Revision

The Arc of Human History

2011-11-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

The Long Arc of Human History

by Len Cruz

Allow me to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The arc of history is long, but it bends toward the religious instinct.

Jung studied the symbols of religious traditions as a window into the nature of the psyche. His openness to different images of the Divine paralleled his openness to interior images that others might easily have relegated to the domain of psychosis.

The Jungian tradition emerged during a tremendously fertile period of scientific development in the late 19th and early 20th century. Remarkably, over a matter of a little more than six years of formal interactions between Jung and Freud, their professional collaboration ran its course. Jung departed from Freud, who had proposed in The Future of an Illusion that religious belief was an infantile defense against the ill-defined sense of an omnipotent deity. Jung recognized a universality in the religious instinct that made its appearance in myriad ways across vastly different cultures. Most importantly, Jung demonstrated that the journey of the spirit is unique to each and every person.

The streams that merge in any individual to find expression in matters of the spirit are limitless. Some of us are raised in an overbearing religious tradition while others arise with almost no instruction or outer structure. Something deep within us yearns and that yearning can become the cornerstone of faith or spiritual awakening. Psychology has the capacity to deepen the religious instinct and invigorate the spirit. According to Jung we are stamped with the imago Dei. Jung gave this stamp of God's image primacy:

“unity and totality stand at the highest point on the scale of objective values because their symbols can no longer be distinguished from the imago Dei.”(1)

"When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi troubles my sight"(2) ... Each of us must decide how we will respond to the encounter with the "vast image". When we become aware that deep calls unto deep seldom do we miss that the call appears to be unceasing. Martin Buber went so far as to claim that "Through the Thou a person becomes the I".

I thought about some of the steps I have taken in my own spiritual journey and it led me to frame it with a list of books that hold a special places in my formation. (Feel free to skip to the end of the list since the special quality of the list is that it is my list.)

A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle)

Bhagavad Gita & Upanishads

The Teachings of Don Juan, A Journey to Ixtlan (Castaneda)

Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlen)

Seven Story Mountain (Merton)

The Secret Sharer, Heart of Darkness (Conrad)

For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)

The Practice of the Presence of God (Brother Lawerence)

A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness (Leguin)

El Aleph (Borges)

Holy Bible

The Interpretation of Dreams, The Ego and Id, The Future of an Illusion (Freud)

Flatland (Abbott)

Tres Tristes Tigres (Cabrera Infante)

The Dancing Wu Li Masters, The Hidden Connections (Capra)

The Dark Night of the Soul (St. John of the Cross)

Aspects of a Theory of Syntax, On Langugage (Chomsky)

The Fractal Geometry of Nature (Mandelbrot)

Between Metaphysics and Protoanalysis (Ichazo)

The Way of the Pilgrim

Man and His Symbols, The Undiscovered Self (Jung)

Karate-Do Kyohan: the Master Text (Funakoshi)

Karate is a Thing of the Spirit, Car (Crews)

The Myth of Sisyphus (Camus)

Selected Poems (Tennyson)

Steps to Freedom, The Alchemy of the Heart (Field)

Markings (Hammarskjold)

Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Mind and Nature (Bateson)

Gödel, Escher, Bach (Hofstadter)

A Bell for Adono (Hershey)

The Structure of Magic (Bandler & Grindler)

Revolt of the Massess (Ortega y Gasset)

The Death of Artemio Cruz (Vargas Llosa)

I and Thou (Buber)

Twilight of the Idols, The Anti-Christ (Nietzche)

The Screwtape Letters (Lewis)

Morphic Resonance (Sheldrake)

Collected Poems (Auden)

The Tales of the Dervishes (Shah)

Holy Quran

Buddhism: It's Essence and Development (Conze)

The Universe in a Single Atom (HH Dalai Lama)

Facets of Unity (Almaas)

The Crooked Tiumber of Humanity (Berlin)

The Shadow of the Wind (Ruiz Zafron)

The list disturbed me for three reasons. First, it could have been much longer. Next, it lacked coherence. Whatever illusion I maintain about some unseen hand guiding the unfolding passage of my life is not revealed in the list of books I've included. Each book calls to mind some remembrance that holds special significance for me but it would be difficult for anyone else to discern a thread that binds them together other than I encountered these books (or they encountered me). Finally, this assemblage, compiled in my fifth decade of life, captures something essential about who I am while simultaneously missing the mark in profound ways. How can this be?

This brings me to the real point of this blog entry. EVERY exploration of spirituality holds the promise of bringing us closer to the Divine while reminding us of our separation. Such inquiries can delivers us to a threshold between unity and alienation, between merger and isolation, between eros and thanatos, between clarity and confusion.

Whether we explore the theme of Jung & Spirituality, as we intend to do with Dr. Murray Stein on December 1, 2011, or if we explore the themes of our own spirituality, the result likely to be enriching and incomplete.

Each of us has narrative voice suited to the task of telling about our spiritual journey. The tools that hone that voice include therapy, contemplation, journaling, writing, work, and the accumulation of life experience.

I believe the long arc of history keeps bending toward the religious instinct in me and in the world.

This ineffable realm is the subject of our next our next exploration with Dr. Stein scheduled for Thursday, December 1, 2011.

Registration is still open at http://ashevillejungcenter.org/upcoming-events/spirituality/registration/

For those unable to join the conference on Thursday, it is also available over the internet.

I will close with a quote from Martin Buber on the power of a story well told.

A story must be told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself … My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story about his teacher. And he related how (his teacher) used to hop and dance while he prayed. My grandfather rose as he spoke, and he was so swept away by his story that he began to hop and dance to show how the master had done. From that hour on he was cured of his lameness. That's how to tell a story! (3)

1 Jung, CG. Coll. Wks., 9/2, pars. 60.

2 Yeats, William B. "The Second Coming - Yeats." PotW.org - Poem of the Week. Poem of the Week. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. .

3 Buber,Martin. Tales of the Hasidism: Early Masters. New York: Schoken Books, 1974, pp.v-v1.

The Better Angels of Our Nature

2011-10-19T02:57:00.000-07:00

During the last portion of the seminar on October 13, 2011 titled Energy! The Ecology of the Psyche and the World, Dr. Murray Stein spoke about a book review he had just read on "The Better Angels of Our Nature" by Steven Pinker. I looked up the source of that title and discovered that it was in the closing lines of President Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address given on March 4, 1861.
Here is an excerpt:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

These words, uttered over seven generations ago as a nation was being torn asunder, remind us that we are not enemies. We are not enemies with each other, with the companion animals who share the earth, nor with the environment; though at times, it seems like we have declared war. Perhaps the day is dawning when again touched by the better angels of our nature, we may be at peace with our world.

Dr. Egger and Dr. Stein imparted so many profoundly important things during last Thursday's seminar that any remarks are likely to detract. Instead, I offer a few quotes I jotted down during the seminar and subsequent question and answer period. Let these remarks, like dew upon a parched land, offer the promise of renewing waters.

"When we face a destructive phenomenon, a symptom, we can take it heuristically, as a solution, we can take it as energy" (that is blocked).

"Everything psychic has a slight asymmetry (between the material world and psyche) in favor of the psyche."

"If libido retreats from the world it goes to the unconscious and there, Jung says, you must follow it."

"Nothing is so dangerous as life energy unable to be expressed honorably."

"When you cannot listen to the other person, you may be under possession, where something is projected."

"...the older the mythology, the clearer."

"...energy is a movement that evens out opposites."

"The archetype behind energy is the capacity for Divine Creation."

"To withdraw a projection is to regain energy."

"Neurosis is always a projection on a stupid thing...the symbolic life is a means to fee energy..."

"Human beings are born with an instinctual appetite ... (and) driven to a spiritual inheritance."

Seminar participants were invited to consider the impact of excessive energy usage and also invited to consider what energy is devoted in our society (both psychic energy and external energy). Strangely, the distinction between the energy of the interior life and the energy of exterior engagement grew less certain but more meaningful.

Dr. Egger recommended cultivating Joy, Hope, and Love. She likened this to the proper tuning of a violin in that proper tuning makes it easier to find the correct note. As she explained, cultivating Joy, Hope, and Love "makes opportunity".

The depth of perspective provided by Drs. Stein and Egger in the handling of their subject is difficult to convey. The work of individuation and the work of conservation in their skillful hands seemed to be different facets of the same jewel. Their teaching was clear, evocative, and nourishing.

Many thanks to those who chose to share something during the past two weeks.

Len Cruz, MD

Ecopsychology: Revisioning Ourselves in the World

2011-10-19T02:55:00.001-07:00

Revisioning Ourselves and the World

By Len Cruz, MD, ME

(Originally published at http://ashevillejungcenter.org/blog/ )

"...our present ego-feeling is only a shrunken residue of a much more inclusive, indeed, an all-embracing, feeling which corresponded to a more intimate bond between the ego and the world about it." (Sigmund Freud)

Ecopsychology is more than the conflation of two words, ecology and psychology. This nascent field expands the horizon of the deep self beyond the frontiers of the individual. James Hillman said, "The deepest self cannot be confined to "in here" because we can't be sure it is not also or even entirely "out there"![i] The exaggerated emphasis on the personal, interior, individual psychology has contributed to a denial of the world "out there". Several trajectories can be subsumed under the broad canopy of ecopsychology and the field is distinguishable from other related subjects[ii]. There is an arc that begins with the personal unconscious, traverses the collective unconscious, and leads to a planetary unconscious. The near apotheosis of mankind that installed our species with a belief in our dominion over flora and fauna may be coming of age. The Navi race depicted in the movie AVATAR is a pop culture reflection of an emerging archetype or at least a cultural complex. As Thomas Singer points out, "Failure to consider cultural complexes as part of the work of individuation puts a tremendous burden on both the personal and archetypal realms of the psyche."[iii] Depth psychological influences have shaped out language appearing with phrases like Biophilia (Erich Fromm[iv], E.O. Wilson[v]), Ecosophy & Deep Ecology (Arne Naess)[vi], Terrapsychology (Chalquist)[vii] or Ecotherapy (Clineman)[viii]. There is an ecological imperative forcing itself on our consciousness through images environmental catastrophes, species and habitat destruction, and threats of irreversible climate change. Lifton's concept of psychic numbing regarding the threat of nuclear disaster applies to the ecological crisis upon us. But this festering wound can no longer be located solely within nor strictly outside of ourselves.[ix] Ecopsychology attempts to restore the intimate connection between the ego and the world. And with the added the richness of the archetypal strata a more inclusive psychology is emerging.[x]

If a planetary consciousness is developing and we should expect that there will be a planetaryunconscious developing alongside. In the pioneering days of psychoanalysis, Janet, Freud, and others were cartographers of a vast inner landscape. A centrifugal force developed in the generations following Freud. Ego psychology pressed beyond the id, social psychiatry and later self psychology expanded into the interpersonal and social milieu, and Jung expanded the personal notion of the unconscious into vast territory of the collective unconscious. However, all these trends established human beings at the axis of the psychological world. Ecopsychology revisions this singular focus upon man. It is a restorative psychology, where place matters and the distinction between inhabitants of the earth is removed, hierarchical disappears. Ecopsychology grounds our existence and psychology in a broader context of the ecosphere.

