12T04:00
Vocation, once associated with serving God through service to others, is now most strongly associated with a career having personal worth. Vocation spans a range of needs and values: commitment...
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Episode 212 - THE PRODIGAL SON as Shadow, Ego&the Self from 2022-05-05T04:00
Jung interpreted religious traditions from the viewpoint of their psychological significance. The allegorical tale of the Prodigal Son illustrates Jung’s basic understanding of the structure and...
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SHADOWLAND: DETRANSITION – THE STORY OF BETH from 2022-04-28T04:00
Beth underwent gender transition from natal female to trans male and has since de-transitioned. In her early teens, Beth felt she was not like other women and beg...
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Episode 210 - Causal or Creative: Is History Destiny? from 2022-04-21T04:00
The Roman god Janus had two faces. They looked in opposite directions, representing dualities, especially beginnings and endings, past and future. Psychotherapy often begins by facing the past a...
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Episode 209 - THE GETHSEMANE ENCOUNTER from 2022-04-14T04:00
The Garden of Gethsemane is the place of life crisis; it permits no escape or compromise. There, we suffer the agony of choosing between personal will or willing submission to something greater....
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Episode 208 - MORAL INJURY: Violation of Meaning from 2022-04-07T04:00
Moral injury violates our sense of justice, loyalty, and meaning—and creates a storm in the soul. Those who directly affect others’ lives are most at risk of suffering irreconcilable conflicts b...
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Bonus Episode - Jung&Freud: From “Bro” to Broken from 2022-04-01T04:00
We welcome Jungian colleague, psychiatrist, and historian Dr. Bert Price, whose research in Vienna during a 2019 international conference led to the discovery of new facts regarding the famous f...
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Episode 207 - Hunting: An Archetypal Perspective from 2022-03-31T04:00
To hunt is to engage the opposites: the hunter must attune and align with nature in order to kill part of it. According to mythographer Joseph Campbell, “the basic hunting myth is of a kind of c...
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Episode 206 - FAILURE as TEACHER from 2022-03-24T04:00
We first encounter failure in learning to walk—we fall down, the root definition of failure. Coming up short is a lifelong experience that stretches from mishaps and lapses to shock waves that s...
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Episode 205 - CAUGHT IN THE CONFLICT: The Tension of Opposites from 2022-03-17T04:00
Holding the tension between opposites was one of Jung’s foundational precepts. Although contradictory views are often a better witness to truth than one-sided conviction, beliefs and decisions ofte...
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Episode 204 - Amor Fati: Love of One's Fate from 2022-03-10T05:00
In Greek mythology, three Fates represented life forces beyond our control. One spun the thread of life, another determined its length, and the third cut it. Jung, however, understood that fate was...
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Episode 203 - Trust: The Bedrock of Relationship from 2022-03-03T14:00
Intimate attachments, workplace effectiveness, and stable social systems depend on our ability to rely on one another. Trust is the foundation of social exchanges and benefits, from affection to...
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Special Re-release: The Archetype of War from 2022-02-24T05:00
Recent events in Ukraine have again put war at the forefront of collective consciousness. War’s destruction belongs to the mythic realm. Mars, the Roman god of war, was a primordial force whose ...
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Episode 202 - Forgiveness or Fury: Finding a Way Forward from 2022-02-17T05:00
Forgiveness has long been the province of morality, virtue, and religious values. Psychologically, forgiveness requires the capacity to hold both the magnitude of the injury and the humanity of ...
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Episode 201 - DUPED: What Makes Us Gullible? from 2022-02-10T05:00
Jung says, “The more one turns to the light, the greater the shadow behind one’s back.” Unacknowledged shadow can increase vulnerability to coercive dealings and regrettable decisions. We may fi...
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Episode 200 - Reality as Medicine from 2022-02-03T05:00
The nature of reality may be a complex philosophical question, but from a psychological viewpoint, reality is largely a question of adaptation to the truths of our inner and outer worlds. How we...
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Episode 199 - Contagion: Pollution, Protection&Purity from 2022-01-27T05:00
When the archetype of purity is activated, science and psychology intersect. Fear of contamination has deep instinctual roots, evidenced in universal facial expressions of distress and disgust. ...
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Episode 198 - PORN: Technology, Consumerism&Soul from 2022-01-20T05:00
Nearly every civilization since ancient times has portrayed explicit sexual acts. Sexuality’s numinous aspect has long brought it into close association with spirituality and religion. The power...
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Episode 197 - The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul from 2022-01-13T05:00
Dr. Connie Zweig, Ph.D., retired Jungian-psychotherapist and author, joins us to discuss her new book, The Inner Work of Age. She extends her well-known work on shadow into midlife and ...
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Episode 196 - LEGACY: Living Toward the Long Future from 2022-01-06T05:00
Is the future relevant? Can we suspend immediate satisfaction in favor of our descendants’ quality of life? Legacy comes from the Latin root legatia: one who i...
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Episode 195 -- Jonah&the Whale: a dream for our time from 2021-12-30T05:00
The Bible as sacred text serves as a source of revelation and wisdom about the divine. As mythology, the Bible establishes norms for daily life and organizes psychic life forces. For Jung, mytho...
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Episode 194 - Mr. Grinch on the Couch from 2021-12-23T05:00
Dr. Seuss’ case history of the Grinch presents him as “uncheerful, unhealthy, unclean.” We hope that adding an analytic perspective will be helpful in understanding this clinical condition. Alfr...
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Episode 193 - Libido: Tracking Inner Energy from 2021-12-16T05:00
Jung understood libido as psychic energy: desire, will, interest, and passion. Libido includes instincts for fulfilling bodily appetites and engaging developmental tasks. Although energy infuses...
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Episode 192 - The Archetype of the Crocodile from 2021-12-09T05:00
The crocodile and its alligator cousin appear regularly in the dreams of people far from warm, wet habitats. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the divine crocodile Sobek was honored, especially at ...
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Episode 191 - Archetypes and the Creative Process: A Discussion with Third Coast Percussion from 2021-12-02T05:00
The creator, the hero, the explorer: these are just some of the archetypes made famous by Carl Jung that inspired the latest album from Chicago’s Grammy award-winning Third Coast Percussion. Cre...
