Jungian Psychotherapy
Jungian Psychotherapy was Developed by: Carl Gustav Jung
Overview of Jungian Psychotherapy: "Carl G. Jung (1875-1961), a psychiatrist of Zurich, Switzerland, was the founder of analytical psychology. Early in his career, Jung worked closely with Freud, but later went his own way after developing new theories about the deep unconscious. Freud considered religious expression to arise from neurotic "illusion". By contrast, Jung considered it to arise from the psyche's inner drive toward a healthy balance of individual consciousness and the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious, or objective psyche, is shared by all humankind. This instinctual heritage includes certain definite patterns, or archetypes, which govern the way symbols and psychic images are processed. Studies of dream and myth show these same patterns from all cultures and all eras of human history. Recognizing these archetypal patterns is the key to understanding dreams and the process of individuation. The process of fulfillment, taking place over the course of a lifetime, is the striving toward a personal unity of consciousness and unconsciousness, and of the person with the Whole. Though Jung called it individuation, it can also be called the Journey into Wholeness." ~ Excerpt from Journey Into Wholeness
"Jungian analysis is a specialized form of psychotherapy in which the Jungian Analyst and patient work together to increase the patient’s consciousness in order to move toward psychological balance and wholeness, and to bring relief and meaning to psychological suffering. The process can treat a broad range of emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety, and it can also assist anyone who wishes to pursue psychological growth. At the heart of Jungian analysis is a realignment of conscious and unconscious aspects of the personality with an ensuing creation of new values and purpose." ~ Excerpt from The New York Association for Analytical Psychology
Resources Related to Jungian Psychotherapy:
CG Jung Page
C.G. Jung Institute of New York
CGJung Institute Zurich
The Association of Jungian Analysts
The New York Association for Analytical Psychology
Wikipedia's Page on Jungian Psychotherapy
Books Related to Jung and Jungian Psychology:
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I love anything that has to do with dreams and used to keep a dream journal. I do believe dreams can sometimes mean something whether it's just to relieve stress while you sleep or something more.
I think it would be neat to visit a seminar on dreams. I have always wanted to know how to interpret them
Surely you mean serious theater actors only? I can hardly see so many of the more shallow actors today embracing this.
Now Grace surely you are not saying that so many of those overpaid Hollywood types are not serious actors?, she said sarcastically.
I have heard of Jung, but never really read his work. I would love to know more about Jung's work. Thanks for the article.
Getting into the role of acting by dreaming and acting out on these dreams seems interesting. I guess actors have to get into the role some way or another.
I'm interested in knowing what all actors follows the Jungian ideas
So do they actually practice these ideas and dream on them. Just how about do they go about using these ideas in their acting?
I decided my career path based on a dream. I think remembering a dream and the graphic details of it is a gift. I've always felt that our emotions that we choose to bury in our everyday moments surface when we dream.
This sounds more like script writers. Sometimes I've wondered why some horror movies have such vague, distorted sequences. Wonder if it has anything to do with this.
It's interesting to note. Any websites with info on Jungian notions? Any suggested books on this topic?
I agree with Kiera. I used to have a dream analysis book, but unfortunatley a friend took off with it. Now I have one by Sylvia Browne and a lot of stuff in it makes sense. I would still love to read some of jung's work.
an unexamined life is a life not worth living...Socrates i think...maybe Plato. how true...but isn’t it just as equally about examining our emotions and somatic feelings, as it is our cognitions...i'm so sick of cbt this and cbt that...it's a very limiting approach and only referenced over and over because its been over researched exclusively by PhD professors who know how to teach psychology, but don't know the art of doing therapy. anyhow,,not to poo-po your article, it's a great article and i appreciate you mentioning the other types of therapy...but cbt, what a superficial bore lacking long term results for most people...i would guess.
This was a very nice article. Very informative. About the kundalini yoga, I think very few of us are actually successful with any kind of meditation technique. It takes years and a lot of time to master this.
