pacifica - Blogs - Depth Psychology Alliance2024-03-29T07:59:44Zhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/pacificaThe C.G. Jung—Erich Neumann Connection: An Interview with Dr. Lance Owenshttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-c-g-jung-erich-neumann-connection-an-interview-with-dr-lance-2016-06-05T19:30:00.000Z2016-06-05T19:30:00.000ZBonnie Brighthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/BonnieBright<div><p><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/the-c.g.-jung-erich-neumann-connection-an-interview-with-dr.-lance-owens" target="_blank"><img width="250" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142459500,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-right" alt="9142459500?profile=original" /></a><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr. Lance Owens has dedicated the past thirty or more years of his life to studying C.G. Jung, whose willingness to engage with and understand his visionary experiences has transformed so many lives. Owens has also recently become profoundly interested in the life and work of Erich Neumann, who was arguably one of Jung’s most gifted students, and who eventually became a close friend of Jung’s. Through the influence of Jung, Neumann made his own creative and compelling contributions to the field of depth psychology through works such as <em style="font-size:13px;">The Great Mother</em><span style="font-size:13px;">(1955), </span><em style="font-size:13px;">The Origins and History of Consciousness</em><span style="font-size:13px;"> (1954), and </span><em style="font-size:13px;">Depth Psychology and a New Ethic</em><span style="font-size:13px;"><span style="font-size:13px;">(1949) among others</span></span></span></span></p><div class="section post-body"><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Lance Owens’ interest in Neumann was amplified by the publication of letters between Jung and Neumann in 2015, correspondence that revealed the tremendous respect Jung had for his friend and for the Neumann’s capacity to grasp many of the depth concepts that were so critical to Jung for his own reasons. In fact, Owens’ himself has also uncovered such a deep regard for Neumann that in a recent email to me, he wrote quite poignantly, “Neumann has become one of those ‘dead friends of the soul’ that come to help and haunt us, with their questions, and their answers, and the facts of their own lives. I do now believe that hearing Neumann’s voice, across the decades, is a crucial event in understanding the development of Jung’s movement, and of Jung’s own experience.”</span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">During our recent conversation, Lance explained how Neumann, having grown up in an integrated German family in Berlin, realized in his twenties that there was no place for him in German culture. Rather, he embraced his Jewish roots in spite of not being a practicing Jew. When Hitler took power in 1933, Neumann left Germany for Israel, stopping over in Zurich for six months in order to spend time in analysis with Jung.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As Lance views it, this was part of an initiatory phase for Neumann. He was, perhaps, looking for <em>tzadik<a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/the-c.g.-jung-erich-neumann-connection-an-interview-with-dr.-lance-owens#_edn1"><strong>[i]</strong></a></em>, a spiritual guide, when he went for analysis with Jung. During Neumann’s quest for his Jewish roots, he had been intrigued by Martin Buber’s writings on Hasidism<a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/the-c.g.-jung-erich-neumann-connection-an-interview-with-dr.-lance-owens#_edn2">[ii]</a>, which was centered around renewal and spiritual energy. Hasidism, a movement that emerged in the eighteenth century, was led by a mystical rabbi, Israel ben Eliezer (also called Baal Shem Tov), widely considered to be the founder of Hasidism.<a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/the-c.g.-jung-erich-neumann-connection-an-interview-with-dr.-lance-owens#_edn3">[iii]</a> Neumann believed that ben Eliezer and his successor, the Mezritcher Maggid, had found a transparency between the outer and the deeper realities, enabling them to see <em>through</em>, to perceive the Divine in the world.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Neumann seemed to find in Jung the <em>tsaddik </em>he was searching for, a unique leader who also had the ability to see through the world to the depth in a similar way. In accordance, Lance Owens informs me, Neumann, after those six months of analysis with Jung, affirmed for the remainder of his life that it was <em>the</em> transformative event of his life and he could not imagine what his life might have been without that experience... <a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/the-c.g.-jung-erich-neumann-connection-an-interview-with-dr.-lance-owens" target="_blank">Read the full blog post at Pacifica Post here</a></span></p></div></div>Yoga Meets Depth Psychology: Union, Consciousness, Healinghttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/yoga-meets-depth-psychology-union-consciousness-healing2016-07-09T21:00:00.000Z2016-07-09T21:00:00.000ZBonnie Brighthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/BonnieBright<div><p align="center"><i><a href="http://www.pacifica.edu/current-public/item/yoga-meets-depth-psychology" target="_blank"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142458468,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="9142458468?profile=original" /></a></i><span style="color:#3366ff;" class="font-size-3"><i>“The body is merely the visibility of the soul, the psyche; and the soul is the <br /> psychological experience of the body</i>”</span> —C.G. Jung<br /><br /></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="color:#3366ff;"><i>“Yoga is most often understood as the union of the individual with the<br /> transcendental self, with what Jung terms the Self.”