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Episode 190 - Falling in Love: Bewitched, Bothered&Bewildered from 2021-11-25T05:00
Jung says, “Love is a power of destiny, whose force reaches from heaven to hell.” Falling in love is an initiation into the divine—light, and dark—as personal and archetypal forces combine and c...
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Episode 189 - A Well-Aligned Mind: How to Be Alive from 2021-11-18T05:00
Guest Iain McGilchrist is a renowned psychiatrist, researcher, and author. His 2009 book, The Master and His Emissary gained worldwide fame for showing how differences between brain hem...
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Episode 188 - Humanizing the Hero from 2021-11-11T05:00
Mythological heroes defend, protect and quest. They range from warriors, adventurers, and saviors to magicians, loners, and rebels, but one way or another, they battle bad for the sake of good. ...
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Episode 187 - The Fiery Furnace of Ambition from 2021-11-04T04:00
Ambition is a fire whose flames first rise in the first half of life when hopes and dreams are fueled by possibilities in the external world. It takes creative audacity to seize a dream, develop...
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Episode 186 - The Archetype of the Witch: Dangerous, Denied&Dishonored from 2021-10-28T04:00
It’s witching season, the time when women of all ages embrace a mythical image of unfettered feminine power. The witch may cast spells, seek vengeance, or wreak creative havoc—as she pleases. Fl...
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Episode 185 - Assessing Our Psychic Inheritance from 2021-10-21T04:00
Jung said of the parent-child relationship: “Nothing exerts a stronger psychic effect upon the human environment, and especially upon children, than the life which the parents have not lived...
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Episode 184 - Does Analysis Work? A Conversation with Jonathan Shedler, PhD from 2021-10-14T04:00
“Talk is powerful medicine.” Renowned researcher and clinician Jonathan Shedler, Ph.D., joins us to discuss the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy. While so-called evidence-based thera...
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Episode 183 - JUSTICE: The Struggle for Balance from 2021-10-07T04:00
Principles of fairness and justice have deep roots in the human psyche: we want to receive our fair share and a fair shake. When man injures man, we may protest, strive for redress, and measure ...
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Episode 182 - Confronting Shadow: The Work of Self-Discovery from 2021-09-30T04:00
Psychotherapy is essentially the work of making shadow conscious—all that we have not discerned then disowned, or projected onto others. We seldom welcome shadow, for it is marked by emotions an...
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Episode 181 - Self-Reflection: What Was I Thinking? from 2021-09-23T04:00
Jung says, “There is another instinct, different from the drive to activity and so far as we know specifically human, which might be called the reflective instinct.” Self-reflection is ...
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Episode 180 - INFLUENCE: Connection or Contagion? from 2021-09-16T04:00
We have always been subject to the influence of others—it’s how we learn language, become socialized, cooperate and collaborate. It’s also how we exclude, denigrate, and assault others. Today, w...
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SHADOWLAND: Prostitution - the story of Kay from 2021-09-09T04:00
This is Shadowland, a new podcast experience from This Jungian Life that explores the lives of people who work and take refuge in the hidden places of our culture. Lisa...
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SHADOWLAND: a new podcast experience – September 9 on TJL from 2021-09-02T15:28:20
On September 9th, This Jungian Life will launch a new podcast experience - SHADOWLAND. In this series, we meet soulfully with people who live and work ...
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Episode 179 - The Archetype of WAR from 2021-09-02T04:00
Recent events in Afghanistan have again put war at the forefront of collective consciousness. War’s destruction belongs to the mythic realm. Mars, the Roman god of war, was a primordial force wh...
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Episode 178 - The Music of Metaphor: Healing in Therapy&Life from 2021-08-26T08:00
Guest Mark Winborn is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst who teaches in the U.S. and internationally. Author of three books and numerous articles, Mark is an active member of the IRSJA ...
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Episode 177 - Splitting: Understanding What Divides Us from 2021-08-19T08:00
We seem hard-wired to split the world into polarities: right/wrong, either/or, victory/defeat, Democrat/Republican. Infants and toddlers have not yet achieved the developmental capacity for comp...
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Episode 176 - The Wounded Healer from 2021-08-12T04:00
There are three major models of healing: medical, shamanic, and psychoanalytic. In the first, the doctor does it to you; in the second, the intermediary does it for you; and in the third, Jung’s...
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Episode 175 - Tarot, Divination&the Symbolic Life from 2021-08-05T04:00
Guest T. Susan Chang is a writer, podcaster, and teacher of tarot, the most commonly recognized modern form of divination. The archetypal symbols in the tarot’s 7...
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Episode 174 - Time&Truth About Its Use from 2021-07-29T04:00
Guest Oliver Burkeman states in his new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, that “outrageous brevity is life’s defining problem.” At age 80, you’ll have had a paltry...
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Episode 173 - The Cosmic Meaning of Consciousness from 2021-07-22T04:00
In Answer to Job, Jung states, “Whoever knows God has an effect on him.” If, as Jung claims, individual human consciousness affects God, what we are matters monumentally. When we serve ...
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Episode 172 - Archetypes from 2021-07-15T04:00
Although the concept of archetypes has philosophical ancestors, Jung’s theory was developed over time and rested on a foundation that was scientific and empirical. Research and experiment enable...
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Episode 171 - Paying Attention: What Are You Spending It On? from 2021-07-08T04:00
We plainly pay attention, using the finite currency of time and energy issued in the 24-hour increments that add up to a life - well spent? We have choices and constraints about how we ...
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Episode 170 - Letting Go: When Is It Time? from 2021-07-01T04:00
In the first half of life, we strive to develop ego strength and achieve our dreams. To want, will, and work is worthwhile and adaptive--until a life dream, relationship, or identity fades or fa...
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Episode 169 - Threshold: Moving Between the Realms from 2021-06-24T04:00
In medieval times, the threshold was a plank that kept barnyard “threshings” outside the house. In the sciences a threshold is the limit of magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a def...
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Episode 168 - The Unspoken Wounding of Men from 2021-06-17T04:00
Jung’s earliest dream, at age three or four, preoccupied him all his life, “in an underground chamber, a giant phallus stood erect on a golden throne.” Majestic and luminous, it struck him with ...