Let us agree that human activity is causing rapid and profound changes to the climate, to the water cycle, to the soil, and to species extinction.

Billions of people watched oil gush into the Gulf of Mexico for months. On a daily basis human beings grew more alarmed by the risks of massive radiation leakage from the Fukushima nuclear reactor.And though the ecological underpinnings of mass migration and starvation in sub-Saharan Africa are poorly understood, the images of starving human beings nevertheless etches itself into our psyches. Such events remind us that there is an imperative imposing itself with ever-increasing urgency. But the complexity of these issues exceed our capacities.

Robert Jay Lifton, coined the term psychic numbing to describe "a form of desensitization … an incapacity to feel or confront certain kinds of experience, due to the blocking or absence of inner forms or imagery that can connect with such experience".[xi] The intricate webs comprising our world are complex. Ever increasing computing capacity permits us to model extremely complex systems and to detect elegant patterns. Nonlinear systems (see also complexity, chaos, Madelbrot sets)possess some unique characteristics including inflection points (see also attractors, repellors, bifurcations) where sudden, large changes in behavior result from small changes in conditions of a a stable system. Catastrophe theory, a branch of bifurcation mathematics, demonstrates that bifurcations are in fact part of a large well defined geometric structure. Carl Freidrich Guass laid the foundation for these discoveries but the ability to model such complex systems had to wait for the invention of supercomputers.

Our ability to recognize patterns, create accurate models, and decipher complexity on our own has limits.[xii]Rebecca Costa suggests there are five common supermemes that we should understand because of their limiting effects upon our capacity to reason. These include: irrational opposition, counterfeit correlation, personalization of blame, silo thinking, and extreme economics.[xiii] Time magazine recently suggested that people like Rebecca Costa might be able to solve the world's biggest problems (http://tinyurl.com/6fz6uuu). The rest of us may need to acknowledge that the sheer complexity of the ecological crisis combined with our own psychological complexity often exceeds our capacity to understand.

There a practical ecopsychology developing that might equip us to navigate through the treacherous times with greater understanding. Ultimately it may also preserve us. First, we will need to acknowledge that the planet and many of its inhabitants are being placed at risk by the impact our species has upon the environment. There is an ecopsychological unconscious, and like all unconscious material, it resists exposure and yields its fruits reluctantly. Those of us who live in the technologically advanced first world must make sure that we keep contact with the wilderness. An earlier blog (May 31, 2010) addressed the diminishing wilderness of childhood and readers may want to read an excerpt from Chabon's Manhood for Amateurs.[xiv] A practical ecopsychology will provide tools for working through the despair and psychic numbing that so easily overwhelms us. Out of the fertile fields of ecopsychology will emerge ecotherapeutic techniques and understanding that can be expected to equip us to participate in the healing that we all need.[xv] In 1973, Our Bodies, Ourselves[xvi] became a feminist canon through its empowering, educational message. The time has come for Our Planet, Ourselves that might collect the expanse of ideas that intersect with ecopsychology.

The confluence of many shaping influences unite many archetypal energies forming a bedrock for further psychological explorations. A river's delta provides a good metaphor for region where complexes, archetypes, and outer come together. In the delta fresh water and salt water meet and mix. In the ecopsychological delta, conscious and unconscious, interior and exterior, introject and projection combine and create a limen realm where the participation mystique more easily is detected. Jung wrote, "PARTICIPATION MYSTIQUE is a term derived from Lévy-Bruhl. It denotes a peculiar kind of psychological connection with objects, and consists in the fact that the subject cannot clearly distinguish himself from the object but is bound to it by a direct relationship which amounts to partial identity."[xvii] It is tempting to oscillate between extreme impressions of the world. Between Cormac MacCarthy's The Road[xviii] and Fox's recent Fall series Terra Nova with a tagline of "There is no paradise without sacrifice" we encounter repeated apocalyptic scenarios alongside utopian ones.[xix][xx] [xxi]. KIA Motors produced a Superbowl commercial last year that exploited apocalyptic images of the Mayan Prophecy. The appearance of such impressions in popular culture points toward the chthonic psychic regions, the places where archetypes reside. Paul Ricouer observed that utopias function to develop "new, alternative perspectives".[xxii] And some of our most compelling utopian literature actually present dystopias (Brave New World, Nineteen eighty-four, Fahrenheit 451).These days anyone can turn on a computer and create their own utopia (SimCity). IMDb, the movie database, has compiled a list of the top 50 Post-Apocalyptic movies (http://www.imdb.com/list/2WCgJcXeSEQ/). The images and impressions of a global consciousness, of an ecopsychological dimension are everywhere.

A recent favorite of mine is AVATAR. James Cameron's creation of the Navi, a large, lithe, colorful, and powerful race of humanoid creatures with tails. These tails, symbolizes the Navi's sustained connection to their world and hints of a noble savage. From the opening minutes of the film the there are rumbles and rhythms of mechanization that contrasts with a perky newscaster announcing the comeback of the nearly extinct Bengal tiger we are presented with competing impressions of soulless exploitation of the planet's resources by an interplanetary corporation and the soulful natives and their planetary conscious ways. By the end of the movie our sympathies are powerfully attached to the Navi. Apart from the symbolism of the Navi's tail, it is the physical means by which they experience a deep empathic connection to their world, it is the vehicle for their participation mystiqeu. As if these images alone were not enough, Cameron chose for his protagonist a physically disabled man injured in battle. He seems to be telling us of our woundedness, our disability, and our hope for restoration. In the final scene of AVATAR, the viewer is left believing that the protagonist has made a final and complete transformation from man to Navi. The movie's ability to arouse archetypal energies of both apocalypse and utopia is gripping. But the promise that WE might experience such a deep connection to the biosphere as the protagonist is even more compelling.

Ecopsychology is unlikely to deliver some well wrapped experiences of connectedness like we get in the movies but perhaps it can provide a guide for the journey. This is journey that began in an idyllic garden to which it one day hopes to return.

INVITATION

Take a moment to reflect on the impressions that reside in your own psyche of this world, your place in it, and the planetary images and impressions that you have encountered. Perhaps it is a dream, a piece of art, a moment of communion with nature. As we share our stories, we may help one another to awaken to something deep within that also is suffused outside. If we hope to develop a consciousness spacious enough for the biosphere it must include one another. Share your stories here.

Len Cruz

[i] Roszak, Theodore, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner. Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1995 (page xix).

[ii] Scull, John. "Ecopsychology: Where Does It Fit in Psychology in 2009?." The Trumpeter Fall 2008: 68-85. The Trumpeter. Web. 8 Oct. 2011.

[iii] Singer, Thomas. "The Cultural Complex and Archetypal Defenses of the Collective Spirit | Psyche-and-culture | Articles." IAAP. IAAP, 19 June 2005. Web. 08 Oct. 2011. <http://iaap.org/articles/psyche-and-culture/the-cultural-complex-and-archetypal-defenses-of-the-collective-spirit.html>.

[iv] Fromm, Erich (1964). The Heart of Man. Harper & Row.,

[v] Wilson, Edward O. (1984). Biophilia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-07442-4.

[vi] Næss, Arne (1973) 'The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement.' Inquiry 16: 95-100

[vii] Chalquist, Craig (2007) Terrapsychology, New Orleans, Spring Journal Books. ISBN-10: 1882670655

[viii] Clinebell, H. 1996. Ecotherapy: Healing ourselves, healing the earth. New York: Haworth Press.

[ix] Chalquist, Craig. "The Environmental Crisis is a Crisis of Consciousness." Terrapsych.com - serving the animate presence of place. Terrapsych.com, n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. Terrapsychology: Re-engaging the Soul of Place. New Orleans: Spring Journal, 2007.)

[x] Watkins, Mary . "On Returning to the Soul of the World: Archetypal Psychology and Cultural/Ecological Work." Terrapsych.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. <www.terrapsych.com/Watkins.

[xi] Lifton, Robert Jay (March 1968). "America in Vietnam—The circle of deception". Society 5 (4).

[xii] Costa, Rebecca D. The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way out of Extinction. New York: Vanguard, 2010.

[xiii] Costa, Rebecca D. The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction. New York: Vanguard Press, 2010.

[xiv] Chabon, Michael. "Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood by Michael Chabon | The New York Review of Books." New York Times Review of Books. New York Times, 16 July 2009. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jul/16/manhood-for-amateurs-the-wilderness-of-childhood/>

[xv] Buzzell, Linda, and Craig Chalquist. Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 2009.

[xvi] Our Bodies, Ourselves. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973.

[xvii] Jung, C.G. ([1921] 1971) Paragraph 781. Psychological Types, Collected Works, Volume 6, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

[xviii] McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

[xix] Geus, Marius De. Ecological Utopias: Envisioning the Sustainable Society. Utrecht, the Netherlands: International, 1999.

[xx] Thiele, L. P. 2000. Book Review: de Geus, M. 1999. Ecological Utopias: Envisioning the sustainable society. International Books, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Conservation Ecology 4(1): 18. [online] URL:http://www.consecol.org/vol4/iss1/art18/

[xxi] Gues, Marius de. Ectopia, sustainability, and vision. Organization & Environment. Vol: 15:2, 187-201Jun 2002. Web. October 7, 2011.

[xxii] Ricoeur, Paul. Lectures on Ideology and Utopia. Ed. George H. Taylor. New York:

Columbia UP, 1986.

