Before you go further, please be sure you are applying for membership with YOUR REAL NAME, FIRST AND LAST, or if you are signing up as an organization, publisher, or project, list the organization name here; then list the name of the contact person in the next question.
New Bern, North Carolina
Which of the following best describes your proposed membership status? If you are signing up with your first and last name, please choose "Individual." Please do NOT choose one of the other options unless you are creating a profile page with a business or organization name
Individual
What are your main areas of interest?
Jungian Psychology, Archetypal Psychology, Mythology, Transpersonal Psychology, Art or Art Therapy, Dreamwork
If you are signing up as an Individual Member, do you have a degree in Depth Psychology?
M.A., Jungian
If so, from what institution?
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Are you a licensed or clinical therapist?
no
Please share a little about yourself by way of introduction. What draws you to Depth Psychology and what are you looking for from this community?
Narrative psychology combined with social systems on the "outside" and Jungian understanding of the interior "systems" make a nice pairing. Currently working on soul-related theoretical research establishing that soul is a misnomer. A proper understanding begins with seeing that souling as process is a better beginning to understanding the workings within the Psyche.
Do you belong to any other online Psychology-related communities or orgs? If so, which?
Many, but most are Jungian based.
What is your WEB SITE (IF you would like to promote it)?
https://ekoffenb22.wordpress.com/
Comments
Thank you for the link Ed I will go check it out. I would be interested to see if and how he deals with pathology in corporate and group structures in an archetypal way. It seems that this is an area not many are willing to go and who can blame them.
C
Thanks for the welcome Ed; Yes the weather is not good, so I would definitly wait until the summer to visit your sister ( in the cider season). Thank you I would appreciate directions to the book you mention.
Looking forward to finding my way around your home here in cyberspace, and a warm welcome always helps.
Warm regards
C
Ed, how fortunate I am! I just found the collected papers by Wolfgang Koehler in our own public library, which I promptly have reserved for myself. Thanks again! I'm on my way!
Thanks, Ed, for your info on Gestalt. As for the snow: don't risk anything beyond the limits of your back. We (my family) have lived in the midwest of Canada for around 20 yrs! Warm greetings and best wishes of the season.
Hi Ed, thanks so much for your welcoming words in this beautiful and interesting website! I'm going to add something, little by little and my english is not so fluently .... Greetings from Italy Antonella
Hello, Ed. I am going to read a 46 pages article by Barry Smith
Gestalt Theory: An Essay in Philosophy
and so, if you don't find time for looking for that book you mentioned I would say: please don't spend your valuable time any further ! I am a natural autodidacticus anyway. Google convinces me Barry Smith is very relevant. Most likely yo know him.
Sorry Ed, I had to break up my comment because it was over 2000 words. I did this by copieing and pasting and the resulting sequence is: 10:42 pm and 10:42 pm. Is there a word counter I am not aware of which could make me stop in time?
This I have from the original use of the word in german as well as dutch as "total form" or "attitude". Here I will work with the meaning for Gestalt as "one meaningful form or image".The question would now become: "Is the soul a meaningful form or image of life" Well, it would not be for me. First I personally stay away from the word "soul" because it has so many religious connotations. I prefer: personality. Why? When I think of Mary or John as personality it strikes me that they have much in common with a melody: both personality and melody can only reveal themselves through time. Space is not important here. I 'see' John and Mary smile or walk or turn their head in a characteristic way. If I would omit e few seconds from these events they would be distorted in the same way a melody is by skipping some notes. Now what personalities do have in common with life is that both unfold in time. However for me the personality would not be a Gestalt for life in general. The unfoldings would be dissimilar. I would rather say that personality is a manifestation of life. Remains the question: do I 'see' life as a Gestalt. And if so what is this Gestalt? This Gestalt must contain: emerging, movement, growth. Not necessarily consciousness, I think. Will? Schopenhauer would say yes to that as he assigns that to living beings as well as to material natural events. I would venture the idea that to us observing beings that all life we experienc for the first time, inner and outer life, happens to us as a revelation of life forms. I don't know enough about the usual meaning of Gestalt in depth psychology but if it is within the acceptable terminology I would say that emergence is the Gestalt of life.
Hello Ed, You wrote: "How about the idea that the soul is the gestalt of life? Just trying it out." Wow! And here I am, joining wih the aim to learn more about depth psychology and particularly to learn what Gestalt is. I must confess I said I had a vague idea of Gestalt.
Ed, I am delighted with your fast response. Re your remark: ".... happy to mail you one text that was foundational in my studies of Gestalt. " that's wonderful! If you can give me author and title I can take it from there, be it to the excellent Public Library of Vancouver or to Amazon. As for your question: " How about the idea that the soul is the gestalt of life? Just trying it out" that is a tough one for me I wil need time for. I may end up explaining why I can't say anything sensible. But that's allright! In this Alliance I'm in the hands of psychologists who have no shame in trying to get you to talk. OK, I will, I will !
Seriously though, I see in this alliance a lot of people who are professional in therapy. Ik makes me wonder what I am doing here because I am afraid I am just asking and profiting. So would a topic for me be: given that depth psychology is for therapists, is it also a philosophy to live by? There I go again: a question!
Have a great weekend!
Bill