</i></span> —Judith Mills</p><p> </p><p>In recent years, the practice of yoga has made headlines in the mainstream media as parents in U.S. school districts challenged its inclusion in the curriculum at public schools, insisting it amounts to religious indoctrination and that it violates religious freedom.<a href="#_edn1" title="">[1]</a> In the U.S. today, while mainstream yoga is largely focused on physical poses and breath work, historically it evolved over millennia in the context of the spiritual and religious traditions of India. As such, it is not a religion, but rather a philosophy that enables mindfulness and a sense of well-being, among other benefits. No matter where you fall in the debate on whether—and <i>where</i>—it should be taught to children, practitioners of depth psychology and those seeking positive transformation appreciate yoga for its powerful potential to heighten spirituality and increase consciousness.</p><p>C.G. Jung, who valued yoga for its evidence-based experiential approach, perceived “important parallels” with psychoanalysis. He made a comprehensive study of yoga, delivering multiple lectures over the course of several years focusing on a psychological interpretation of kundalini yoga. He asserted that as yoga, being the oldest practical philosophy of India, is the mother of psychology and philosophy (which are one and the same thing in India) and therefore the foundation of everything spiritual.<a href="#_edn2" title="">[2]</a></p><p>Yoga, meaning <i>union</i> in Sanskrit, seeks to create awakening through somatic experience, cultivating states that connect us more wholly with something larger than our ego selves—the ground of being, the web of life, or what Jung termed the “Self”—effecting a transmutation of consciousness that stems from attention to inner experience. The experiential, embodied practice puts us in touch with our physical being and grounds us more fully in the earth, anchoring us to something immutable, even as our breath and movement serve to make us more consciously aware and to shift inherent patterns and blocks we may be experiencing.<br /></p><p><strong>AVENUES OF HEALING</strong></p><p> “Yoga teachers are well aware of how the practice of yoga brings awareness through the layers of the body, often dredging up previous traumas and somatic awakenings,” Cheri Clampett, who is a certified yoga therapist with over 25 years of teaching experience, and the co-author of <i>The Therapeutic Yoga Kit</i> confided. “When these two complimentary fields come together, they offer deep avenues of healing for the soma and psyche.”</p><p>What are those avenues of healing, exactly? While yoga serves to balance and unite opposing forces to create a harmonious being, Jung went as far as to describe the intersection between depth psychology and yoga as the capacity for liberation, for each to lead to a “detachment of consciousness…a freeing from the passions and from the entanglement with the realm of objects…a psychical experience, which in practice is expressed as a feeling of deliverance.”<a href="#_edn3" title="">[3]</a></p><p>Practitioners have long reported the capacity for yoga to evoke the <i>numinous</i>, a term Jung borrowed from psychologist Rudolf Otto to describe something beyond the ordinary; inexpressible or mysterious—something spiritual or sacred that carries us past the ego experience of the everyday self and reveals our divine belonging, our wholeness <i>in potentia</i>.<a href="#_edn4" title="">[4]</a> Indeed, yoga has been known to lead to the awakening of <i>Kundalini</i>, a force described as primordial energy, Shakti or universal power, which can be constellated a combination of ritual spiritual and somatic practices. When its ascent culminates in topmost chakra in a “blissful union of Shiva and Shakti,” it leads to a “far-reaching transformation of the personality.”<a href="#_edn5" title="">[5]<br /> <br /></a></p><p><strong>JUNG AND YOGA</strong></p><p>For Jung the Kundalini is the <i>anima,</i> or <i>soul</i>. “From the standpoint of the gods, this world is less than child’s play; it is a seed in the earth, a mere potentiality,” he wrote. “Our whole world of consciousness is only a seed of the future. And when you succeed in the awakening of Kundalini, so that she beings to move out of her mere potentiality, you necessarily start a world which is a world of eternity, totally different from our world.”<a href="#_edn6" title="">[6]</a></p><p>Jung believed that yoga originated as a “natural process of introversion,” and that such introversions characteristically lead to personality changes. While Jung viewed these inner processes that evolved from yoga as universal, he felt the methods that led to them were culturally specific.<a href="#_edn7" title="">[7]</a> For this reason, Jung discouraged westerners, whose core beliefs are founded on a perception of separation—of dual and opposing poles in the realms of mind and matter, nature and psyche— from practicing yoga, fearing it could lead westerners into territory they were not culturally prepared to encounter. He suggested the west would develop its own “yoga” to explain or engage the unconscious in due time, ideas now being debated in the field of Jungian psychology.</p><p>Indeed, yoga, like many eastern or mystical spiritual traditions, is rooted in the idea of non-duality; that is, that all creation, including humans, is an aspect of the divine and is not separate from it. While this kind of transcendent consciousness is potentially available to each of us at any given moment, our ego-identity often stands in the way of that sense of unity. Yoga, in part through enabling us to engage our bodies and to be more in the present moment, allows us to suspend the thoughts, ideas, concerns, and conditioning that typically stand in the way of our sense of the sacred.