Additional Recommended Readings:

Bateson, Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New York: Ballantine, 1972.

Buber, Martin, and Ronald Gregor. Smith. I and Thou. New York, NY: Scribner, 2000.

Capra, Fritjof. The Hidden Connections. London: Flamingo, 2003.

Capra, Fritjof. The Web of Life: a New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. New York: Anchor, 1996.

Chivian, Eric, and Aaron Bernstein. Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008.

Matthiessen, Peter. Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

McKibben, Bill. Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age. New York: Times, 2003.

Singer, Thomas. Psyche & the City: A Soul's Guide to the Modern Metropolis. New Orleans: Spring Journal, 2010.

Suzuki, David, and Amanada McConnell. The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature. Vancouver, BC: Greystone, 2007.

Walljasper, Jay. All That We Share: How to save the Economy, the Environment, the Internet, Democracy, Our Communities, and Everything Else That Belongs to All of Us. New York: New, 2010.

Wilson, Edward O. Consilience: the Unity of Knowledge. New York: Knopf, 1998.

Community and Social Media

2011-08-13T04:16:00.000-07:00

What sort of community does social media engender? Deriving from a very transient media that prizes immediacy over deliberation, the sense of community that social media produces is large on appearance but short on substance. Perhaps this helps explain how mobs of individuals can suddenly band together as if they are a single organism without any real, substantive intention.

The same superficial sense of community that can be ignited in a flash mob can also easily be exploited by politicians, disaffected groups, terrorist enterprises, and corporations seeking to manufacture tastes among consumers.

If the immediacy and speed with which community can form in the internet age is the persona, then perhaps violent, mindless collective actions like those displayed by a mobs, the Tea Party activists, terrorists, or youngsters attending a rave are shadow aspects of communities in the internet age.This discussion stirred some thoughts concerning the sort of community that social media engenders. Deriving from a very transient media that prizes immediacy over deliberation, the sense of community that social media produces is large on appearance but short on substance. Perhaps this helps explain how mobs of individuals can suddenly band together as if they are a single organism without any real, substantive intention.

José Martí

2011-04-24T15:54:00.001-07:00

José Martí was a national hero in Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain. He was also a poet, essayist, philosopher, & journalist.

Peregrino por el mundo con una lira, una pluma y una espada. Cantó, habló, combatió: dejó por todas partes chispas de su numen, rasgos de su fantasía, pedazos de su corazón; pero en cualquier ruta, por todos los senderos, su vista estaba fíia en la solitaria estrella, que simboliza su honda y perptua aspiración de hogar y patria. De su poesía se exhale un perfume sutil la nostalgia del desterrado. Cuando su pluma corre sin freno sobre el papel, cuando su palabra se desborda desde la tribuna, adivina qué lo aguija, qué lo impulsa, la visión distante de Cuba que lo llama, y le pide que escriba para ella, y alumbre las conciencias y encienda los corazónes. Aquí está la nota profunda de su alma y la unidad perfecta de su vida. Martí poeta, orador, catedrático, agente consular, periodista, agitador, conspirador, estadista y soldado, no fue en el fondo y siempre sino Martí patriota. (Enrique José Varona)

Helen Mirren's Prospera & Lessons on Crafting the Persona

2011-03-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

Helen Mirren’s Prospera & Lessons on Crafting the Persona

Written on March 6, 2011 by LenCruz for The Asheville Jung Center Blog

Helen Miren’s portrayal of Prospera in The Tempest was recently featured in the Life & Arts section of the Financial Times (http://tinyurl.com/48tx2pg). The film adaptation by Julie Taymor gender-bends the roles and Mirren delivers Prospero’s famous line:

“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air…”.

No doubt Helen Mirren’s Prospera injected something quite different into Shakespeare’s character and it was Mirren’s idea to flip the genders. So what has this to do with Jung’s concept of persona?

In Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction Murray Stein discussion of shadow and persona makes these two rich, complicated contents of psyche approachable. He likens shadow and persona to twins that “… are usually more or less opposites of one another…” Persona is a complex that “… possesses considerable autonomy and is not under the full control of the ego. Once in role, the actor rattles off his or her lines willy-nilly and often without much consciousness”. But Mirren took a traditionally male role and breathed her own special, evocative spirit into Prospero and it became Prospera. In this liminal domain, where actors impose a higher than usual degree of intentionality, where there is a descent into a well crafted character, we may gain insights about individuation as it relates to the persona.

According to Dr. Stein “The persona makes casual social interaction go more easily…” Jung acknowledges that while we are not all “multiple personalities” we do show “traces of character splitting” (Jung, Coll Wks., Vol.6, par.799.). There is some fluidity to the degree of identification the ego has with different roles it plays. Stein notes that role identification is “… generally motivated by ambition and social aspiration”. It seems that the ego does not deliberately chose to identify with a particular persona but this is where Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Prospera informs us of a new possibility.

Dr. Stein notes that there a two pitfalls that can occur in the development of the persona, over-identification that involves undue adaptation to the social world and the failure to pay enough attention to the external object world thereby becoming too involved with the inner world. He goes on to point out that with age, new personas appear. But this suggests a passive process.
Perhaps that is all we can hope for, that our persona might keep pace with the changing demands of life, our own aging process, and the changing demands of society. But if Helen Mirren can shed new light on Prospero, then I have hope of injecting new life into the character of Len.
Persona is a complex and therefore, easy to relegate to the domains governed by unconscious forces. But let me attempt to illuminate persona with conscious intention. The actor must strike a balance between her own personality and the portrayal of the character she plays. We may use a similar approach to work upon our persona. Beyond the passive appearance of the persona lies our capacity to craft the persona like actors do. Such an enterprise may promote the process of individuation.

What I am proposing is reminiscent of the effort by ego-psychologists to extend classical psychoanalytic theory. We can endeavor, through conscious, intentional effort, to fashion a persona informed by other analytic work.

On March 31, 2011, Dr. Murray Stein will present “Caring for the Soul: An Introduction to Jungian Psychotherapy for Patients & Therapists”.

For more information http://ashevillejungcenter.org/upcoming-events/ . Whether or not you expect to attend the conference you will find Dr. Stein’s book, Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction a valuable resource for understanding Jung’s extensive body of writings. In the introduction to the book, Dr. Stein quotes one of my favorite authors (therefore the dual translation):

“You could timidly explore the coasts of Africa to the south, but going west there was nothing except fear, the unknown, not “our sea” but the Sea of Mystery, Mare Ignotum.”
Carlos Fuentes The Buried Mirror

“Se podía explorar tímidamente las costas de África hacia el sur, pero hacia el oeste no había nada más que miedo, no «nuestro mar» sino el Mar de Misterio, Mare Ignotum.”
Carlos Fuentes El espejo enterrado

Se encuentra la primera parte del libro “El Mapa del Alma Según Jung” en la página del internet http://www.adepac.org/P06-90.htm .

Len Cruz, MD

Remebrance of Things Past

2011-03-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

Remembrance of Things Past

A friend of mine who has lost two parents and a brother in the past half dozen years recently began to reconnect with friends from his high school days. As I listened to him tell me about some of the things this had brought up, ideas occurred to me that I wanted to share because they reflect some principles we can all learn from.

The ensemble of characters cast in the dramas of their early years, now often referred to as the family of origin, were not cast in those roles for the rest of our lives. My friend's recent losses awakened in him a new found willingness to fashion a different ensemble of characters, one better suited to today. My friend's brother suffered a severe, persistent mental illness for more than forty years depriving my friend of many aspects of brotherly love he might otherwise have enjoyed. My friend was recreating a family.
We have all heard stories of individuals who overcome the wounds of childhood through a corrective experience in their adult years. A man who suffered unspeakable abuse from a tyrannical father is watched over by a teacher, a coach, or a boss and before long his pain is assuaged and the wounds begin to heal. Or perhaps we hear of a woman subjected to vicious and belittle attacks from a mother whose tenuous self-esteem was sustained by denigrating her defenseless daughter who is made right by a teacher or coworker who sees past the wounds to a realm the woman scarcely knew existed. There is a deep hunger to be mothered or fathered that does not leave us when we leave the first cast of characters in our life. But even when the stories are not so dire there we may benefit from a willing to keep an open casting call for characters in the current dramas of our life.
Principle 1: The opportunity to replace the members of our cast is often missed.

One of the guys with whom my friend had connected was a Jewish friend who had been a close buddy in grade school. They grew up in a town that was predominantly Irish and Italian. One day when the boys were in sixth grade, my friend said something anti-Semitic to hurt his Jewish friend's feelings. They must have gotten past it at the time because they remained acquaintances and partied together and high together in high school.
Nearly forty years later, these two boys reconnected and my friend took a courageous step by bringing up that fateful day when they were in sixth grade and he said something at changed their friendship forever. My friend apologized! His buddy let him know in the clearest way he knew that he did not even remember the remark or the day in question. My friend apologized again trying to reassure his high school mate that he did not grow up to be an anti-Semite. The guy told my friend he should let it go and that if he was seeking forgiveness for a crime that was not even remembered, he had it!
This brings me to another principle revealed in my friend's recent rekindling of high school friendships. We carry into our adult years countless regrets, shaming moments, and things that weigh us down. My friend was fortunate to have had the chance to surrender one of those ancient afflictions. But what about all the ones he carries that involve people he may never see again. If our capacity to release ourselves from neurotic guilt depends on the person we wronged or failed when we were younger we are likely to miss opportunities to release the flotsam and jetsam of our past.
if you were to meet someone from your past, someone you had wronged or injured consider, what can we expect. Perhaps like my friend, you would discover you had made a mountain out of a molehill and that the aggrieved party did not even remember the event that had weighed you down. Of course, your actions might have had a profound and untoward impact upon the person you wronged. If that is the case, you will find that they have either worked through the matter or they may have carried that wound around like a disfiguring scar. (I am assuming that you have outgrown, transcended, suspended, or otherwise dealt with whatever behavior or tendency that caused you to behave badly. If not, you may deserve suffer a bit.) But if you have changed from the person you were, then you need not carry around neurotic guilt.
Principle 2: Don't wait to meet the person you've wronged to receive the forgiveness you need!