What happens when people have such a distorted image of who they are and all the while thinking they are self aware but really all they are aware of is the fictionalized version that they have created for themselves? Are most therapists trained to see beyond that? Because otherwise they would just be treating a lie. I don't know what good that would do for the patient but I can really see some people going through therapy, lying the whole time and coming out no better for it in the end. Seems like a waste of time and money on their part to me but I know that there have to be people who are narcissistic enough to do that.
To "Socrates had it partly correct," many people who don't know about CBT and its evolution think of it as a formulaic, symptom-based therapy only. I suppose that a beginning therapist using a cookbook CBT approach could offer a very limited means of therapy. As a therapist with an integrative approach, I find it useful to apply the therapeutic approach most likely to help a particular individual. For people who are overwhelmed by their emotions and who have difficulty implementing changes in their lives, cognitive therapy can be especially helpful, as it encourages them to challenge types of thinking that they may unconsciously be using to talk themselves in depression or anxiety that then makes it harder to cope with their real-life issues. The early promoters and researchers of cognitive behavior therapy weren't the first to call attention to the need for some to engage thinking and analysis to achieve more balanced lives and self-knowledge. The Socratic means of knowing thyself, for instance, is an early model for cognitive therapy, where Socratic questioning is a favorite tool. Scholars from the world's great religions issues commentaries to discern meaning and ways to apply scriptural teachings to daily life. In psychology, the Swiss psychoanalyst, C. G. Jung, discerned four personality functions: thinking opposed to feeling, sensation opposed to intuition as dialectical opposites to each other. Here again, if someone is overwhelmed with feeling, they would lack consciousness and need to explore the thinking function. Current cognitive therapists do case formulations that include feelings and bodily sensations as foci of change work (see the writings of Jacqueline Persons, Ph.D.). Dr. Marsha Linehan's Dialectical Behavior Therapy is described in her book, Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder is a sophisticated and multi-faceted approach to helping those who are easily overwhelmed by strong emotional reactions and trauma responses and who can be self-destructive. It's not a cookbook approach by any means but is one of the most sophisticated approaches to therapy I've seen. You're right, of course, in challenging anyone who says that CBT is the only valid approach and who eschews attending to emotions, somatic feelings, and so on. As one who is very much into the healing "art" of psychotherapy, I've found cognitive approaches to be very helpful for some people. To Tiffany: I've found that some of my clients are able to benefit from meditation very quickly. They don't need to meditate to the point of great accomplishment to benefit from learning that they can start to direct their own attention even in the face of the feelings, thoughts and sensations that the mind constantly produces. Many pain management patients, for instance, gain significant relief in an 8 week course of mindfulness meditation, using the methods of Jon Kabat-Zinn. (I learned this recently listening to an audiobook, and the reference doesn't quickly come to mind.) To Shannon: A seasoned therapist observes small interactions and guides a person to attend to their experiences that may be discrepant with their personal narrative. With someone who is very narcissistic, the work is gentle and may take a long time and some of it takes place at the emotional level, letting the person be heard in safety, something they were deprived of in early life. As they relax, emotional issues surface for exploration, and they are encouraged to self-reflect. Dreamwork can also be especially helpful.
I am worried about my child who seems to be creating terabithia for himself. He lives in a fictional world and cant seem to relate to the reality around him. Is this too much of self awareness and too little of the world around him. Its almost like he cuts us off like some kind of static disturbance. He lives in a make believe fairy tale which seems to consume everything he is doing and thinking.