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Episode 167 - Extroversion from 2021-06-10T04:00
Although Jung’s theory of typology is the foundation of various personality assessments, it is important to appreciate its profundity as Jung’s theory of consciousness. The four functions of con...
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Episode 167 - Extroversion from 2021-06-10T04:00
Although Jung’s theory of typology is the foundation of various personality assessments, it is important to appreciate its profundity as Jung’s theory of consciousness. The four functions of con...
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Episode 166 - The Power of NO from 2021-06-03T04:00
Toddlers have ready access to no as they discover the power of <...
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Episode 165 - Risk&Reality: When Fear Traps Us from 2021-05-27T04:00
We can’t help knowing that something bad could happen if we do X…or Y…or maybe Z. Like Odysseus steering his ship between sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis, we mu...
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Episode 164 - Assessing Your Values: Meaning&Motivation from 2021-05-20T04:00
There is value in examining your values, the powerful emotional and cognitive attitudes that underlie large and small life choices. Although values are initially acquired through family and inst...
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Episode 163 - INTROVERSION from 2021-05-13T04:00
The terms introversion and extraversion, now cultural staples, originated with Jung and describe the overall direction of life energy. The widely used Myers-Brigg...
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Episode 162 - Tending the Ego-Self Axis: Reconnecting with Source from 2021-05-06T04:00
Erich Neumann publicly proposed the concept of the ego-Self (or Self-ego) axis and began to sketch its implications in his 1952 Eranos lecture, "The Psyche and the Transformation of the Reality ...
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Episode 161 - When Words Lose Their Meaning from 2021-04-29T04:00
In 1543, Andreas Vesalius dissected a corpse, thereby inaugurating a scientific attitude toward the human body. This new attitude taught us to stand aside from our identification and connection ...
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Episode 160 - The Dark Side of Mothering from 2021-04-22T04:00
Our colleague Puddi Kullberg, author of The Bad Mother, joins us to acknowledge motherhood’s shadow. A link to her paper is below. Our culture idealizes motherhood, but mothers everywhe...
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Episode 159 - The Alchemy of Writing from 2021-04-15T04:00
The wellspring of consciousness has long been located in word. Once words were etched on clay or inked on papyrus, a new way of knowing was born. Writing ordered ...
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Episode 158 - The Phoenix: Life’s Transformative Fires from 2021-04-08T04:00
The splendid-feathered phoenix lives for hundreds of years builds its own funeral pyre, sets it on fire, and rises from the ashes after three days. The phoenix represents long life, conscious ac...
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Episode 157 - The Archetype of the Fool from 2021-04-01T14:00
The fool in various guises has appeared since ancient times. The court jester seduces through comedy, song, and story. The dummling son of fairy tales wins the treasure with well-meaning ineptit...
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Episode 157 - The Archetype of the Fool from 2021-04-01T14:00
The fool in various guises has appeared since ancient times. The court jester seduces through comedy, song, and story. The dummling son of fairy tales wins the treasure with well-meaning ineptit...
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Bonus Episode - MILKMAID REVELATIONS: JUNG’S EROTIC STAMP COLLECTION from 2021-04-01T04:00
Swiss Jungian scholar Jager Schmallzenburger has recently released news of the discovery of Jung’s erotic stamp collection. Found tucked into the wall behind a bookcase, the box of stamps featur...
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Bonus Episode - MILKMAID REVELATIONS: JUNG’S EROTIC STAMP COLLECTION from 2021-04-01T04:00
Swiss Jungian scholar Jager Schmallzenburger has recently released news of the discovery of Jung’s erotic stamp collection. Found tucked into the wall behind a bookcase, the box of stamps featur...
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Episode 156 - Exile&Alienation from 2021-03-25T04:00
not chosen but is imposed and unwanted: a relational break-up, job lay-off, or deportation. Exile can affect the human spirit so powerfully that the ancient Romans used it as an alternative to e...
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Episode 155 - A Comedian Walks into a Jungian Podcast… from 2021-03-18T04:00
Elliott Morgan, comedian and PhD candidate in depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, joins us to explore humor and psyche. Elliott grew up a fundamental...
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Episode 154 - Belonging: The Search for Home from 2021-03-11T05:00
Horses herd, birds flock, whales pod, and people tribe. The need to belong is as intrinsic to human nature as the need for food, touch, clothing and shelter. We b...
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Episode 153 - Chronic Anger: Trapped in Resentment from 2021-03-04T05:00
Like fire in a wood-burning stove, resentment burns long and hot: bitterness, frustration, and hostility. The fires of resentment are lit when we feel needy and v...
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Episode 152 - Navigating Young Adulthood: Risks&Rewards from 2021-02-25T05:00
The twenties are a period of emerging adulthood, a time to engage in the maturational tasks of finding one’s place in the wider world and forming intimate relatio...
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Episode 151 - Truth Telling: Revelations&Realities from 2021-02-18T05:00
Subjective truths yield multiple realities—political and religious truths famously differ. Objective truths rely on independent realities—two plus two must ever b...
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Episode 150 - Facing Your Feelings: Avoidance or Encounter? from 2021-02-11T05:00
While we welcome “good” feelings, we often try to banish “bad” ones like sadness, fear, vulnerability and shame. We may deny them by trying to “think positive.” W...
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Episode 149 - Self-Loathing: What’s Gnawing on Your Bones? from 2021-02-04T05:00
The judgmental inner voice has volume, speed, pitch and range. It may appear as a perfectionistic critic, demanding taskmaster, or abusive bully. It also seeps in...
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Episode 148 - MYTH AS MEDICINE: An Interview with Kwame Scruggs, PhD from 2021-01-28T05:00
Kwame Scruggs inspires men through mythology, drumming and connection to community and culture. As a young man Kwame discovered his inner fire through African-bas...
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Episode 147 - The Archetype of the Good King from 2021-01-21T05:00
The king is figured prominently in myth, religion, and fairy tale. This compelling archetypal image has roots in our earliest human beginnings, when the king embo...
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Episode 146 - INFLATION: The Challenge of Archetypal Possession from 2021-01-14T16:43:10
Inflation applies to balloons, economics--and psychology. Jung defined it as being seized by archetypal energy resulting in “a puffed up attitude, loss of free will, de...