</p><p>Jung makes a compelling description of the kind of transcendence one might experience in awakening to these kind of psychological or spiritual truths. On the subject of freeing ourselves from outer and inner entanglements, Jung wrote that “consciousness is at the same time empty and not empty. . . . no longer preoccupied with compulsive intentions but turns into contemplative vision.”<a href="#_edn8" title="">[8]</a></p><p>Lionel Corbett, M.D., Jungian analyst and author of <i>Psyche and the Sacred</i>, writes about this apparent dissolution of boundaries, noting that “innumerable people have been able to …have numinous experiences of union with the larger psyche. In such moments,” Corbett suggests, “the world and the personal self seem to flow into each other, both part of a greater unity, with no sense of separation or personal unity…. In such an experience, the personal self is lost in the larger Consciousness of the Self, revealing our essential continuity with it.”<a href="#_edn9" title="">[9]</a></p><p>Corbett points out that Jung, in much of his work, displays a spiritual sensibility that is compatible with the great non-dual spiritual traditions, even while remaining dualistic in his thinking in others. Both these approaches are valuable to psychotherapy, Corbett insists, yet most Jungian therapists ignore Jung's non-dual thinking. Corbett intends to expand on some of the important implications of non-duality for psychotherapy at the <a href="http://www.pacifica.edu/current-public/item/yoga-meets-depth-psychology" target="_blank">Yoga Meets Depth Psychology program</a> offered by Pacifica Graduate Institute in July.</p><p>Another Jungian analyst contemplating the value of the interface between yoga and psychotherapy is Dr. Joseph Cambray, who proposes that Jung’s incorporation of yoga practices and principles in his version of depth psychology started largely with the <i>Red Book</i> in which Jung documented his exploration of his unconscious and his active imagination encounters with various images and figures during that time. In fact, Jung revealed that during this intense period of confrontation with the unconscious<i>,</i> he frequently turned to yoga to eliminate powerful, wrought up emotions that had been stirred up.<a href="#_edn10" title="">[10]</a></p><p>The correspondence between yoga and depth psychology emerged in subsequent theorizing that included references to the yogic literature, points out Cambray, including Jung’s Kundalini seminars in which Jung endeavored a western symbolic analysis of the Chakra system. As a long time psychotherapist (and past President of the International Association for Analytical Psychology), Cambray asserts that the interface of these two approaches provides profound advantages for contemporary psychotherapy.</p><p></p><p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9142458865,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142458865,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="9142458865?profile=original" /></a>MINDFULNESS AND PLAY</strong></p><p>Mindfulness is another powerful tool for accessing states of unity and flow according to Dr. Patricia Katsky, psychotherapist and Vice-Provost at Pacifica Graduate Institute who, in conjunction with Dr. Juliet Rohde-Brown, Director of Clinical Training for the doctoral program in clinical psychology at Pacifica, and long-time Buddhist meditation teacher, is exploring the critical characteristics of the mind states that are common to the three fields of yoga, depth psychology, and Buddhist meditation.</p><p>Similarly, the two clinicians are inquiring into the implications of "deep play”—a mind state comparable at an adult level to the meaningful childhood play of our past. “Deep play experiences are capable of bringing us into healing contact with the numinous,” writes Katsky. Indeed, in <i>Memories, Dreams, Reflections</i>, Jung recounted his own experience of how the act of play created a powerful psychic state in his own life. After spontaneously recalling a childhood memory of play, Jung felt compelled him to take it up again as an adult. Each day, before his patients arrived, Jung succumbed to the urge to “play,” mindfully building an “small town” of stones. For him, it released a “stream of fantasies” and led to an inner certainty that it was helping him to discover his own inner myth. “In the course of this activity my thoughts clarified, and I was able to grasp the fantasies whose presence in myself I dimly felt,” he wrote.<a href="#_edn11" title="">[11]</a></p><p>In psychotherapy, Katsky proposes that the therapist mind state of “evenly-hovering attention” is one form of deep play, and submits that the practice of yoga can bring one to similar inner states of release and nourishment, leading us to rich self-reflections, creativity, greater contact with the imaginational world, and to deepened consciousness, including numinous experience.</p><p>Ultimately, yoga, like many of the world’s wisdom traditions, can become a portal to the present moment, to being anchored in our bodies and on the earth through the embodied use of breath and movement. This, in turn, may give rise to a dissolution of boundaries, enabling us to feel more relaxed, connected, and unified with a larger ground of reality—even ultimately awakening us to numinous experiences of the sacred. Depth psychology, with its emphasis on engaging the unconscious in order to achieve greater wholeness, can lead us to similar states.</p><p>“At the intersection of yoga and depth psychology lies the threshold where <i>psyche</i> meets <i>soma</i>,” asserts David Odorisio, a depth practitioner who has created a professional practice that integrates the spiritual heritage of the world’s wisdom traditions with Jungian and depth psychologies in an accessible and embodied way. “This mysterious meeting point between soul and body holds unlimited—and often untapped— archetypal wisdom, vitality, healing, and wholeness.”