To Rita or anyone else who has serious mental health concerns about themselves or a loved one, it's good you're reaching out for help. It's essential, though, to do more than ask advice on a blog but to actually consult a qualified mental health professional in person, someone who can do a proper evaluation with treatment recommendations. The mental health professionals best trained for diagnosis are psychologists and psychiatrists. The best way to find a psychologist is to consult your county's psychological association, which can be found online or in your local yellow pages. (In my area, you would look for San Francisco Psychological Association, for instance.) The psychological association isn't a commercial referral service but is the official organization of psychologists in your area. To find a psychiatrist, contact your local medical association. If you have mental health coverage in your insurance, they can provide you with a list of local, qualified psychologists and psychiatrists who are on their provider panel. Finally, if you believe that the situation may be an emergency, it's best to call 911, contact your local law enforcement agency, or go to the nearest hospital emergency room.
I would be completely baffled by anyone in therapy who truly did not want to make a difference for himself. I have been through therapy and believe me it was awful hard work to just be going through the motions. There were of course sessions that I felt like I got more out of than others but in the end the end result was that I was a much stronger and self aware person. Anyone who does not really want this for himself should just stay out of the therapy mix!
The greatest thing about therapy for me is that when I started I had no real awareness of who I was at all but now I am a completely changed woman. I know more about my past and how that affects my present than I could have ever known. Yes being self aware is important, but having the ability to become even more so is priceless.
After being treated as a doormat for years, I mustered even self-confidence to hit therapy. I am a totally changed person today and very self aware of the person I am.
I'm glad that therapy has been so helpful for those who have recently commented. Two themes emerge, increased awareness and strength. I believe these go together when a person opens up and grows in therapy and have recently written an article on this that's posted on my website: "The Psychology of Mental Toughness: How Therapy Makes You Stronger." That article can be found here: http://drgaryseeman.com/resources/Toughness.php
This sentence seems to summarize a big part of what my therapist is trying to help me with: "With awareness we gain increased ability to choose, becoming better able to observe our emotions and bodily states instead of being run by them." She encourages me to try to be "curious" about the feelings and thoughts that come up for me. I am finding that even if I pretend to be curious about them either by thinking or writing, "I'm curious about..." before my thought it has a bit of an "as-if" effect. So maybe eventually I will actually become more curious and less "run" by my feelings/states/judgments/fear/etc. Thanks for another informative article.
To FMD: Thank you for your insightful comments, which I fully endorse.
Ah the unconscious mind. It really can be beyond our control. past things that stay with us, even when we think we have forgotton, still haunt and affect our lives long after the fact. Like that woman who continues to ruin her relationships, not even realizing what she's doing. It's a perfect example that so many people deal with.
That was a great read, Michael. Thank you for sharing that. When you spoke of the woman I thought about how much of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I have a friend who has a man that loves her dearly and this exuberant, fascinating woman cannot see why. Her outward appearance would never give that away too. I worry she'll do that very thing and chase him away with her neediness.
You cannot find your soul with your mind, you must use your heart. You must know what you are feeling. If you don't know what you are feeling, you will create unconsciously. If you are unconscious of an aspect of yourself; if it operates outside your field of awareness, that aspect has power over you. - Gary Zukav Connect with your unconscious and regain your personal power.
I used to visit an old neighbor in a nursing home and it was amazing to see her features literally change when she talked about her late husband. She was devoted to him. It was as if she had a veil over her face the way it softened with love. I swear you could glimpse the young wife that was there before the wrinkles.
It is very true...whatever method is followed for curing or treating a person of any probelm that he/she may have, a lot depends on HOW that technique is applkied and also on the professional-patient relationship... if that is good,then even not-so-great methods will work wonders.
I hope that there are a lot of therapists who prescribe to the notion that the therapeutic relationship is a healing one instead of one that should belittle the patient and bring him or her down. I think that a lot of times that is why some will resist going into treatment because they do not want to be made to feel even worse about themselves. With a therapist though that is committed to helping bring the inner selves back into balance with one another and who will help you get to that point in a meaningful and caring way there is no doubt that therapy for anyone can be a success story.
you don't always have to go by the book-this is something I have experienced as a physician myself... sometimes all you need to do is understand the problem and let your common sense prevail and take it further...and if you are not doing a lot of wrong,you will have very good results indeed.