My friend was deeply moved by the fact that many of his friends had traversed similar paths In their lives as the ones he had traversed. In several instances, he was aware of forks in the road of life where he and the newly rediscovered friends had similar choices to make or challenges to meet. What he learned was that while each one of us has a story that is unique many of the elements of our story turn out to be universal. It is a good idea to remember that our story is uniquely ours. But it also helps to remember that our story is likely to have quite a bit in common with other's stories. Principle 3: What happens to us is seldom a first nor will it be a last.

Finally, my friend admitted to ambivalent feelings about the way his high school friends were reaching out to him. He had missed a high school reunion and his friend. One of them told my friend how much that he and a few of others had wanted to get together again and include him. My friend admitted that the prospects of rekindling these old acquaintances as real friendships provoked a mixture of feelings he was was unprepared for. He was deeply touched by their longing to be close but like Pandora's box, the invitation had loosed a fury of old maladies. He felt some of the same emotions he thought he had left behind in high school. I don't know whether my friend will take another step toward intimacy with his old chums; I hope he does. No matter how old we are, some of the same struggles to love and be loved will hang around. The question will one day become clear that we don't have to act like we did when we youngsters. Regardless of what he chooses, there was a lesson revealed in his ambivalence.
Principle 4: Be real, follow your heart, and open your heart to love.

Home and Archteype: A Book Review of "At Home in the World"

2011-01-28T04:48:00.000-08:00

Home and Archetype: A Review of “At Home in the World”

When John Hill performed the role of Father Victor White in The Jung-White Letters, he seemed possessed by the spirit of the man. In John Hill’s recent publication, At Home in the World: Sounds and Symmetries of Belonging, leaves me wondering if he has now been possessed by an entire cloud of witnesses comprised of Irish poets spanning centuries. There is a lyrical quality that pervades the book and the publisher, Spring Journal Books, has done a marvelous job with the layout, cover design, the references, and every detail of the book. Perhaps John Hill pulled his inspiration from a Fairy fort but the result is magical.

At Home in the World

As the February 4th conference Architecture of the Soul: The Inner & Outer Structures of C G Jung, (with Murray Stein & Andreas Jung) approaches, this is a timely read. Hill’s scholarship is systematic and rigorous, but the book is replete with powerful and evocative language. Hill gently weaves into the text many others who have shaped and influenced him like Paul Ricouer, Ernst Cassirer, along with one of my favorite fiction writers, Jhumpa Lahiri. The thesis of his book may appear self-evident but I could not have imagined the depth and breadth of material I found in this book.

John Hill has been practicing Jungian Psychoanalysis for forty years and it shows. He has been devoted to matters of the spirit even longer. The reader will enjoy the subtle, perceptive way Hill incorporates clinical material from client’s dreams and narratives. It is refreshing to encounter a writer who also lays himself bare to the reader without crossing the line into self-indulgence that can easily become a spectacle. This is an analyst who comprehends that self-disclosure, even within the pages of a book, can be a powerful tool and unwieldy tool.
Modernity has ushered in unprecedented opportunities for homeowners to furnish their in a cohesive style sold as a package. Some furniture retailers make it easy to avoid making mistake by standardizing entire groupings of furnishings. IKEA is not unique in its ability to commoditize home furnishings and to impart a sense to its customers that a unique look can be achieved on a budget. The sheer volume and global reach of an IKEA testifies to the inclination to make a home unique through elements that are in fact standardized. Such a home, according to Hill, “….is without a soul.”

In contrast, we will have the opportunity coming up on February 4th to participate in a conference whose outer, visible subject is

The House of Jung

The Home of C. G. Jung. After reading Hill’s, At Home in the World: Sounds and Symmetries of Belonging, I suspect the upcoming conference presented through Asheville Jung Center will end up being about our own magnum opus, our home. We each approach this differently, just as we each approach the magnum opus of our individuation differently. For some, the reliance on a standard assortment of furnishings provides a personal space that avoid too much personal disclosure but also impedes personal discovery. For others, the home provides a platform of self-expression. There are homes I have entered where I could sense the disconnection between the soul of its inhabitants and the structure itself. There are limitless permutations for combining the inner dimensions of our being and the outer structure of our home. And according to John Hill, “When a home becomes a mere product, dissociated from one’s own personal and collective history, it is probably in danger of losing its soul.” (pg11)
Some individuals delight in assembling elements into a home. They strive for that ineluctable symmetry between the inner call of the soul and the outer manifestation of their home. When we speak of homemaking as a function of managing the household we miss the much deeper connection between the demands of keeping things going in a family and the making of a home. Hill notes, “We live in a world that offers us two different ways of seeing it — one functional and the other symbolic.” (pg47) It seems there as many different modus operandi for fashioning a home as there are styles of composition, materials and technique for the artist.

Good teachers like John Hill convey complex subjects in clearly understandable ways. The five or six pages on transference provide a good illustration and despite their conciseness Hill does not sacrifice the rich, evocative quality of his prose.

Images alone do not necessarily address key psychological issues or cross the great divide between Thou and I … (pg112)

Often in the deep constellations of transference and countertransference, the client finds the opportunities to relive much of the past. … The analyst must realize that he cannot indulge in the fantasy of providing a home for all those who need one. (pg113)

I live on the hyphen as a Cuban-American. My soul has one foot firmly planted in the United States of America where I was born while the other foot, the one possessed of dreams of return to an island I have never known, has nowhere to step. Countless others share my experience of life on the hyphen. The nations that bookend their hyphen do not separate us nearly as much as the hyphen unites us. We who are hyphenated are a diaspora in our own right. We are caught between two homes the one we left and the one where we dwell. But we are all likely to find ourselves somewhere along the continuum of a home we have known, a home we know now, and a home that awaits us.

Salmon Rushdie writes that, “Exile is a dream of a glorious return.” Like Odysseus, we may find ourselves in a seemingly endless pursuit of a return home. John Hill reveals to us some of the personal details of his own life away from his native Ireland without being mawkish. At Home in the World would be wonderful preparation for the upcoming conference Architecture of the Soul: The Inner & Outer Structures of CG Jung, (with Murray Stein & Andreas Jung). It will also be a great resource for anyone interested in the psychological implications and underpinnings of home from a Jungian perspective.

John Hill gave a gifted performance of Father Victor White in The Jung White Letters that moved me to examine the chords that resonated through Jung’s relationship with Sigmund Freud and later Father White. It also deeply moved me to consider what chords resonate through my relationships with men in my life. Now At Home in the World has moved me to examine from a fresh perspective my relationship to place. It has stirred a renewed interest in exploring the spaces and structures, past, present, and future that are called home in my life. Hill’s last paragraph reads like a closing hymn in prose and here he reveals a dream that arrived as he brought the book to completion.

… All at once the dream flashed across my mind, and I “knew” what it was trying to say.
…The house was my book on home. The brickwork symbolized the thoughts and ideas of others who had influenced me, and contributed to its making. The rough-hewn stones indicated that the work was connected with my identity.
… I have built the house from the materials of the earth. It is a house that contains, but it is also open to the world and to the spirit. Hopefully it can be an object of delight and contemplation, not just for me, but also for all who have crossed its threshold, so that you, dear reader, may appreciate your own home in new and creative ways.

Invitation
Take a moment to consider the word “home”. Let your imagination run free and let yourself be transported to homes you have occupied, homes you have wished to occupy, homes you have left, homes you have awaiting you in the future. Consider what home means in your interior life and notice where the interior experience or awareness of home is in sync with the structure you call home and where the two seem out of sync. Please consider posting a comment about “home” so that we might open the doors and let one another peak in.

Len Cruz, MD

CROESUS SYNDROME: The Shadow in Psychotherapy

2011-01-16T07:50:00.000-08:00

CROESUS SYNDROME: The Shadow in Psychotherapy
What, if anything, can the psychoanalyst or psychotherapist do to contend with the shadow aspects of their professional persona?   This is by no means a universal concern among psychotherapists for several reasons. Certainly there are many persons practicing forms of psychotherapy that do not regard the unconscious as their concern at all. Behavioral, cognitive, and solutions-oriented therapies, to name a few, have no need of the unconscious. I am reminded of one of my supervisors in residency who attempted to encourage me to face facts squarely about a certain repeated conflict I was experiencing.

He pointed out:
"It's entirely up to you whether or not you choose to ignore reality; the question is, will reality ignore you?".

Likewise, modern therapies that emphasize ego adaptation are free to ignore the unconscious; the question remains; however, will the unconscious ignore the therapy?

A psychotherapist in training is more likely to remain in contact with their unconscious. Formal supervision, whether or not it intends to examine the psychotherapist's unconscious, may provide a measure of scrutiny to the psychotherapist's unconscious process. Ideally, supervision imparts to the psychotherapist a praxis and a habit for such examination.   This may then develop into a continuing process of self-examination that will serve both therapist and clients in the future.reality this is where reality frequently diverge from the ideal objectives of training.
There are no formal requirements that the psychotherapist remain in supervision. Instead, there is a tacit implication that a figure has arisen in the psychotherapist whose function becomes supervisor in abstentia. It seems highly unlikely that if this figure ever really coalesced that it will be preserved. There are many reasons why such an interior figure is likely to atrophy or die.   Chief among the reasons for this figure either never fully developing or atrophying is what I shall call the Croesus Syndrome.

Croesus was King of Lyda from 560 BC to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians. He is credited with being the first to introduce gold coinage of a standard weight and purity. His wealth and power was vast and before setting out on his campaign against Cyrus of Persia, he consulted the Delphic Oracle.

Consulting the Oracle by John William Waterhouse

The message provided by the Oracle took it's usual cryptic form. Croesus was told that if he campaigned against Cyrus of Persia a great empire would fall and he was further advised to align himself with the most powerful Greek state. He struck alliances with Sparta among others and set off. As was the custom, Croesus disbanded his army when winter arrived. Cyrus did not and he attacked Croesus in Sardis. Croesus then understood the great empire that the oracle foretold would be destroyed was his own empire. Such is often the fate of the psychotherapist who endeavors to cultivate an interior figure that serve as supervisor in abstentia.