</p><p></p><p>Join these and other world-renowned scholars and practitioners July 15-17, 2016, for <strong><a href="http://www.pacifica.edu/current-public/item/yoga-meets-depth-psychology" target="_blank">Yoga Meets Depth Psychology: Embodying the Sacred, Encountering the Soul</a></strong><b>,</b> an experiential, transformational weekend immersion at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. Pacifica faculty, including expert-level Jungian analysts and depth psychologists, will present alongside internationally recognized yoga teachers to highlight and illuminate the rich intersections of these diverse yet complementary fields. <strong><a href="http://www.pacifica.edu/current-public/item/yoga-meets-depth-psychology" target="_blank">Details and registration here</a></strong></p><p> </p><p><b>Recommended reading:</b></p><p><i>The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932</i> by C. G. Jung, edited by Sonu Shamdasani. Princeton University Press, 1996</p><p><i>Jung and India</i>. Spring Journal, Volume 90, Fall 2013, edited by Al Collins, Elaine Molchanov, and Nancy Cater</p><p><i>Jung and Yoga: The Psyche Body Connection</i>, by Judith Harris. Inner City Books, 2000.</p><p>“Jung’s Encounter with Yoga,” by Harold G. Coward, <i>Journal of Analytical Psychology</i>, <i>23</i>(4), 1978, pp. 339-357,</p><p><i>Memories, Dreams, Reflections</i> by C.G. Jung, edited by Aniela Jaffe (1961). Vintage Books, 1989.</p><p><i>Psyche and the Sacred: Spirituality Beyond Religion</i> by Lionel Corbett. Spring Journal, 2007.</p><p> </p><p> </p><div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div><p><a href="#_ednref1" title="">[1]</a> See “Beyond 'Namaste': The benefits of yoga in schools” by Dana Santas. CNN, May 10, 2016: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/10/health/yoga-in-schools/index.html">http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/10/health/yoga-in-schools/index.html</a></p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref2" title="">[2]</a> <i>Jung and Eastern Thought</i> by Harold Coward, State University of New York Press, 1985, p. 11</p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref3" title="">[3]</a> In <i>The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga</i>, C.G. Jung, p. 83</p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref4" title="">[4]</a> See “On Psychic Energy” in Jung’s Collected Works, Vol. 8.</p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref5" title="">[5]</a> Sonu Shamdasani, in his introduction to Jung’s <i>The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga,</i> p. xxv</p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref6" title="">[6]</a> In <i>The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga</i>, p. 26</p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref7" title="">[7]</a> Sonu Shamdasani, in his introduction to Jung’s <i>The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga</i></p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref8" title="">[8]</a> C.G. Jung in “Commentary on ‘The Secret of the Golden Flower’ ” in <i>Alchemical Studies, Collected Works Vol. 13</i>, para. 65</p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref9" title="">[9]</a> <i>Psyche and the Sacred: Spirituality Beyond Religion</i> by Lionel Corbett. Spring Journal, 2007, p. 25</p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref10" title="">[10]</a> Sonu Shamdasani, in his introduction to Jung’s <i>The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga,</i> p. xxv</p></div><div><p><a href="#_ednref11" title="">[11]</a> Jung, in Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Vintage Books, 1989, p.174</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><b>Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.,</b> is a graduate from Pacifica’s Depth Psychology program. She is the founder of <a href="http://www.depthpsychologyalliance.com/"><b>Depth Psychology Alliance</b></a>, a free online community for everyone interested in depth psychologies, and of <a href="http://www.depthpsychologylist.com/"><b>DepthList.com</b></a>, a free-to-search database of Jungian and depth psychology-oriented practitioners. She is also the creator and executive editor of <a href="http://www.depthinsights.com/"><b>Depth Insights</b></a>, a semi-annual scholarly journal, and regularly produces audio and video interviews on depth psychological topics. Bonnie has completed 2-year certifications in Archetypal Pattern Analysis via the Assisi Institute; in Technologies of the Sacred with West African elder Malidoma Somé, and has trained extensively in Holotropic Breathwork™ and the Enneagram.</p></div></div></div>Peace Corps Meets Pacifica: Stories from Jamaicahttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/5433794-BlogPost-1720522017-03-22T13:28:33.000Z2017-03-22T13:28:33.000ZBonnie Brighthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/BonnieBright<div><p><a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/peace-corps-meets-pacifica-stories-from-jamaica" target="_blank"><img width="350" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142458863,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-right" alt="9142458863?profile=original" /></a>The first night Ross Dionne and his wife spent with their host family in Jamaica, they were served chicken foot soup, he remembers with a laugh—probably on purpose so the family could see their reaction. Neither his wife nor he picked up that foot and “sucked off all the skin and meat like people do when they eat chicken foot soup” he recalls. Even though he never particularly came to like things like cow skin soup much, making the effort to try the food was one of the best things they could do to build connections with people—something Dionne appreciated very much over the course of the two years he spent in the Peace Corps.