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Episode 145 - Willpower: Choice, Energy&the Power to Achieve from 2021-01-07T05:00
The ability to choose and exercise will is a defining characteristic of humans. Only humans have enough energy available to consciousness to escape the rule of instinct...
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Episode 144 - Fierce Female Initiations: Claiming Authority&Selfhood Through Trials from 2020-12-31T13:20:13
Mythological Paths to Personal Potential
Myths and fairy tales depict women’s initiation into authority and adulthood. Hades abdu...
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Episode 143 - Scrooge on the Couch: How the Numinous Transforms from 2020-12-24T05:00
Something's going on in Scrooge's soul...and it's tired of waiting for an invitation.
Charles Dickens’ novella, Listen
Episode 142 - The Archetype of the Divine Child: Light Reborn from 2020-12-17T05:00
Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people. Luke 2:10...
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Episode 141 - FANTASY: Do We Have Fantasies or Do They Have Us? from 2020-12-10T05:00
Is fantasizing helpful or harmful?
Fantasy is the process of engagement with unconscious processes, from the depths of the mythic unconscious to the make-believe w...
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Episode 140 - Doubt: Facing Life’s Unknowns from 2020-12-03T05:00
Doubt disturbs us. Unlike the more defined polarities of ambivalence, dou...
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Episode 139 - Visionary Imagination: Jung’s Private Journals from 2020-11-26T05:00
We welcome Sonu Shamdasani, PhD, scholar and historian of depth psychology and Jung’s opus. His research and expertise were instrumental in bringing Jung’s...
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Episode 138 - Spider Parents: Finding Freedom from Dependence from 2020-11-19T05:00
The spider is a symbol of generative and destructive capabilities. As creator, spider spins the sustaining web of life. As predator, spider’s sticky web is an ine...
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Episode 137 - QAnon: Ancient Lies&Sexual Slanders from 2020-11-12T05:00
QAnon is a recent iteration of a historical pattern: Romans persecuted Christians, Christians libeled Jews, and citizenries hunted witches. When existing social s...
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Episode 136 - REVIVING OUR CAPACITY TO FEEL: The Core of Jung’s Legacy from 2020-11-05T05:00
Marie-Louise von Franz, Jung’s close collaborator, capped her public work in a 1986 lecture that summarized Jung’s signal contributions to understanding the human...
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Episode 135 - Horror: Why Can’t We Look Away? from 2020-10-29T04:00
The hair on the back of our necks bristles in response to the horrors of the uncanny. Transfixed by shock, awe, dread and fascination, we can neither dare the dan...
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Episode 134 - When Despair Prevails: Facing Suicidal Darkness from 2020-10-22T04:00
There are few more painful thoughts or frightening events than suicide, a phenomenon unique to the human species. Depression, rage, and powerlessness can overwhel...
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Episode 133 - Adaptation: Meeting Life’s Demands from 2020-10-15T04:00
The world is the canvas on which we paint our lives. Through this lifelong work, we express personal vision, develop skills, and come to terms with the realities ...
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Episode 132 - Neurosis: Befriending Our Broken Places from 2020-10-08T04:00
Although neurosis is no longer a clinical diagnosis, it is often used to ...
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Episode 131 - Curiosity: The Inner Engine of Change from 2020-10-01T04:00
We celebrate curiosity’s role in discovery, and regret its potential for damage. Mature curiosity demands that we embrace the confusion, doubt and anxiety inheren...
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Episode 130 - Sacred Symptoms: How the Numinous Heals from 2020-09-24T04:00
Jung states “the main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neurosis but rather with the approach to the numinous…the real therapy. In as muc...
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Episode 129 - At Home in Our Bodies: Incarnation&Individuation from 2020-09-17T04:00
Jung teaches that soul and spirit have a home in a living body, the font of psyche’s images and means of their incarnation in the world. Embodiment is the ground ...
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Episode 128: Intuition: Non-Rational Knowing from 2020-09-10T04:00
We all have intuitive experiences, from an occasional hunch to powerful gut feelings. Unconscious intelligence is a storehouse of instincts and wisdoms humankind ...
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Episode 127 - Seeking Certainty: The Seduction of Conspiracy Theories from 2020-09-03T04:00
In times of uncertainty truth is hard to discern, collective cohesion frays, and social factions become embattled. Unmediated shadow then seeks expression through...
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Episode 126 - The Money Complex: Incarnating Our Dreams from 2020-08-27T04:00
Money reflects our shadows and strengths as much as our bank accounts. Like Hermes, money traverses the realms from Hades to Heaven--money can be a matter of surv...
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Episode 125 - The Provisional Life: Redeeming the Real from 2020-08-20T04:00
The provisional life might be defined as a vague malaise: current relationships, work, and lifestyle feel like placeholders until the ‘real thing’ arrives—someday...
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Episode 124 - Pets: A Lived Relationship with Soul from 2020-08-13T04:00
When far from life in the wild, relationships with animals are often through pets. We find kinship and difference in our friends of very foreign origin. Pets let ...
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Episode 123 - Every Hero’s Journey from 2020-08-06T04:00
The hero’s journey has been the stuff of story from earliest times. Today’s popular heroes include Harry Potter, Frodo, Spiderman, Neo, and Luke Skywalker. They a...
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Episode 122 - COVERED: An Archetypal Take on the COVID Mask from 2020-07-30T04:00
Masks are the symbol of COVID life, and they have archetypal roots as old as humank...
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Episode 121 - Not Alone: Finding the Inner Companion from 2020-07-23T04:00
When you’re down, and in trouble, and you need some loving care...
Episode 120 - Creativity: Drawing from the Inner Well from 2020-07-16T04:00
The root of create, “to bring something into being out of nothing,” echoes...
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Episode 119 - The Religious Attitude: What Do You Worship? from 2020-07-09T04:00
The religious instinct is as basic as the need for food or shelter. Psyche seeks and selects a central, organizing life principle whether consciously or unconscio...
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Episode 118 - Dissociation: Encountering Our Inner Exile from 2020-07-02T04:00
Jung discovered the psyche’s dissociative nature through his Word Association Test. Subjects would delay or make nonsensical responses to ordinary words associate...