Like Croesus, that psychotherapist seeks the oracle's message but the psychotherapist's dreams, associations, and active imagination yield their mysteries in cryptic form. And also like Croesus, the psychotherapist suffers a predictable inclination toward interpreting his or her unconscious material in accord with their conscious, more acceptable understanding. Notice that the psychotherapist's shadow need not be included in this process.  In fact, the shadow elements of the psychotherapist will further resemble Croesus's tale in that its unacknowledged state may be credited with the failures of the campaign, the psychotherapy or psychoanalysis itself.

CHALLENGE
I have some ideas of what may be done about this predicament but I am interested in knowing what other therapists think about this dilemma and how others endeavor to address it.

But I encourage you to explore the idea for yourself.

Len Cruz, MD

Architecture of the Soul: Inner & Outer Structures of C. G. Jung

2011-01-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

On February 4, 2011, Dr. Murray Stein will present a conference together with Andreas Jung, in collaboration with the Asheville Jung Center titled “Architecture of the Soul: Inner and Outer Structures of C. G. Jung”. Andreas Jung is an architect whose father and great uncle were also architects. He is a graduate of Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ) and currently lives in the home on Seestrasse.

C. G. Jung was intimately involved in the design of this home and attended to such things as the cladding upon the walls that provided deeply niched windows and lovely inset glass cabinets in the dining room. Andreas Jung authors two very personal chapters and serves as the co-editor of the book.

Arthur Rüegg, a professor of architecture at ETHZ, opens one of the chapter titled “Living in a Museum?” with the following rendering:

The house of Carl Gustav Jung is without a doubt the physical expression of a great mind.

In 1906, while still “an impecunious assistant medical director at the Burghölzi mental home in Zürich”, Jung wrote to his cousin, architect Ernst Fietcher, of his plans “… to build a house someday, in the country near Zürich, on the lake”. It was the untimely death of Emma Jung’s father that allowed the couple to build the home. The Jungs worked closely with the architect and landscape architects on the design.

Three generations of Jung’s have lived in this home that is now owned by a foundation (Stiftung C. G. Jung Küsnacht). Two of those generations of inhabitants were “…families who could read these traces and respectfully carry on the tradition.” (p 90). The history of the house and it’s renovations is crisply and artfully presented.

What emerges from the pages of The House of C. G. Jung is a portrait of an intentional man who demonstrated an uncanny ability to move between the worlds of the mythopoetic interior life and the tangible, concrete realms. It should be no surprise that the man who constructed the Tower at Bollingen would have built a home worthy of memorializing. Jung gave attention to details such as wall hangings, tile selection and placement of the rooms where he conducted analysis so as not to displace Emma from the library and interfere with her work.

The chapter “Living in a museum?” reads like a patient’s anamnesis as it reviews the homes history and developmental influences. The reader is reminded that homes, like organic things, change and adapt to their circumstances and their inhabitants. Despite several major renovations through the last century, the respect and regard for the original home was preserved. The home is a testament to what concentrated self-examination and openness to the individuation process can produce. It is the biography of a house that is no less impressive for what it reveals or the man who built it.

Architecture and psychology are first cousins. Consider a few quotes assembled from several renown architects:

“Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.” Le Corbusier

“The home should be the treasure chest of living.” Le Corbusier

“Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun.” Frank Lloyd Wright

“Form follow function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.” Frank Lloyd Wright

“Freedom is from within.” Frank Lloyd Wright

“The heart is the chief feature of a functioning mind.” Frank Lloyd Wright

“Architecture is the will of the epoch translated into structure.” Ludwig Miles van der Rohe

Invitation: The house that “you” built

Take a moment to consider the space you inhabit, whether it is a home, office, apartment, or just a room. Examine it for details that reflect aspects of your interior life. Where do you see function pronouncing itself and where does aesthetic seem to announce itself? Examine the space for signs and signifiers of your individuated self and for signs of where your individuation is ensnared in its effort to emerge.

Compose a work of your own that reflects the house you have built. If you feel so moved, please share those reflections with others in our community by posting a comment on this blog. If you are planning to attend the seminar on February 4, “Architecture of the Soul: Inner and Outer Structures of C. G. Jung”. then this exercise might be a useful preparation, like tilling the soil before the planting.

Len Cruz, MD

The Spiders of Allah

2010-12-29T14:15:00.000-08:00

The Spiders of Allah
By James Hider

Thankfully, I have not witnessed war firsthand but have relied on journalists Ike James Hider to escort me through the raw, pock-marked landscape of violent human conflict. Hider is to be commended for the understated manner by which he uses his unbeliever status to frame his engaging narrative of the Middle East during the past decade.

Unbridled, zealous belief so often undergirds violence between peoples that it might seem hackneyed to write another book on the subject. But this is a collection of personal stories that transcends political rhetoric, avoids hyperbole, and avoids oversimplification. At times Hider offers unusual Biblical references that bring to life Santayana's famous quote about those of us who do not learn from history being destined to repeat it. At other times, Hider describes primitive, pre-scientific beliefs among the Iraqis that are at once entertaining and disheartening. How can we continue to believe our Western style democracy will ever take root and flourish in such an environment.

A wartime journalist must seek to balance vivid, horrific details that satisfy prurient interests and stories that preserve to prevent their readers from becoming anesthetized. Over thirty years of practicing psychiatry I have treated many individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder but the number of persons suffering extreme trauma in the Middle East (including American and European personnel) is unimaginable to me.

Within weeks of 9/11 I was convinced that The Patriot Act, the march to war in Iraq, and many other events was proof that the terrorist attack was America's Reichstag fire. In fact, I briefly composed a basket of stocks chosen by investigating the corporate relationships of Vice President Cheney (his wife) and Cabinet members like Rumsfeld. The basket of stocks rose dramatically in the years following the attacks on the Twin Towers. My wife forbid me from actually investing in this basket of stocks that would profit from massive bloodshed and human suffering. My conspiratorial ideas may reflect an effort to find meaning from senseless violence. But Hider's broader vision of history is seasoned in real life, face to face encounters with Middle Easterners.

The Spiders of Allah is infused with a sense of destiny. For instance, in Karbala, during the holiest Shia holiday, James Hider and his girlfriend, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro (aka Lulu), a reporter for National Public Radio, are subjected to a search as they enter their hotel. They are nearly banished from town when Lulu is discovered to have a bottle of wine in her bag. The pair secure their release for fewer than ten dollars and the following day they are on the scene of terrible carnage when more than one dozen suicide bombers execute their brutal attack. Hider juxtaposes the calm demeanor of a young Shia sheikh whose religious joy belies the loss of his cousin, who hours earlier was blown apart by one of the blasts. Maybe Hider and Garcia-Navarro do not see that their commitment to reliable, honest journalism shares a heritage with the religious fervor of the young sheikh and other believers.

The Spiders of Allah opens with a slightly self conscious voice but by the end of the book, Hider gives the readers a chapter titled, "Creatures of the Id" wherein he muses and speculates about the abhorrent features of human nature that lead us to fight. The last chapters are free of self consciousness and they provide a window into how war correspondents resolve the exquisite and insane circumstances they encounter. I have been a fan of Garcia-Navarro's reporting on NPR for years and Hider's book is the sort of firsthand narrative that can only be written by persons like this pair who travel at the margins where history is made.

The book is missing the most important chapter in the lives of Hider and Garcia-Navarro that was written after the book was published. Earlier this year they were married.

Not Totally Rad: Waking Up is Hard to Do

2010-10-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

Seldom do I repost this sort of thing but this one was clever, well done, and not offensive. Enjoy.
Not Totally Rad: Waking Up is Hard to Do

The Female Trickster: A Post-modern, Post-Jungian Feminist Perspective on an Old Archetype

2010-10-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

The Female Trickster

For inexplicable reasons, lawyers are the purveyors of some of my recent reading material. One is Justice Antonin Scalia and the other is Dr. Ricki Tannen, a lawyer who refashioned herself as a depth psychologist. If the skills of rhetoric and argumentation interest you, then you may enjoy Justice Scalia’s Making Your Case . Whereas, Dr. Tannen’s, “The Female Trickster”, is a comprehensive revisioning of the trickster archetype through the lens of a feminist, postmodern theorist. She has published scholarly material in the area of feminist legal theory. She displays a sound understanding of how patriarchal structures can subjugate the feminine but this is neither a political rant or a stridently feminist contribution. It is a well crafted, timely addition to the study of archetypal psychology.

Books that purport to be post-modern turn me off and to claim the status of Post-Jungian only aggravates this irritation. Ordinarily, the appearance of post-modern, or post-Jungian dissuades me from any further approach. I am glad I didn’t allow “The Female Trickster: The Mask That Reveals~Post-Jungian and Postmodern Psychological Perspectives on Women in Contemporary Culture” halt my pursuit.

Dr. Tannen recently moved to Asheville and I am looking forward to meeting her soon. She studied law at the University of Florida (my undergraduate alma mater) and has published on various topics in feminist legal theory. She went on to complete doctoral work at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Depth Psychology.

If you are asking why I am featuring this book, it is because when a new, feminist voice appears on the scene, it deserves to be acknowledged. Tannen’s is a new voice. Listen to some phrases from her book. “Tricksters preside over moments of passage, rupture and transformation”. This is surely not a new idea. But the female trickster embodies “psychological authority, physical agency, and bodily autonomy”. That is a revolutionary idea. Tannen proposes that the subversive, strategic use of humor along with a refusal to identify herself as a victim, are defining features of the female tickster. Three female sleuths, V. I. Warshawski, Kinsey Millhone, Kate Shugak, serve as three exemplars of the means by which popular literature transmutes “imagination into reality” in ways that transform the individual and collective consciousness. The books scholarship is broad and imposing enough to justify owning it. But scholarship alone would not have moved me to devote a blog entry to this book.

There are books that proclaim with a deep, authentic voice a message that changes my understanding of the world. Years ago, In a Different Voice (Gilligan), Women’s Growth in Connection (Jordan, et al), Toward a New Psychology of Women(Baker Miller), and Jane Eyre (Brontë) caused the tectonic plates of relationship to the feminine to shift. The Female Trickster joined the canon of writings by women that transformed my appreciation of The Second Sex (this was not meant as commentary, but I could not overlook this title).

Is there an archetype associated with the postmodern period? Is there room for a post-Jungian persepctive? I am skeptical of any proposition that a new archetype has emerged. I understand archetype as the substratum of psychic content that cuts across the ages, trascends cultures, and plunges deeper than an historical context can fathom. But I want to remain open minded to the notion that just as our species evolves (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-we-are-evolving) our psychic structures may be evolving.