</p><p>Dionne became interested in serving in the Peace Corps when he was in his early thirties, in part because he wanted to give something back. He felt very privileged in his life, having grown up in a family who, though not wealthy, were highly supportive. The Peace Corps allows couples to serve together as long as they apply individually and are accepted individually, and the opportunity would offer a way for Ross and his wife to get experience living overseas and acculturating to a different environment.</p><p>Upon receiving their assignment and arriving in Jamaica, they went through three months of acclimation, particularly focused on cultural integration. They took language classes in Jamaican “Patois” every day, and also practiced skill-building around the work they were going to do. They listened to music and learned Jamaican parables or children’s stories to help them “get into the minds” of the local people. Things... (<a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/peace-corps-meets-pacifica-stories-from-jamaica" target="_blank">Read the full post or listen to the audio interview here</a>)</p></div>Depth Psychology and the Creative Arts: Theater, Therapy, Individuationhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/5433794-BlogPost-1720132017-03-11T04:15:21.000Z2017-03-11T04:15:21.000ZBonnie Brighthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/BonnieBright<div><p>Lisa Schouw has had a long career in the arts, in singing, songwriting, theater, and as a teacher of those arts. She began her formal study as a depth psychotherapist later in life when she was nearly 50, after discovering Pacifica and pursuing her Master’s degree in the <a href="http://www.pacifica.edu/degree-programs/ma-engaged-humanities-creative-life?__hstc=202165006.961ccdd51979e49241af7cf44fa9b2f9.1453409437851.1489200125244.1489203348316.59&__hssc=202165006.1.1489203348316&__hsfp=2408127212" target="_blank"><strong>Engaged Humanities and the Creative Life Program</strong></a> there.</p><p>While the early part of her life was very creative as she moved back and forth between dance, music, and theater, Schouw had had a longstanding interest in psychology, and recognized the need to provide a container to “hold” the personal material which would often unfold or “unravel” as they started to work with music or theater. When she discovered depth psychology and Pacifica, it occurred to her that she had found a way to “stitch those worlds together.” Depth psychology provides powerful tools for individuals to be witnessed in their process, whether it be remembering and healing from a trauma via Schouw’s psychotherapy practice, or tapping into deep personal or collective emotions when creating a piece of theater, which she often sees in her teaching capacity. Either way, deep listening and creating a fertile space for transformation to occur is paramount.</p><p><a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/depth-psychology-and-the-creative-arts-theater-therapy-individuation" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.pacificapost.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog_post_images/onstage.jpg?t=1489189515115&name=onstage.jpg&width=320" width="320" class="align-right" alt="onstage.jpg?t=1489189515115&name=onstage.jpg&width=320" /></a>Indeed, most of us can conceive of how creativity comes from that pregnant space where there is something lying in wait to emerge, so, when one listens, it provides a way for it to be born. I find it fascinating that Schouw is making the correlation between doing something creative like creating a play, and being in the therapy room. In both instances, bringing something unique into relationship with something else, an “other”—whether a human being, an idea, or an image—generates a creative spark, she notes. If, as a therapist or a teacher, she can trust that process and simply find that fertile space and sit in it, something will arise which may surprise both her and her client.</p><p><span>Perhaps one of the most profound ways Schouw is integrating depth psychology into creative practice is through what she calls “theater of testimony,” the creation of a theatrical piece which arises from the gathering of “real people’s stories” portrayed in conjunction with some current aspect of social or cultural issues.... (<a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/depth-psychology-and-the-creative-arts-theater-therapy-individuation" target="_blank">Click here to read the full post or listen to the interview</a>)</span></p><p></p></div>Peace Corps Meets Pacifica: Stories from Romaniahttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/peace-corps-meets-pacifica-stories-from-romania2017-04-06T11:50:10.000Z2017-04-06T11:50:10.000ZBonnie Brighthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/BonnieBright<div><p>Erin O’H<span class="searchword">all</span>oran grew up watching Peace Corps commercials on TV which featured footage of volunteers serving in Africa and young children in grass hut houses. Even though the images were somewhat romanticized, the pull toward a life of service was always strong for her, and she always k<span class="searchword">new</span> it was something she wanted to do.</p><p>Even so, she didn’t throw caution to the wind until she was in her early 30s when, around the time that President Obama was elected, she sensed a significant positive cultural shift toward, “Yes we can make a difference.” From that, she was inspired to leave her job and join the Peace Corps.</p><p><a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog_post_images/romania.jpg?t=1491434304381&width=320&name=romania.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.pacificapost.