Blogs

For Jungian analyst and professor, Jorge de la O, the desire to become a therapist began in the late 1970s when he saw Violet Oaklander[1] the founder of Gestalt therapy with children and adolescents, at a confluent education conference at USC. Oaklander presented some slides on the process of sandtray (a somewhat different process from Sandplay, the Jungian approach to sandtray which was created by Jungian analyst Dora Kalff)[2]. When Jorge saw the trays and the work Oaklander was doing, he was

Please read about the Catalan efforts to celebrate a referendum for self-determination and the response from the Spanish state, from the archetypal perspective of this observer.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Is the transgender movement the latest in a series of civil rights campaigns? Or did psychiatrist Paul McHugh get it right when he described the movement as “cult-like”? Are children being helped or recruited? 

How relevant or not are Jungian descriptions of anima, animus and self to experiences of gender today? Is somatophobia (hostility to the body) a factor in transgender culture? 

How comparable or not is modern transgenderism to the worship of goddess Cybele in the ancient Roman world? Can we

I usually break for lunch around noon after a morning of depth psychotherapy. There’s time to quietly read, reflect, and have a period of rest and meditation. Not infrequently, a vision surfaces. In a liminal state, my brain downshifts from beta waves to alpha and theta, images and symbols from the psyche emerge.

University of Pennsylvania research in sleep and chronobiology reports, "Humans are biologically programmed to sleep at night, and to take a nap in the midafternoon, though scientists ar

U.K.-based psychotherapist and activist, Andrew Samuels has a long history as a consultant to political clients on the presidential and prime ministerial level. While Samuels first published Politics on the Couch in 2001 and The Political Psyche in 2015, his newest book, A New Therapy for Politics? delves ever more deeply into the intersection between psychotherapy and politics and lends a critical eye to his own chosen profession in an effort to bring the two together.

Sigmund Freud and C. G. J

Many indigenous societies believed that the dead were always close by at the times of the greatest celebrations. The festivals of mid-winter, as well as the November first celebrations in the Celtic world, looked forward to the annual restoration of the world that would come in springtime. But the elders taught that renewal would be unlikely unless due attention were paid to that which must die, as well as to those who had already died and become ancestors, and those – like Dionysus – who had di

Spiritual and mystical literature often speaks of the need to pay full attention, to be present moment to moment. In addition, what we might call “soul-work” asks us to focus our awareness of both the outer and the inner worlds with a detached, witnessing perspective, even while, as Joseph Campbell wrote, “participat(ing) joyfully in the sorrows of the world.”

A large part of the self is normally hidden from us. Indeed, cognitive linguist George Lakoff claims that only five percent of our thinkin

As the newly appointed President and CEO of Pacifica, Dr. Joseph Cambray was drawn to Pacifica in part because he perceived the powerful opportunities it offered to pursue new directions in depth psychology and to help grow depth psychology on the world stage.

By Carol S. Pearson

Most of us get little help in navigating sibling relationships or seeing how they affect us. Recently, I was asked to give a presentation on sisters and brothers and found there is very little written about this important topic. Even family system literature focuses more on parents and addressing children’s problems, which, of course, are very important concerns. I decided to explore how our sibling relationships affect the stories we live because those stories shape who we

Janet Bubar Rich became fascinated by horses in myth and legend when she was working on her Ph.D. in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

In her book, “Riding on Horses' Wings, Bubar Rich” explores how horses inspire soulful imagination, and investigates how historical and mythological love of horses has, in our technological age, become the love of high horse-powered vehicles.

In an era when anthropologists have referred to the past five or six decades as “The Great Acceleration”

So often we look at how relationships trip us up. It’s easy to overlook how they also sustain us. If we are isolated, without meaningful connection and intimacy, we’re tripped up in life. If we have that one other person who knows us and wants to continue to know us, we’re wealthy and very much in the midst of finding our way.

Dreams speak to us of relating. Our inner life is reflected in the quality of our outer relationships. A person dreamed of having sex with a foul human being. Another had a

Sharing my newest audio interview and summary article:

Part of the challenge for Naris Kesheshe, who immigrated from Iran to the U.S. when she was 13, was her desire to maintain her original cultural identity and roots, while at the same time living in a society that held very different values. 

When she ultimately discovered depth psychology, she was thrilled to realize there was a field which allowed her to approach her own experience through “unspoken words,” and which could also be extremely h

Listen to a new audio interview or read a detailed summary article of “Dreams, Calling, Suffering, and Individuation: Finding Light in the Darkness” with Jungian Analyst and New Pacifica Core Faculty Member, Fanny Brewster: http://www.pacificapost.com/counseling-and-community-mental-health-a-soul-based-calling (Link to listen at the bottom of the Pacifica Post page)

INTRODUCTION

It may be all too easy to get stuck when we perceive the patterns of ecological destruction and political conflict we ar

Last week I visited a favorite “soul’s place of resurrection”, hiking the Tennessee Valley trail in Marin County to the beach. Author Sharon Blackie defines such a place as one where a soul is happiest on earth and, at the same time, most in touch with all that is eternal. It was a magical, breathtaking clear sky day where I watched a blue heron stand poised, present, patient at the edge of the blackwater pond spotted with bright green islands of plants. The water broke and rippled as an otter,

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Part Five

The Local Level: Policing in America

Let’s clear up one issue quickly. If mental illness (you know, the old “single shooter” trope) were the sole cause of these actions, people from all over the political spectrum would be committing them. Instead, it is the radical right that consistently enacts them. And we should also acknowledge that people with mental illness are much more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violent acts.

Crazies got to be crazy. But as merely unofficial enforc

Sharing a summary article of a talk by Susan Rowland, Ph.D., at the "Response at the Radical Edge: Depth Psychology for the 21st Century":

In myth, the Greek god Dionysus, perhaps best known as the god of grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy, was dismembered and is re-membered through bringing his disparate parts together into relationship with one another.

Historically, we have seen the evolution of a subject/object “split” in western cul

There is a Celtic legend called the Cauldron of Changes that you can read on the website, Chalice Centre. I would like to discuss one aspect of this story that pertains to the knowledge of Soul and its transformative effects on human beings.

In the story, a peasant boy named Gwion is hired by Ceridwen to stir and keep watch over the cauldron, which she has prepared for her ugly and hapless son, Avagddu. Because of her great love for the boy, she desired to find a way to transform her son. After s

Bald-headed Old Man, by Rembrandt

What we colloquially call the human "spirit," is among the archetypes of the unconscious. Jung says the spirit archetype usually appears in dreams as a "wise old man," who gives "decisive convictions, prohibitions, and wise counsels" (Jung 214). This motif also shows up "in dreams in the guise of magician, doctor, priest, teacher, professor, grandfather, or any other person possessing authority" (Jung 216). Sometimes, he appears simply as "an authoritative voice

Last night my wife, Kate and I were watching a television series we've come to enjoy, Jack Taylor. He's an Irish detective, a rogue rough-and-tough guy. He lives hard, barely gets by, but has some real depth to him He quoted Emerson saying that what matters most is not the past or the future but what's inside a person.

Kate and I spoke about this Emerson essay on self-reliance. It's a soulful piece, one that brings psychic reality down to earth and into everyday life. We are surrounded by the wis