If I have a criticism of The Female Trickster, it is that the chapter titled “Where have all the virgins gone?” was too brief a survey of the ancestral origins of the female trickster archetype. I suspect that the female trickster has declared herself in ages past. The ineffable realms of feminine intuition and ways of knowing has aroused fear and suspicion in patriarchal culture again and again. Perhaps because the effort to suppress female trickster energy has been so successful, the chapter was as extensive as it could be. My objection to the concept of a new archetype were mollified by Tannen’s liberal use of phrases like female trickster energy rather than archetype.

Tannen uses the Female Sleuth (detective) as an example of the female trickster and she enriches that example with other popular characters from Sex and the City and pop music. Dr. Tannen has something to say. It is something profoundly important for our time. The female trickster is inherently complete and her proclivity for social work in the world is a defining characteristic.

I have a personal affinity for the trickster motif and friends, colleagues, loved ones have ascribed trickster qualities to me. Tannen’s understands the trickster’s clever use of humor that permits simultaneous challenges to the established structures while remaining inbounds. The Female Trickster is a sort of Summa Psychologica of the female trickster. viewed as one step on the long march toward deeper understanding and integration of the feminine it is worth your attention. Be prepared for a curried mix of scholarship, personal reflection, and deep psychological insight.

Please tender your opinion on the following matters (whether or not you read this book):

Is it possible for new archetypes to emerge?
How has the trickster archetype or motif (male or female) manifested in your clinical work and in your personal life?
What response do you feel to the notion of a female trickster as a discrete entity, recognizable entity?
Do you have any personal encounters with the female trickster?

We are very interested in your thoughts, reflections, and memories of your encounters with the female trickster.

Len Cruz, MD

Native American Mythology (socyberty.com)
Men, Women and Relationships – A Post-Jungian Approach (psypress.com)
Palin’s Use of Jungian Archetypes [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] (scienceblogs.com)
Nora Ephron, Amy Bloom, and others draw lines in the sand. (slate.com)

Missed It By That Much

2010-10-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

Missed It By That Much

Len Cruz, MD

Those who are familiar with the television show, “Get Smart” recognize the source of the title. Maxwell Smart, a hapless secret agent would justify his obvious missteps with the phrase, Missed it by that much! During yesterday’s Red Book conference with Dr. Murray Stein, there were too many gold nuggets to even attempt a summary. Instead, I chose one that Dr. Stein illustrated by recounting one of Jung’s dreams. I’ll begin with a shortened version Jung’s dream as recounted by Dr. Stein.

Jung and his father are in a mosque. They find themselves kneeling and beginning to bow. Evidently, Jung’s father bows fully allowing his head to make contact with the floor. However, Jung stops within a millimeter of the floor. He will not permit himself to bow completely.(Missed it by that much!)

Yesterday Dr. Stein suggested that in Jung’s later years Jung stated that he did not believe but he knew. This may reflect Jung’s integration of the figure of Philemon a sort of prophet with whom he had engaged in fertile relationship for years. According to Dr. Stein, the famous dream described above reflected Jung having outgrown a childish faith. Soul had invited Jung to offer obedience to the gods, an exhortation he refused. He argues with this anima figure and refuses to offer unqualified, blind obedience. Instead, Jung proposed that if the gods wanted him to obey they must do something for him. Dr. Stein suggested that this is evidence of Jung’s mature faith, a fully flowering faith founded upon knowing and notbelieving. At an earlier point in the conference Dr. Stein explained that Jung did not oppose faith but that the German word to which he objected might be better translated as belief, the experience of believing in something because you have been told to do so or because it has been transmitted to you. Belief, in this context, is the untested, un-lived version of knowing.

Dr. Stein connected his ideas about Jung’s mature faith to the modern theological trend known collectively as “Process Theology”. Anyone interested learning more about Process Theology may find these two books helpful, “Process and Reality (A. N. Whitehead) and “Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition” (John Cobb & David Ray Griffin). What a brilliant insight Dr. Stein makes in suggesting that Jung’s later writings such as “Answer to Job” presage the movement that has come to be known as “Process Theology”. An exceptional summary and commentary on “Answer to Job” by J. Marvin Spiegelman can be found online at http://www.junginstitute.org/pdf_files/JungV8N1p1-18.pdf . It is no surprise that Dr. Stein, who is divinity trained (and possibly divinely trained), should make such a clear connection between Jung’s mature faith perspective and the process theologians. However, let me propose a different rendering of Jung’s dream. Jung may have missed it by that much!

Dr. Stein discouraged the reader of the Red Book from viewing the material as somechanneled work. Jung’s ego not only remained intact, it was actively engaged with the interior figures. There was no merger, no suspension of ego into some passive vessel, no idle recipient of channeled experiences. To the contrary, Jung was contentious, argumentative and even rude at times. While this stance toward his interior figures may have permitted a fuller, deeper exposition of their insights and instruction, it may also have obstructed a different kind of knowing. That stance also reflects an unyielding, willful, recalcitrant feature in Jung that earlier perhaps contributed to his split with Freud and delayed reconciliation with Father Victor White. Perhaps the dream and that single millimeter are simultaneously a testament to Jung’s mature faith and his inability to offer a complete surrender into the mystical union. It was a bridge he could not cross.

Jung’s tenacious grip upon the egoic functions that allowed him to record such a rich travel log as the Red Book may have been the ultimate barrier to the experience of the mystic. We think of Rumi’s poetry as a different sort of travel log from one who became lost in a merged state with the divine.

This brings us back to Jung’s dream. It is at once a testament by a man who has done the arduous work of soul building and one who had not found a way to step willingly into complete surrender. Jung is a post-Promethean man. He has received the fire of illumination and steps out fearlessly to claim his rights as an image bearer of God. He sustains his fortitude when he declines soul’s request for his obedience to the gods. Earlier, Philemon counseled Jung to always keep his eye on this figure (soul) and never lose sight of her. But Philemon also advised Jung to beware since she would lead him astray. Jung’s defiance to yield that last millimeter pays heed to Philemon’s counsel. I propose that single millimeter of difference between Jung and his father extends in myriad directions. It suggests an Oedipal defiance that conflates his earthly father and heavenly Father. The drama of that single millimeter is like an harmonic in music, akin to an integer multiple of an earlier note in Jung’s life when he had his falling out with Freud. And again, it is as if that millimeter he withholds is an overtone of an earlier conflict with Fr. Victor White.

Jung exemplifies the Übermensch Nietzsche glorifies. In addition, the endless recurrence of which Nietzsche was so fond, seems confirmed by the harmonic resonance between Jung and his succession of opponents (earthly father, Freud, White, heavenly Father). Jung claims his place in relation to the gods and will not demure. He is reminiscent of Camus’ Sisyphus. Camus imagines this rebellious, miscreant trickster differently as he carries out his sentence of rolling a stone up a hill only to have it roll down the other side and starting over again. Camus turns away from suicide by rendering this mythopoetic figure as being happily defiant toward the gods who condemned him. Jung’s refusal to yield that last millimeter conforms to Camus’ Sisyphus. To parody the title of the 1967 hit Broadway musical, he was a Thoroughly Modern Mensch (not Millie).

Sadly, Jung will not allow himself to recover the childlike realms of faith by offering a complete surrender. It is tempting to wonder what might have occurred if Jung had descended one additional millimeter. It is in that final millimeter that Jung reveals a profound struggle. While not disputing Dr. Stein’s proposition that the millimeter reflects Jung’s mature claim upon his own divine attributes, I propose that the fateful millimeter is also an indication of the transcendent function falling short of its mark. Perhaps it points to the unification of apparent opposites at a meta-level. Can a person be simultaneously defiant as Jung is when he refuses refuses to descend one last millimeter and knowingly submit by offering himself as a living sacrifice to the gods (or God). That sacrifice is akin to the one Jesus commits to in the garden in Gethsemane. He knows his fate, he is fully developed as a Self, and he proceeds to surrender anyway. Do not think that I am proposing some inflating identification with Jesus the Christ; I am not. I am using His example to illustrate a point. It may be the transcendent function failed Jung and in his final moments, he turned away from the mystical, merged state and chose to keep his bearings. If he had plunged just a millimeter deeper perhaps he might have had nothing to show for his work but an exquisite love poem of the sort Rumi left us. To Jung, who had faced his demons and realized that he was driven by the pursuit of honor, that might not have seemed enough.

In Jung’s personal Twilight of the Idols he refrains from the callous, barren expression that Nietzsche arrives at but he seems unable to unify the rational, willful, fully developed man with the numinous, yielding, childlike man. And so, it is in that last millimeter, that Jung truly may have Missed It By That Much.

From “Thus Spake Zarathustra”-Nietzsche

O man, take care!

What does the deep midnight declare?

“I was asleep—

From a deep dream I woke and swear:—

The world is deep,

Deeper than day had been aware.

Deep is its woe—

Joy—deeper yet than agony:

Woe implores: Go!

But all joy wants eternity—

Wants deep, wants deep eternity.”

Len Cruz, MD (first published at www.ashevilleungcenter.org/blog/ on May 15, 2010)

Global Politics, Obama and the Transcendent Function, A Jungian Perspective

2010-10-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

n September the Asheville Jung Center has ambitious plans to host a conference titled “Symbols and Individuation in Global Politics”. In preparation, I’ve been reading Anyaten Sen’s “Identity and Violence”, Ortega y Gassett, and a panel discussion by Singer, Meador, and Samuels (Panel: The transcendent function in society) from the April 2010 issue of Journal of Analytical Psychology. It is a thought provoking article.

Let me begin with a question. Do Jungians and the field of Analytical Psychology have something unique to offer in the arena of politics, political science, and political discourse? Of course, Jungians are entitled, indeed obligated, to participate in the political process. But is there a Jungian perspective on these matters?

Singer, Meador, and Samuels examined the transcendent function and specifically explore the proposition that certain individuals (for example, President Obama) carry the transcendent function in ways that may promote resolution of cultural complexes. Such figures may help society unify apparent opposites.