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog_post_images/romania.jpg?t=1491434304381&name=romania.jpg&width=320" width="320" class="align-left" alt="romania.jpg?t=1491434304381&name=romania.jpg&width=320" /></a>She specific<span class="searchword">all</span>y requested to serve in Eastern Europe because she wanted to continue pursuing a career as a Behavior Analyst <span class="searchword">work</span>ing <span class="searchword">with</span> individuals affected by autism, and there weren’t many countries that were actively addressing autism or developmental disabilities because so many undeveloped nations are still so focused on ensuring basic infrastructure needs like health and water sanitation.</p><p>After what seemed like an eternal application process, <span class="searchword">with</span> a long period of checking her mailbox for her assignment, she was thrilled to be sent to Romania, a serendipitous placement because she quickly discovered Romania was not only very volunteer-focused, but it would also <span class="searchword">all</span>ow her to continue her <span class="searchword">work</span> <span class="searchword">with</span> individuals affected by autism.</p><p><a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog_post_images/stray_dogs.jpg?t=1491434304381&width=320&name=stray_dogs.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.pacificapost.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog_post_images/stray_dogs.jpg?t=1491434304381&name=stray_dogs.jpg&width=320" width="320" class="align-right" alt="stray_dogs.jpg?t=1491434304381&name=stray_dogs.jpg&width=320" /></a>Once in the country, in one of her strongest initial impressions, O’H<span class="searchword">all</span>oran rec<span class="searchword">all</span>s being put on a bus in the middle of the night to go to her first site where she would do an initial 11 weeks of training. Looking out the window, she could see large numbers of wild dogs running in packs....</p><p><a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/peace-corps-meets-pacifica-stories-from-romania" target="_blank">Read the full post or listen to the audio interview on Pacifica Post</a></p></div>The Trickster, the Drag Queen, and the Goddess: Exploring Gender and Sexuality through an Archetypal Lenshttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-trickster-the-drag-queen-and-the-goddess-exploring-gender-and2016-12-15T19:13:34.000Z2016-12-15T19:13:34.000ZBonnie Brighthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/BonnieBright<div><p><a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/the-trickster-the-drag-queen-and-the-goddess-exploring-gender-and-sexuality-through-an-archetypal-lens" target="_blank"><img width="300" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142459297,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-right" style="padding:2px;" alt="9142459297?profile=original" /></a>Aaron Mason, M.A., is a freelance medical writer with an infectious laugh, whose love of depth psychology led him to make sweeping changes in his life since deciding to earn his <a href="http://www.pacifica.edu/degree-programs/ma-engaged-humanities-creative-life?__hstc=202165006.961ccdd51979e49241af7cf44fa9b2f9.1453409437851.1481772399183.1481829031669.24&__hssc=202165006.2.1481829031669&__hsfp=3268564254" target="_blank"><strong>Master’s degree in the Engaged Humanities Program</strong></a> at Pacifica Graduate Institute. On his desk in his West Hollywood apartment sits a Pez dispenser gifted to him by a close friend. The figure is a coyote, and Aaron has constructed a wig for it using multi-colored ribbons, and grounded its feet in magenta clay. He attached the coyote to his dashboard when he drove across the country from Jersey City in a dramatic move to the west coast. Aaron has dubbed this icon “Coyote Drag Queen,” a name that takes on layers of meaning when one has a chance to hear Aaron’s personal story.</p><p>As a child, Aaron remembers his fascination at watching an uncle performing in drag with a dance company on television. There was something interesting about the way his uncle performed drag, insists Mason. It was “something playful, subversive, and fun”—almost as if he were “getting away with something naughty.” Now in hindsight, as an openly gay man, Mason believes that the experience impacted him profoundly, but it wasn’t until he began studying archetypes and the patterns of <a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/who-was-carl-jung-and-why-should-we-study-him-and-his-work" target="_blank"><strong>Jung’s unconscious via depth psychology</strong></a> that he recognized his uncle was embodying the archetype of the Trickster.</p><p>While at Pacifica, research led Mason to the work of Will Roscoe[1], who writes about Native American “two-spirits”—a term used to describe “non-binary gender roles among Native American tribes.”... <a href="http://www.pacificapost.com/the-trickster-the-drag-queen-and-the-goddess-exploring-gender-and-sexuality-through-an-archetypal-lens" target="_blank">Read the full post and listen to the audio interview with Aaron here</a></p></div>Gathering the Light this Winter Solstice - Remembering V. Walter Odajnykhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/gathering-the-light-this-winter-solstice-remembering-v-walter2013-12-21T08:00:00.000Z2013-12-21T08:00:00.000ZFisher King Presshttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/FisherKingPress<div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><br /> <a href="http://fisherkingpress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=90" style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/thumb/9781926715551.jpg" alt="9781926715551.jpg" /></a></div><div>by Dennis Patrick Slattery</div><div><br /> As I finish reading Walter Odajnyk's <i><a href="http://fisherkingpress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=90" target="_blank">Gathering the Light</a></i>, I see a very synthetic imagination at work to bring the reader closer to what unites rather than separates Eastern and Western thought on meditation, the mystical and the means to unite the two ways the soul may engage spirit. At the same time, his book offers a short course on C.G. Jung's ground-breaking thought on the soul inhabiting all things of the world. Lost in our ADD-oriented culture is the art and practice of meditation, not just on matters of the spirit but on the everyday matters we contend with, often on the fly, fast and loose, with little due regard for consequences. Perhaps the president of the United States should include on his board of advisors a resident meditator; that person's task would be to slow down the processes that can have as their consequences war, ignoring the most in need, loss of a sense of fair play, justice denied and oversights that can diminish the earth's richness. Is this a spiritual book? Yes and no. Its wide range and depth of perception on the spiritual body can be appropriated on a number of levels to coax the reader into living a fuller and more deeply attended life.