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Episode 117 - The Transcendent Function: Getting Unstuck from 2020-06-25T04:00
The transcendent function comes in all sizes, from “aha” moments to epiphanies. A new orientation to a dilemma arrives unthought, recognized, and right. Perhaps t...
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Episode 116 - Finding Resilience: A Conversation with Jim Hollis from 2020-06-18T04:00
James Hollis, noted Jungian scholar, teacher and author, joined us to discuss resilience. His new book, Living Between ...
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Episode 115 - We Can’t Breathe: Facing the Pain of Racism from 2020-06-11T04:00
Racial injustice takes one’s breath away. It reaches back to the psychic asphyxiations of the Middle Passage, slavery, and Jim Crow—cut-offs from home, family, fr...
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Bonus Episode - On Becoming a Jungian Analyst from 2020-06-08T12:51:39
Many listeners have expressed interest in Jungian analytic training. We welcome those inquiries and outline the prerequisites, practicalities and processes which lead u...
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Episode 114 - Riots: When the Collective Catches Fire from 2020-06-04T04:00
How can we understand the psychological wild fire of rioting? Jung, who lived through two world wars, understood that mass movements had the power to manifest arc...
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Episode 113 - Lockdown: Decoding the Covid Complex from 2020-05-28T04:00
Oppressed, repressed and regressed, the forced restrictions of the Covid Complex have us in its grip. We may see friends and family more often than ever, but only on a ...
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Episode 112 - Midlife Crisis: Renewal or Stagnation from 2020-05-21T04:00
Jung was particularly interested in the second half of life, perhaps because after his own midlife crisis he found himself so surprisingly generative. We tend to spend the first half of life ori...
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Episode 111 - Jung, UFOs&Aliens: The Truth is Out There from 2020-05-14T04:00
The Pentagon recently released a film of a UFO made by Navy pilots. Although such credible documentation is new, UFO sightings go back to ancient times and surged after World War II.
Episode 110 - ZOOMing In: Is Psyche Alive Online? from 2020-05-07T04:00
We have moved our lives online. But can we experience authentic human connection through virtual technology? Can we date, mourn, or have psychoanalysis on a screen? If screens offer some surpris...
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Episode 109 - Jung&Astrology: Cosmos&Character from 2020-04-30T04:00
Astrology is a 4000-year-old discipline rooted in the mystery of man’s relationship to the universe. It is an archetypal frame for human experience that influenced Jung, depicts our connection t...
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Episode 108 - Authority: Who’s in Charge Around Here? from 2020-04-23T04:00
The dictionary defines authority as the power to “influence or command thought, opinion or behavior.” Authority’s Latin roots are master, leader, author—thus it lives next to i...
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Episode 107 - Nigredo: Finding Light in Our Darkness from 2020-04-16T04:00
The alchemical term nigredo means black or blackening, and is associated with decomposition and putrefaction. As a psychological state, nigredo is “th...
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Episode 106 - When Everything Changes: Is There Opportunity in Crisis? from 2020-04-09T04:00
In the Chinese language, the two characters representing crisis are danger and opportunity Listen
Episode 105 - Ancestors: Our Psychological Inheritance from 2020-04-02T04:00
The archetype of origins is in resurgence since the advent of ancestry-mapping programs. What are the psychological and symbolic meanings of ancestry? Identity is often strongly linked to ancest...
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Episode 104 - Therapist Disclosures: Withholding or Overloading? from 2020-03-26T04:00
Should an analyst share personal information with clients? Freud believed that the analyst should be devoid of personal presence, so he sat unseen behind his famous couch. Jung realized that reg...
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Episode 103 - Facing the Fear of Coronavirus: Finding a Grounding Attitude from 2020-03-19T04:00
The word plague derives from the Latin plangere, “to strike the breast as if in lamentation.” The novel coronavirus has visited loss, fear and hardship on many. Nature in her d...
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Episode 102 - Destiny: Are We Fated to Have One? from 2020-03-12T04:00
Questions about fate and destiny have existed for millennia. Fate often refers to unalterable realities, from genes to future events, whereas destiny points to future potential.
An acorn’...
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Episode 101 - Pessimism: Was Eeyore Right? from 2020-03-05T05:00
“Could be worse. Not sure how, but it could be.” For Eeyore, only perverse possibilities lie ahead, even if they are unknowable. Do gloomy expectations create self-fulfilling prophecies? Or are ...
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Episode 100 - Outrageous! What Drives Shocking Behaviors? from 2020-02-27T11:20:09
We can all cite examples of behaviors that defy reason and meaning. How can we understand X shouting those things at a party, or the bizarre thing Y filmed himself doing on YouTube? There is a g...
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Episode 099 - Projection: When the Dart Lands from 2020-02-20T05:00
The power of projections to hit psychic targets serves both defensive and integrative functions. Projections are a natural aspect of psychic functioning, as we know from watching children at pla...
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Episode 098 - Climate Change: How Can We Welcome Upsetting Truths? from 2020-02-13T05:00
Recent severe environmental events have made facing climate change urgent. We talk with Jeffrey Kiehl, PhD, climate scientist, Jungian analyst, and author, about bringing a psychological perspec...
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Episode 097 - A Psychology of Redemption from 2020-02-06T05:00
As we grow, unconscious unity becomes differentiated into feeling, ego, personality and desire. As we grow, we will have initiatory encounters with shadow, demanding the sacrifice of innocence a...
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Episode 096 - Polyamory: Navigating the Complexities of the Heart from 2020-01-30T05:00
Polyamory, a current phenomenon, endorses open relationships with multiple lovers. The term means many loves, and polyamory strives to legitimize the benefits of non-monogamous romance ...
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Episode 095- TRIGGERED: Understanding&Transforming Complexes from 2020-01-23T05:00
When we speak of being triggered, what exactly is it that sends us into a familiar arc of feeling and behavior we may later regret? That mysterious force seems e...
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Episode 094 - Finding Resilience as We Face New Disasters from 2020-01-16T05:00
Although there have been a number of recent destructive environmental events, the duration and devastation of the fires in Australia have made a powerful impact o...
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Episode 093 - Dynamics of Change&Renewal from 2020-01-09T05:00
A new year often symbolizes a new beginning, with resolutions to make specific lifestyle changes related to self-improvement. Research indicates, however, that up...