The transcendent function is that psychological mechanism through which apparent opposites are unified. Jung compared the transcendent function to its mathematical equivalent:

“There is nothing mysterious or metaphysical about the term “transcendent function.” it means a psychological function comparable in it’s way to a mathematical function^[1] of the same name, which is a function of real and imaginary numbers. The psychological “transcendent function” arises from the union of conscious and unconscious content.” (The Transcendent Function, Jung 1959)

Individuals tend to identify with one aspect of a polarity while relegating the other aspect to the unconscious. The transcendent function is at work when the individual reconciles such opposing elements in their psyche. There is a distinguished history of transcendent function within political theory. Hegel’s dialectical approach proposed a such a motor of history and politics that consisted of an endless clash of opposites resolved by a synthesis. His use of the word aufhebung, often translated as sublated, connotes abolished, preserved, and transcended in a single word. Hegel may have intended to ambiguate the idea. This is reminiscent of Jung’s characterization of symbol as “the best possible expression for a complex fact not yet clearly apprehended by consciousness.”

During the election cycle of 2008 there appeared to be a collective stirring of such dialectal tensions. There seemed to be opposing forces marshaling everywhere. There were rabid gun rights advocates who seemed to feel they were under siege and liberal activists who vilified the previous administration as a reign of terror worth of epic tales like “Lord of the Rings” or “Star Wars”. Countless other examples could be cited of seemingly deep rifts that were more evident during the 2008 election season. An unlikely figure, Barack Obama, emerged from this milieu and galvanized people across the political spectrum. Thomas Singer opined that President Obama “…has the potential to embody in his being a transcendent function that might point to real reconciliation and healing of the entrenched cultural complexes that divide Black and White communities in America… Some gifted individuals …actually carry the transcendent function for the group…” (Singer 2006, pp. 26-27)

There is little doubt that Barack Obama demonstrates the capacity to arouse strong passion. He resonates with people from different countries and cultures. People are drawn to him. Celebrity accounts for some of this allure. When President Obama visited Asheville earlier this year, even his ardent detractors were caught up in the excitement about sightings around town. His celebrity seemed to dampen the usual fiery discourse seeming to unify opposing parties. However, this should not be confused with reconciliation or the exercise of thetranscendent function.

There may something useful in considering leaders like President Obama as carriers of the transcendent function since this serves to remind us of the enormous value of transcending any opposites, whether intra-psychic or within the crucible of socio-cultural differences. But there are other reasons for caution.

Displacing individual psychological functions onto persons like Obama are a form of infantile wish fulfillment of the sort Freud exposed in “The Future of an Illusion”. Individuation is personal, as is the transcendent function that supports it. Extrapolating to the realm of politics imperils the individuation process. Psychological contents that we project, especially upon charismatic leaders like Obama, are robbed of some of their energy. This can reduce the chances that they will break through to consciousness. Cultural complexes are not exempt from such obfuscating maneuvers. The individual is summoned to use the transcendent function as a vehicle for perpetual growth and adaptation.

Logicians might object to the idea of leaders carrying the transcendent function because it reflects an error of logical type. A classic example of such an error may be helpful.

“This statement is false.”

(If the statement is true, it is false, and if it is false, then it is true, and so on.)

Such paradoxes are resolved by recognizing that the actual truth value of the statement is of a different logical type than the statement itself.

A similar disquiet emerges from the effort to extrapolate a function of the individual psyche (the transcendent function) to the sociopolitical arena. The truth and explanatory power of thetranscendent function when applied to the individual is different than when it is applied to thepolis. The two are of different logical types. (see Russell & Whitehead or Bateson).

Whether or not President Obama carries the transcendent function for cultural complexes he clearly activates psychological elements for individuals and for the masses. It is an intriguing idea to consider what role figures such as Obama play for society at large and individuals in their own political (& psychological) development

We are eager to generate discussion about the symbols and and other topics related to global politics as we approach the September conference. What do you think about the proposition that President Obama carries the transcendent function for various cultural complexes? We encourage you to share your thoughts concerning what (if anything) Jungians have to offer politics and political science.

Len Cruz, MD (first published at www.ashevillejungcenter.org/blog/ on July 11, 2010)

^[1] For an infinite series a1 + a2 + a3 +⋯, a quantity sn = a1 + a2 +⋯+ an, which involves adding only the first n terms, is called a partial sum of the series. If sn approaches a fixed number S as n becomes larger and larger, the series is said to converge. In this case, S is called the sum of the series. An infinite series that does not converge is said to diverge. In the case of divergence, no value of a sum is assigned. An example of a convergent series is 1 + ½ + ¼ + ⅛ … that converges upon the solution 2.

Projections & Introjections in Global Politics: Obama, Lula da Silva, Merkel, Sarkozy, Berlusconi, Mandela

2010-10-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” 1 Samuel 8:19-20

In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 17:6

(See other Bible verse translations at end of BOLG.)

The constellation of forces that are activated between members of society and their leaders is among the topics being explored in “Symbols and Individuation in Global Politics: The Case ofBarack Obama” on September 10, 2010. This blog entry explores one portion of that realm involving projection and introjection. It suggests some ideas for how any citizen might engage his/her leaders as part of their individuation process.

I offer a simple definition of terms. Introjection is a maneuver characterized by the unexamined incorporation of traits of another. Individuals with weak ego boundaries are more prone to use introjection as a defense mechanism. (Winnicott, DW. Home is Where We Start From: Essays by a Psychoanalyst.New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1986. 50.)

Projection is somewhat antithetical to introjection in that one’s own unconscious content is projected outward upon the other. What is projected is then encountered as if it actually belonged to the otherperson to begin with. Projection is a fundamental mechanism by which we remain uniformed about ourselves. (A word of caution is in order.)

The recent discovery of mirror neurons in primates (including humans) should give us pause to cast all projection and introjection into some pathologic basket. These neurons are present in the motor cortex and are activated when we observe someone executing an act. It is as if our own motor strip is carrying out the act we observe; it may be a form of rehearsal. So, neurobiology may one day help us to better understand projection and introjection.

Political figures who are charismatic and able to resonate with individual & cultural complexes are likely to activate processes of projection and introjection in the individual. These forces may illuminate unconscious material and facilitate its integration into the personality. But it is also possible for political figures to become targets of our projections and also possible for us to introject aspects of these figures into our personalities without having authentic encounters with the Self.

President Obama’s ability to galvanize the electorate and to generate widespread participation was unprecedented. There remains some doubt about the claims that the vast majority of Obama’s contributors made small donations (under $200) but the breadth of participation that he either engendered or “appeared” to engender is notable. Individuals were lifted up during the campaign and a sense of unity among people of different backgrounds and even across national borders was kindled. Such broadly appealing (or irritating) leaders provide fertile ground for projection and introjection to take root.

Ask yourself what sort of relationship you developed with Obama during the period leading up to his election. Consider what sort of relationship you have with other leaders. How did the rise of President Lula da Silva, a union leader with limited formal education engage your projected hopes and/or fears? What role did introjection have in celebrating the indomitable and noble qualities displayed by President Mandela? How does President Sarkozy’s noble Hungarian family roots or his marriage to Carla Bruni contribute to his wide appeal? (He might a target for projections of royalty with a common touch.) Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi affords another powerful example of how leaders may receive our projections and introjections. Does Berlusconi’s alleged ties to organized crime and his triumphs in several prosecutions tap our own desire to be outside the law? And then there is the fascinating example provided by Chancellor Angela Merkel, a scientist whose family enjoyed unusual freedom of travel between East and West Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. How has her own personal capacity to unify opposites within herself captivated the German people who were struggling to unify East and West? When Chancellor Merkel resisted EU pressure during the sovereign debt crisis what feelings toward the German people were provoked in your psyche?

In asking those questions I am inviting each of us to explore how leaders become lightning rods for our own psychological process. I was a youngster when President Kennedy was stuck down by an assassin’s bullet and watched in horror the reports of Dr. Martin Luther King’s murder. Within two months I endured the defeat of seeing Senator Robert Kennedy gunned down. President Obama was the first political figure to heal those wounds and I engaged more than I had ever engaged. I allowed myself to hope and in the course of those months I remembered the painful wounds I’d suffered at a tender age. Loss of several idealized objects produced a sort of exquisite corpse to which President Obama added the most recent touch. I have remained deeply afraid for President Obama but I have also been delivered from what had been a forty year political slumber.

Not long ago my sister expressed her outrage at what she perceived as President Obama’s betrayal of campaign promises. He had cozied up to Wall Street’s powerful elites, I offered a more sober perspective. I suggest that President Obama’s presence in office alone might have more lasting and transformative effects than many (perhaps all) the policies he pursues. It will be difficult to look upon the Office of the President in the same way now that an African American has occupied that hallowed spot. Though I know very little about President Lincoln’s tenure in office, the impression of a self-educated man capable of writing beautiful and lyric words (the Gettysburg Address) is etched into my political character.

I am dimly aware that President Obama helped illumine the inner landscape of my childhood losses. If projection and introjection were at play, the result was helpful. But there is an unconscious domain to my relationship with this man I call President. I am a Cuban-American born on US soil. I have lived on that hyphen with a measure of uncertainty about where I fit in to the fabric of American society. I suspect that President Obama receives my projections about the immigrant experience. Early in his candidacy, conversations about whether or not he was black enough combined with the vehement attacks upon him for attending Rev. Jeremiah Wrights church struck deep chords in me about what it means to succeed in White-Anglo culture and the price I’ve paid for blending in. But I have also marveled at the President’s capacity to reject the white majorities definition of him. His example empowers me to be less concerned with what others might think about a passionate, expressive, festive Cuban spirit that has always been an irrepressible part of me.

Whatever negative aspects of projection and introjection that have been aroused by my relationship with President Obama remain unconscious. I suspect my desire to have a deliverer, a king in the mold of the ancient Israelites is one complex that has been aroused but there are likely many more. I am hopeful that projection and introjection may recede with time and that in its place will emerge a mature political self. That political self may be better equipped to take full advantage of the psychological impact that leaders exert while avoiding the dangers that anyone who attempts to escape from freedom.

Take a moment to examine your own psychological relationship with Obama or any other political figure. We are interested in hearing from you about the psychological dance you’ve had with political leaders.