</div><p></p><p></p><p><b>Remembering V. Walter Odajnyk</b><br /> <b>April 10, 1938 - May 22, 2013</b><br /> Walter Odajnyk was a graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and a member of the C.G. Jung Study Center of Southern California as well as a core faculty member of Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is the author of <em>Jung and Politics: The Political and Social Ideas of C.G. Jung</em>; <em>Gathering the Light: A Jungian View of Meditation</em>, and <em>Archetype and Character: Power, Eros, Spirit and Matter Personality Types</em>. Grateful to be the publisher of <em>Gathering the Light: A Jungian View of Meditation</em>, Fisher King Press plans to keep Walter Odajnyk's light shining for years to come.<br /></p><div style="font-weight:normal;text-align:left;"><div style="margin:0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><a href="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/">www.fisherkingpress.com</a></span></b></div></div></div>Gathering the Light: A Jungian View of Meditationhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/gathering-the-light-a-jungian-view-of-meditation2011-10-15T20:59:05.000Z2011-10-15T20:59:05.000ZFisher King Presshttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/FisherKingPress<div><div style="clear:both;text-align:center;" class="separator"><a style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="http://fisherkingpress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=90"><img width="135" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MXdYQXGE0Z8/Tpnw-fXPQ3I/AAAAAAAAAsA/qVNddRxitVI/s200/9781926715551.jpg" height="200" border="0" alt="9781926715551.jpg" /></a></div><div><img width="1" style="border:none;margin:0px;padding:0px;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1926715551" height="1" border="0" alt="ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1926715551" />Another New Fisher King Press Jungian psychological publication!</div><p></p><b><i><a href="http://fisherkingpress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=90">Gathering the Light: A Jungian View of Meditation</a></i></b><br /><br />by V. Walter Odajnyk<br /><br />Foreword by Thomas Moore<br /><br />Publication Date Dec 10, 2011 - <a href="http://fisherkingpress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=90">Advance Orders</a> Welcomed. Also available from the Pacifica Graduate Institute Bookstore.<br /><br />Originally published by Shambhala in 1993, <i><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Light-V-Walter-Odajnyk/dp/1926715551?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmalcolmclc-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Gathering the Light</a><img width="1" style="border:none;margin:0px;padding:0px;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1926715551" height="1" border="0" alt="ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1926715551" /></i> is a significant contribution to Jungian psychology and to research concerning the relationship between psychological and spiritual development.<br /><br />Gathering the Light remains a groundbreaking work that integrates Jungian psychology, alchemy, and the practice of meditation. It is one of very few, if not the only Jungian book that demonstrates that the alchemical opus is not only an analogy of the individuation process, but also a depiction of various experiential stages encountered in the course of meditation.<br /><br /><i><a href="http://fisherkingpress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=90">Gathering the Light</a></i> compares Western and Eastern images of the goal of alchemy and of meditation practice; it offers a psychological interpretation of the Zen Ox Herding pictures; it argues that in essence both psychological and spiritual development consists of the withdrawal of projections; and the appendix offers a critique of Wilber’s mistaken view of Jung’s conception of archetypes and provides a critical review of Thomas Cleary’s translation of <i>The Secret of the Golden Flower</i>.<br /><br />About the Author<br />V. Walter Odajnyk, Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst, and serves as a Core Faculty member and is the Research Coordinator for Pacifica Graduate Institute's Mythological Studies Program.<br /><br />Product Details<br />* Paperback: 264 pages<br />* Publisher: Fisher King Press (Dec 2011)<br />* Language: English<br />* ISBN-10: 1926715551<br />* ISBN-13: 978-1926715551<br /><br /><a style="clear:right;display:inline;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;" href="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/"><br /><img name="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393483198773291202" style="display:block;height:100px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;margin-top:0px;width:110px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_66tG-ibjAoU/StmAZLTraMI/AAAAAAAAASs/kmBy84VNLJ8/s200/fkplogo110x100.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393483198773291202" border="0" alt="fkplogo110x100.jpg" /></a>Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.<br /><ul><li>International Shipping.