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Episode 092 - Trickster from 2020-01-02T11:34:10
The archetype of the trickster shows up in ambiguity, duplicity, contradiction and paradox. Usually depicted as masculine, trickster has been featured in tales wo...
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Episode 091 - Secrets from 2019-12-26T05:00
Although a secret is usually considered information deliberately kept from others, we also keep secrets from ourselves. Internal secrets consist of emotionally laden knowledge that consciousness...
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Episode 090 - Scrooge on the Couch: How the Numinous Transforms from 2019-12-19T05:00
Something's going on in Scrooges soul...and it's tired of waiting for an invitation.
Charles Dickens’ novella, Listen
Episode 089 - Sibling Complexes from 2019-12-12T05:00
Siblings are embedded in the human psyche as they are in life. Even if one lacks siblings, there is ready access to them through friends, fairy tales, myths, and ...
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Episode 088 - Partings&Farewells from 2019-12-05T05:00
Partings connote a finality of farewell that signifies completion of a relationship. We may part from a stage of life, depart from home or college, or say farewell to a person, process or projec...
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Episode 087 - The Racial Complex with Dr. Fanny Brewster from 2019-11-28T05:00
Dr. Fanny Brewster, Jungian Analyst, colleague and friend, joins This Jungian Life Listen
Episode 086 - Splitting, Polarization&Conflict from 2019-11-21T05:00
It happens all the time: people and problems split into opposing camps, whether the conflict is internal, between partners, in a family or—as we know all too well—between political parties. When...
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Episode 085 - Healing the Negative Father Complex from 2019-11-14T05:00
The archetype of the father is associated with gods, kingship, and other images of authority and order. As the image of a “...
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Episode 084 - Anger from 2019-11-07T05:00
Anger is a core human emotion. Newborns express instinctual cries of protest, and many a mythological god has wreaked archetypal havoc. Cultural norms around ange...
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Episode 083 - Ghostly Encounters from 2019-10-31T04:00
People have reported experiences with ghosts from antiquity; Jung documented his encounters with mysterious sensed presences. How do we make meaning of such exper...
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Episode 082 - Medicating Psyche from 2019-10-24T04:00
The question of whether, when, and what psychoactive medications may be helpful is both big and ambiguous. Mental distress has always been strongly influenced by cultural filters and subjective ...
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Episode 081 - Empathy from 2019-10-17T04:00
Empathy, the ability to feel into the suffering of another, is an intrinsic part of being human. We have such a capacity to imagine others’ experience that we react physiologically and emotional...
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Episode 080 - When Therapy Ends from 2019-10-10T04:00
A planned, collaborative termination is the ideal way to bring a depth-oriented therapeutic process to a close. The client may have resolved a problematic life issue and/or have achieved an abid...
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Episode 079 - Grief&Bereavement from 2019-10-03T04:00
The death of a loved one is a loss that is part of the human condition and is universal. The Stranger -- mortality -- confronts us with a new need to accept the reality of our loss and pain, a p...
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Episode 078 - Infertility from 2019-09-26T04:00
Hey TJL Fans,
There’s a great Jungian conference in Minneapolis MN this November 1 & 2.
Here’s a link to the flyer and since it’s by ‘invitation only’ just say, “This Jungian Life ...
Listen
Episode 077 - Chronic Complaining from 2019-09-19T04:00
Complaining is universal, perhaps, like gossiping, one of the first uses to which developed language was put. Overall, a complaint can refer to a perceived legal injustice, medical symptom, or o...
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Episode 076 - Animus&Anima from 2019-09-12T04:00
Although these Jungian concepts have become familiar psychological terminology, they remain difficult to understand. According to Jung, animus and anima are innate psychic structures shaped sign...
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Episode 075 - Negative Mother Complex: When Our Painful Childhood Owns Us from 2019-09-05T08:00
Healing a Negative Mother Complex
As the mother is the generator of life and usual primary attachment figure, the mother complex is universal. As the image of a “personif...
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Episode 074 - Borderline Personality Disorder from 2019-08-29T04:00
While psychiatric diagnostic labels often reify the complexities of psychological dynamics, they can also orient us to the essential qualities of a particular emotional and behavioral field. BPD...
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Episode 073 - Procrastination from 2019-08-22T04:00
We all procrastinate. Tasks from making a doctor’s appointment to preparing taxes to doing the laundry invite us to put off until tomorrow what we can postpone today. We may distract ourselves b...
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Episode 072 - Puer – Puella: Trapped in the Inner Child from 2019-08-15T04:00
If the passage into fullsome adulthood is avoided, a person can be trapped in the world of childhood. This protected realm is a nexus of potential, defined by avoiding the rigors of the real for...
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Episode 071 - Self Talk from 2019-08-08T08:00
Although only some of us talk aloud to ourselves, all of us have inner voices, even if we are not aware of them. These autonomous parts of ourselves provide running commentary on how and what we...
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Episode 070 - Dating from 2019-08-01T04:00
We define dating as the quest for serious partnership or ongoing companionship. Today’s dating world is radically different from that of even a generation ago, and is light years away from previ...
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Episode 069 - Retirement from 2019-07-25T04:00
The life transition we call retirement mandates a major readjustment in how time, energy and money are spent, whether retirement means becoming a “snowbird” or having a stepped-down lifestyle. W...
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Episode 068 - Chronic Illness from 2019-07-18T04:00
Chronic illnesses affect many, creating diminishment of physical ability and energy for life activities. There can be loss of agency, loss of one’s expected future, and a sharpened awareness of ...
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Episode 067 - Early Abandonment from 2019-07-11T04:00
Experiences of physical abandonment are depicted in stories old and new as ways of out-picturing traumas of early relational abandonment. Jung articulated the archetypal foundation of what later...
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Episode 66 - Cults from 2019-07-04T04:00
Although cults occasionally make the headlines through tragedy or scandal, the defining features of cults are inherently human and manifest on spectrums of both severity and size. The word c...
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Episode 65 - Burnout from 2019-06-27T04:00
Burnout is a relatively new term for job-related distress or an ongoing life situation that is unsatisfying, defeating, and creates a sense of despair. Burnout robs us of our sense of control an...