</li><li>Credit Cards Accepted.</li><li>Phone Orders Welcomed. Toll free in the US & Canada: 1-800-228-9316 International +1-831-238-7799 skype: fisher_king_press</li></ul></div>Becoming: An Introduction to Jung's Concept of Individuationhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/becoming-an-introduction-to2010-10-06T05:00:00.000Z2010-10-06T05:00:00.000ZFisher King Presshttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/FisherKingPress<div><h3 class="post-title entry-title">Oct 1, 2010</h3><br /><p>With great pleasure, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.fisherkingreview.com/">Fisher King Press</a> is pleased to announce the publication of <br /> <br /> <a style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_66tG-ibjAoU/TFqFXyCcDpI/AAAAAAAAAXE/YOyMni2VMQE/s1600/9781926715124.jpg"><img width="230" height="320" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_66tG-ibjAoU/TFqFXyCcDpI/AAAAAAAAAXE/YOyMni2VMQE/s320/9781926715124.jpg" alt="9781926715124.jpg" /></a><br /> By Deldon Anne McNeely<br />ISBN 9781926715124, 230pp, Index, Biblio, (Oct 2010)<br /><span style="font-size:x-small;"><a href="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/BC_eSampler.pdf">Download a free PDF sampler of <i><b>Becoming</b></i></a></span> <br /><br /><i><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Introduction-Jungs-Concept-Individuation/dp/1926715128?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmalcolmclc-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Becoming: An Introduction to Jung’s Concept of Individuation</a> <img width="1" height="1" border="0" style="border:medium none;margin:0px;padding:0px;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1926715128" alt="ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1926715128" /></i>explores the ideas of Carl Gustav Jung. His idea of a process called individuation has sustained Deldon Anne McNeely’s dedication to a lifelong work of psychoanalysis, which unfortunately has been dismissed by the current trends in psychology and psychiatry. <br /><br />Psychotherapists know the value of Jung’s approach through clinical results, that is, watching people enlarge their consciousness and change their attitudes and behavior, transforming their suffering into psychological well-being. However, psychology’s fascination with behavioral techniques, made necessary by financial concerns and promoted by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, has changed the nature of psychotherapy and has attempted to dismiss the wisdom of Jung and other pioneers of the territory of the unconscious mind. <br /><br />For a combination of unfortunate circumstances, many of the younger generation, including college and medical students, are deprived of fully understanding their own minds. Those with a scientific bent are sometimes turned away from self-reflection by the suggestion that unconscious processes are metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. Superficial assessments of Jung have led to the incorrect conclusion that one must be a spiritual seeker, or religious, in order to follow Jung’s ideas about personality. Becoming is an offering to correct these misperceptions.<br /><br />Many university professors are not allowed to teach Jungian psychology. Secular humanism and positivism have shaped the academic worldview; therefore, investigation into the unknown or unfamiliar dimensions of human experience is not valued. But this attitude contrasts with the positive reputation Jung enjoys among therapists, artists of all types, and philosophers. Those without resistance to the unconscious because of their creativity, open-mindedness, or personal disposition are more likely to receive Jung’s explorations without prejudice or ideological resistance. There is a lively conversation going on about Jung’s ideas in journals and conferences among diverse groups of thinkers which does not reach mainstream psychology. Becoming is for those whose minds are receptive to the unknown, and to help some of us to think—more with respect than dread—of the possibility that we act unconsciously.<br /><br /></p><div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/BC_eSampler.pdf">Download a free PDF sampler of <i><b>Becoming</b></i></a></div><br /> <b>About the Author</b><br />Deldon Anne McNeely received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Louisiana State University and is a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology. A senior analyst of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, she is a training analyst for their New Orleans Jungian Seminar. Publications include Touching: Body Therapy and Depth Psychology; Animus Aeternus: Exploring the Inner Masculine; and Mercury Rising: Women, Evil, and the Trickster Gods.<br /><blockquote><br /><br /><div style="text-align:center;">Also available from the Pacifica Graduate Institute Bookstore!</div></blockquote><blockquote><b>Phone orders welcomed, Credit Cards accepted.</b> 1-800-228-9316 toll free in the US and Canada, International +1-831-238-7799. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.fisherkingreview.com/">www.fisherkingpress.com</a><br /> <br /> Below are links to download the FKP newsletter, current catalog, and price list/order form:<br /> <a href="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/newsletter.pdf">Fisher King Press Newsletter</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/catalog.pdf">Fisher King Press Catalog of Publications</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/pricelist.pdf">Fisher King Press Price List and Order Form</a> <br /><a style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_66tG-ibjAoU/S1OiPm9_v3I/AAAAAAAAAUg/fFBoF0ZBZmg/s1600-h/FKPtitlestripflat.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_66tG-ibjAoU/S1OiPm9_v3I/AAAAAAAAAUg/fFBoF0ZBZmg/s320/FKPtitlestripflat.jpg" alt="FKPtitlestripflat.jpg" /></a></blockquote></div>