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Episode 64 - Voyages from 2019-06-20T04:00
Although the word voyage connotes a sea journey, this episode considers a voyage to be an intentional trip of any kind. A voyage can range from a vacation in Vegas to a pilgrimage to a sacred si...
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Episode 63 - Tears from 2019-06-13T17:25:09
We all shed tears. We cry when we are sad, but also when we are glad, surprised by beauty, love, or touched by other deeply felt and uniquely human experiences. Tears, and our access to them, ar...
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Episode 62 - The Psychology of a Victim from 2019-06-06T04:00
We can experience powerful feelings of empathy for those who are victims of trauma in all its heartbreaking dimensions. It is difficult even to consider a shadow side to this already dark aspect...
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Episode 61 - Individuation from 2019-05-30T04:00
Individuation, the central concept of Jung’s psychology, is the foundational image and aspiration of Jungian psychoanalysis – and life. It is the theme of many a fair...
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Episode 60 - Psychological Dismemberment: Why We Can’t Stay Connected from 2019-05-23T04:00
Images of physical dismemberment are often used in fairy tales, dreams and art to depict psychological fragmentation, numbing and other forms of disconnection. Such c...
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Episode 59 - Offense and Outrage from 2019-05-16T04:00
Anything that disappears from your psychological inventory is apt to turn up in the guise of a hostile neighbor, who will inevitably arouse your anger and make you ag...
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Episode 58 - The Art&Practice of B*tchiness from 2019-05-09T04:00
In this episode, the archetype of the bitch is explored using fairy tales, mythology, and popular culture to shed light on this colloquial, pejorativ...
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Episode 57 - Ambivalence from 2019-05-02T04:00
Having mixed feelings, or strongly opposing feelings is a normal occurrence in human life. We can find ourselves in a quandary about big decisions, upcoming life even...
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Episode 56 - Persona from 2019-04-25T04:00
This episode, inspired by the new album by the Korean band BTS, explains and amplifies the Jungian concept of the persona. Like the cornea of the eye,...
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Episode 55 - Identifying&Integrating the Personal Shadow from 2019-04-18T04:00
The personal shadow is created as a normal part of development, as we learn what behaviors, values and feelings are not acceptable in our family, school, or religious...
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Episode 54 - Chronic Lateness from 2019-04-11T04:00
People who are chronically late create relational problems with others and generate negative consequences for themselves, from embarrassment and guilt to loss of friendships or jobs. Chronic lat...
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Episode 53 - Should I Stay or Should I Go? from 2019-04-04T04:00
One of the issues clients bring into the therapeutic consulting room is dissatisfaction with the state of their marriage or partnership. Although this dilemma often t...
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Episode 52 - Precognitive Dreams from 2019-03-28T04:00
Listeners contributed examples of precognitive dreams for this episode. Lisa, Joseph, and Deb discuss theoretical concepts and listener dreams from various vantage points: the intuitive capacity...
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Episode 51 - What is Your Therapist Thinking? from 2019-03-21T04:00
Lisa, Joseph, and Deb explore and explain what the analytic process is like for them as they work with clients. Deb describes her interactions with clients using a rectangular diagram that, like...
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Episode 50 - Shopping from 2019-03-14T05:00
Everyone shops—we have access to an astonishing choice of products. Internet shopping has multiplied our range of options beyond what nearby retail stores may have to...
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Episode 49 - Dietary Over-regulation and the Pursuit of Purity from 2019-03-07T08:00
Preoccupation and obsession with food–a condition called orthorexia--can take the form of the quest for health and purity, with rigid rules about food categories, such as the need for all-organi...
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Episode 48 - Estrangement from 2019-02-28T08:00
Estrangement from members of one’s family and others takes place far more often than seems commonly acknowledged. Estrangement involves psychologically cutting-off, r...
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Episode 47 - Falling in Love with your Analyst from 2019-02-21T08:00
As Jung well knew, eros – love – is an essential part of the analytic process. In Vol. 16 of his Collected Works Jung used alchemical images of a ki...
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Episode 46 - Hiding from 2019-02-14T08:00
Many a fairy tale features hiding as a strategic defense. Jack, of beanstalk fame, hides from the giant in order to survi...
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Episode 45 - The Wall from 2019-02-07T08:00
With “The Wall” very much in the forefront of national discussion, Deb, Lisa and Joseph reflect on the archetype of walls. Some may be stonewalls simply marking boundaries between neighbors. Oth...
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Episode 44 - The Archetypal Power of Football from 2019-01-31T08:00
Football is a uniquely American sport with millions of fans, heroic teams, and stadiums reminiscent of colosseums. As the Super Bowl approaches – television’s most wa...
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Episode 43 - Heartbreak from 2019-01-24T08:00
Heartbreak is more primal, more pervasive, and more related to one’s sense of self than sadness. Our hearts can break over the death of a dearly loved other, includin...
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Episode 42 - Over Apologizing from 2019-01-17T08:00
What is “I’m sorry” as a habitual response really about? There’s the preemptive apology that is offered to forestall possible criticism, the apology that evokes reass...
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Episode 41 - Regret from 2019-01-10T08:00
Episode 40 - What's Unique about Jungian Analysis? from 2019-01-03T08:00
How is Jungian analysis different from other psychotherapies? What are its major components and distinguishing features? And what makes it effective? Lisa, Deb, and J...
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Episode 39 - Shrink Rap Radio from 2018-12-27T08:00
This week we sat down with Dave from Shrink Rap Radio to discuss dream analysis. We hope you enjoy and happy holidays!
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Episode 38 - Holiday Madness from 2018-12-20T08:00
As the holiday season approaches, we examine the tidal pull of the ancient, archetypal power of the solstice season. Because of this underpinning, together with the power of family narratives, r...
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Episode 37 - Narcissism from 2018-12-13T08:00
The myth of Narcissus constitutes the archetypal root of the character structure of narcissism. Aspects of narcissism run from the healthy developmental narcissism of a child to the toxic narcis...
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Episode 36 - Adulting: Leaving the Parental Path from 2018-12-06T08:00
What does it mean to separate from one’s parents and parental complexes—the attitudes and values that have been deeply instilled since infancy? How do we discern when we are in a parental comple...
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Episode 35 - Loneliness from 2018-11-29T08:00
Loneliness is a deeply human and universal experience. Lisa, Joseph and Deb examine it from multiple perspectives: as it may be experienced in young adulthood versus older years; as reflective o...
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Episode 34 - The Scapegoat from 2018-11-22T08:00
The archetype of the scapegoat goes back to the ancient Hebrew ritual of using two goats to expiate the sins of the tribe. Sin, blame, and wrongness are also often attributed to others, and this...
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Episode 33 - Archetypal Dynamics of Gender Transformation from 2018-11-15T08:00
Lisa, Joseph, and Deb circumambulate the difficult issue of gender reassignment. They discuss the significance of teen girls wishing to transition and the current ten...
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Episode 32 - Slobs from 2018-11-08T08:00
What happens when one is held captive by the mud of messiness? We try to understand sloppiness as a defense against overwhelming emotions, ongoing enmeshment in the primal maternal matrix, a reg...
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Episode 31 - Food Addiction from 2018-11-01T07:00
Compulsive eating is a complicated psychological and biological problem. Food addiction can be a way of defending against unmet needs by displacing emotional hunger onto food. We discuss how inf...
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Episode 30 - Escaping Literalism from 2018-10-25T07:00
We consider literalism as a normal state in childhood; children’s literalism can be funny and charming. We grow first into the ability to understand metaphor and conc...
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Episode 29 - ENVY&JEALOUSY: Hobgoblins in Relationships from 2018-10-18T07:00
This podcast relates envy and jealousy to early developmental dynamics, with envy related to the dyad of mother-and-baby and jealousy arriving a bit later, when the c...
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Episode 28 - Boredom from 2018-10-11T07:00
Boredom is not depression or dissociation, sadness or loneliness…but what is it? We consider boredom from various perspectives: lack of access to one’s inner world, a...
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Episode 27 - Dream Animals from 2018-10-04T07:00
In this podcast, we focus on animals as symbols of instincts that have often been repressed in order to conform to cultural norms. When some aspect of our instinctual...
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Episode 26 - Betrayal from 2018-09-27T10:00
The experience of betrayal is painful, confusing, and damaging to one’s basic sense of self and reality. The betrayer is often seized by feelings that demand gratification and involve self-decei...
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Episode 25 - The Psychology of Divination: a depth approach from 2018-09-20T07:00
Divinatory systems have been used for thousands of years as a source of help and direction to people wishing to resolve situations of personal uncertainty. Jung used the I Ching for 30 years bef...
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Episode 24 - Motherhood as a Journey of Individuation from 2018-09-13T07:00
The experience of motherhood evokes powerful feelings, ranging from joy and bonding to anger and rejection. If we can develop a conscious relationship with these feelings, we meet both denied as...
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Episode 23 - Indecision from 2018-09-06T07:00
Many people have difficulty making decisions, whether large or small. Among other factors, the psychology behind the fear of making a decision can be related to fear of making a mistake, lack of...
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Episode 22 - Pressure to Conform and Differentiation from 2018-08-30T07:00
The pressure to conform to familial and cultural values provides guidelines for each new generation – and can also stifle the uniqueness necessary not only to the individual but to family and cu...
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Episode 21 -- Living with a Crazy Parent from 2018-08-23T07:00
Living with a parent who is seriously impaired can be traumatic and have lasting consequences. Fortunately, resources for healing and resilience are also available, and premature encounters with...
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Episode 20 -- Mother-in-Law from 2018-08-16T07:00
The mother-in-law is not only the subject of many a joke but the subject of fairy tale and myth. Conflict between the older and younger woman lies in the archetypal realm, as both struggle to co...
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Episode 19 -- Sin and Transgression from 2018-08-09T07:00
In archery, sin refers to missing the mark, whereas transgression involves violation of a cultural boundary. But missing the mark or crossing a line can have positive...
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Episode 18 -- Creative Depression from 2018-08-02T07:00
Creative depression demands that we suffer a journey into the deep wells of the psyche in quest of new life. It differs from other kinds of depression in how it is im...
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Episode 17 -- Lying from 2018-07-26T07:00
Lying, hiding and sneaking are examples of trickster behavior, discussed as they occur in political and personal spheres. When is this behavior in service to individu...
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Episode 16 -- The Archetype of the Gun from 2018-07-19T07:00
As three analysts, we explore the archetype of “the gun” from a Jungian psychological view and seek to understand it’s influence in the collective psyche of Americans. Guns play a big role in Am...
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Episode 15 -- Toxic Masculinity from 2018-07-12T07:00
How can we understand the superficial label assigned to masculine behavior in today’s meme-driven style of discourse?
The Dream:
I am walking on what seems to be mountainous hills....
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Active Imagination from 2018-06-28T07:00
Fairy Tales from 2018-06-14T07:00
SYNCHRONICITY: the mysterious web of meaningful coincidences from 2018-06-07T10:00
Synchronicity is a concept that has fascinated thinkers across discipl...
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Choosing a Life Partner from 2018-05-24T10:00
Hearing Voices from 2018-05-17T12:00
The standard psychiatric understanding of auditory hallucinations is that they are a symptom of serious mental illness, and ought to be treated with antipsychotic medication, but could there oth...
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Alcoholism from 2018-05-10T12:00
Is alcohol dependence a misplaced expression of a spiritual thirst, or a collapse into a regressed and infantile state? We discuss Jung's involvement in the establish...
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Emotional Affairs from 2018-04-19T02:59:04
We take a look at emotional affairs and imaginal affairs. Both are more common than you might think and can lead us into an experience of our own depths.
<... Listen
THE SHAPE OF WATER: is it a new fairytale? from 2018-04-19T02:57:04
The Shape of Water recently won the Academy Award for best film, captivating audiences with its dream-like images of other-worldly love. What can a psycholog...
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HOOKUPS: are they freeing or defensive? from 2018-04-19T02:53:39
Are hookups a joyous celebration of unbridled sexual expression? A defense against intimacy? All of the above?
Here's the dr...
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SHITHOLE: what are we projecting when we say it? from 2018-04-18T16:00
We discuss the symbolic meaning of shit, and shithole, and wonder about shadow projection. What does Trump’s use of this term have to tell us about his psyche – and ...
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