Len Cruz, MD (First appeared at www/ashevillejungcenter.org/blog on August 17, 2010)

President Barack Obama: A Case Study of Opposites and Transcendence

2010-10-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

Dr. Tom Singer will be one of the presenters for the conference being presented by the Asheville Jung Center titled, Symbols and Individuation in Global Politics: The Case of Barack Obama

I recently posted a blog on the subject of the transcendent function and the notion that figures like Obama carry that function and various cultural complexes for the wider culture. I am persuaded by the most recent cover of Newsweek, an American news magazine, that Dr. Singer is more right than wrong. Below is the text of what appears on the cover:

THE MAKING OF A

TERRORIST-CODDLING

WARMONGERING

WALLSTREET-LOVING

SOCIALISTIC

GODLESS

MUSLIM

PRESIDENT*

*who isn’t actually any of these things

The dichotomized and clearly opposing characterizations of Obama underscores Tom Singer’s deep insights and dispels any remaining doubt I have about the validity of his construct. The timing of that Newsweek cover, the week before our conference, reminds me of the synchronicity of things. The fact that this president can be so deeply misunderstood and so confusedly characterized alarms me.

Why alarm? I remain convinced that individuation is one of the most important tasks to which a person can apply herself or himself. The more individuated person will be capable of dynamically holding tensions such as those depicted on the cover of Newsweek. The process of individuation improves the likelihood that there will be persons who recognize that from the depths of their unconscious there arise life affirming, inspiring, seemingly charmed currents but there also arise sinister, destructive, rejected forces. These darker, unconscious forces often make themselves known through their projection upon others.

So it should alarm us that the current president is such a figure who exposes the individual and collective capacity for projection. Newsweek has drawn fire for this cover (FOX News).

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4326868/critics-cry-foul-over-newsweek-cover/?playlist_id=86858

Of all things, FOX News, a news syndicate that has spared no opportunity to exploit the inflammatory rhetoric to oppose Obama, criticizes Newsweek for relying on such extreme and sensational epithets to sell magazines. If FOX News had chosen to confront its own sensationalism, I would be more encouraged, but instead, it assailed Newsweek and the author for employing the same tactics it uses. (Does anyone detect a bit of PROJECTION?)

There is less danger for the public to be overtaken, deceived, or led astray by projections when persons get on with the business of their own individuation. To that end, Analytical Psychology has something to offer. The focus of Analytical Psychology is likely to be the individual and yet, the subject of Analytical Psychology will also remain the collective, that infinitely larger field with which the individual’s unconscious resonates and sometimes discords. The harmonics between individual and collective are the roots of the notes that every single person is given to sing.

Mr. Obama appears to have a near endless capacity to inflame such opposing polarities (see the actual cover at http://www.politico.com/static/PPM170_100827_domestic.html) InPsychology and Alchemy (1955) and Mysterium Conjunctionis (1956) Jung recognized that the substratum of the alchemist’s efforts was the archetypal union of opposites by means of integrating opposing polarities.

I am more eager than before for the September 10, 2010 conference where these themes will be explored. Registration is still open at

http://ashevillejungcenter.org/symbols-individuation-global-politics-case-of-barack-obama-registration/

Len Cruz, MD

Wilderness of Childhood

2010-08-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

(1st Published @ www.ashevillejungcenter.org/blog/ )

I tore an essay by Michael Chabon out of the July 31, 2009 issue of The Week magazine nearly a year ago and retrieved it from a stack of magazines early this morning. The essay first appeared in the New York Review of Books http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jul/16/manhood-for-amateurs-the-wilderness-of-childhood/ under the title “Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood”. Chabon begins by describing the joy and wonder of explorations in the Wilderness of Childhood. For some of us it was a real wilderness of varying degrees of tameness. For me, it sometimes consisted of nothing more than riding my bicycle eight to ten miles to South Miami where my brother and I fished for gar along the banks of canals and hooked each other as often as the stolid fish. In the Wilderness of my youth, development hadn’t pushed large tracts of strawberries or sugar cane deeper into the Everglades.

The Wilderness of a child is devoid of adults. Children’s writers understand this. There is a realm of childhood wherein adults have been expelled. Children’s writers like C.S. Lewis, Charles Schultz, and Paul Pullman understand. Apart from the watchful and too often stultifying view of adults a child encounters the Wilderness in which she engages the adventure of her life.

Contemporary urban or suburban, American children may miss the joy of Wilderness. They are victims of our collective fears of abductions, preventable injuries, drug abuse, and more. Parents are more determined than ever to provide children every available opportunity to thrive, learn, and excel. Given such vigilant attention, there is little room left for Wilderness. The Wilderness of childhood hasn’t been civilized as much as it's been strained of nearly all traces of danger and unpredictability.

According to Chabon, our children have become “...cult objects to us, to precious to be risked. At the same time, they have become fetishes, the objects of an unhealthy and diseased fixation. And once something is fetishized, capitalism steps in and finds a way to sell it.”

Chabon wonders about the impact of closing down the Wilderness upon children's imagination. Perhaps the answer is glimpsed when we see children dining with their parents at the Rain Forest Cafe or visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Those of us who never let our children out of our site, who schedule our children’s activities, who strive to enrich them, may unwittingly be extinguishing the sparks of adventure that can later ignite into flames of creative inspiration. From Wilderness beginnings where dangers lurked in the shadows behind tree trunks and sticks became rifles come novels, films, inventions, and new business ventures.

Jung’s Red Book created a stir among Jungians. His inner explorations and his artistry are a torrent of illumination. Below are two paragraphs from Frank McLynn’s book Carl Gustav Jung (St. Martin’s Press).

“At around the age of four Jung developed a morbid fascination with death and corpses: he was fascinated by the dead body of a four-year-old boy found near the Rhine Falls and, clearly -- Jungians would say -- at the unconscious level, wished he was that boy. Accident proneness was much in evidence. Firstly he fell downstairs, then he fell against the leg of a stove, scarring himself so badly that the wound was still visible in his senior year at Gymnasium. It is a familiar idea that accident-prone children tend to have problems with their mother and 'self-destruct' because of rage against the nurturer who has failed them. The preoccupation with the corpses also fits the scenario of rage against the mother.

"More serious than the falls was an accident on the Rhine bridge at Neuhausen when the child Carl Gustav had one leg under the railing and was about to slip through when the maid caught him. Jung himself attributed these untoward events to an unconscious suicidal urge or a kind of fatal resistance to life in this world. But while still alive and an international figure he explained his `corpse preoccupation' as simply a means of trying to accommodate to the idea of death."

This is not a childhood without a measure of Wilderness. And here are two more from the first chapter of McLynn’s book.

“It was just before he went to school that he had one of the most significant dreams of his life; although Jung claimed this occurred when he was aged three or four, clinical evidence points to five or six as the more likely time.

"In the dream Jung was in a meadow near Laufen castle and discovered an underground passageway. He descended and in a subterranean chamber found a kind of altar or king's throne on which stood what he thought at first was a tree trunk, some twelve to fifteen feet high and about two feet thick. The object was made of skin and naked flesh, with a rounded head and a single eye on the very top of the head. Later he would recognize the object as a ritual phallus. He was awoken by his mother's voice, as it were from outside, crying out, `That is the maneater!'”

Jung is not accompanied by adults on this subterranean adventure, and, perhaps this prepared him for the solitary explorations he would undertake in later years. His mothers voice, an adult voice, retrieves him from the adventure.

Let yourself recall the Wilderness realms of your own childhood, and if you can bring yourself to do so, release a child to have an encounter with their wilderness. We can scarcely predict where this leads. Chabon closes his essay this way:

“Art is form of exploration, of sailing off into the unknown alone, heading for those unmarked places on the map. If children are not permitted--not taught--to be adventurers and explorers as children, what will become of the world of adventure, of stories, of literature itself?”

Projections and Introjections in Global Politics: Obama, da Silva, Merkel, Sarkozy, and Mandela

2010-08-28T05:11:00.000-07:00

Projections and Introjections in Global Politics:

Obama, da Silva, Merkel, Sarkozy, and Mandela

(1st Published @ www.ashevillejungcenter.org/blog/ )

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles." 1 Samuel 8:19-20

In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 17:6

The constellation of forces that are activated between members of society and their leaders is among the topics being explored in “Symbols and Individuation in Global Politics: The Case of Barack Obama” on September 10, 2010. This blog entry explores one portion of that realm involving projection and introjection. It suggests some ideas for how any citizen might engage his/her leaders as part of their individuation process.

Projection might be considered its antithesis in that one’s own unconscious content is projected outward upon another. What is projected is then encountered as if it actually belonged to the other to begin with. It is a fundamental mechanism by which we remain uniformed about ourselves. A word of caution is in order.

The recent discovery of mirror neurons in primates including humans should give us pause to cast all projection and introjection into some pathologic basket. These neurons are present in the motor cortex and are activated when we observe someone executing an act. It is as if our own motor strip is carrying out the act we observe, a sort of rehearsal. So, neurobiological underpinning of projection and introjection continue to provide rich territory for further understanding.

Political figures who are charismatic and able to resonate with individual & cultural complexes are likely to activate processes of projection and introjection in the individual. These forces may illuminate unconscious material and facilitate its integration into the personality. But it is also possible that political figures may become targets of our projections and also possible that we might introject aspects of these figures into our personalities without having authentic encounters with the Self.

Ask yourself what sort of relationship you developed with Obama during the period leading up to his election. Consider what sort of relationship you have with other leaders. How did the rise of President Lula da Silva, a union leader with limited formal education engage your projected hopes and/or fears? What role did introjection have in celebrating the indomitable and noble qualities displayed by President Mandela? How does President Sarkozy’s noble Hungarian family roots or his marriage to Carla Bruni contribute to his wide appeal? (He might a target for projections of royalty with a common touch.) Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi affords another powerful example of how leaders may receive our projections and introjections. Does Berlusconi’s alleged ties to organized crime and his triumphs in several prosecutions tap our own desire to be outside the law? And then there is the fascinating example provided by Chancellor Angel Merkel, a scientist whose family enjoyed unusual freedom of travel between East and West Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. How has her own personal capacity to unify opposites within herself captivated the German people who were struggling to unify East and West? When Chancellor Merkel resisted EU pressure during the sovereign debt crisis what feelings toward the German people were provoked in your psyche?

Len Cruz, MD, ME

Pathways to the Personal & Collective

2010-05-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

(1st published @ www.ashevillejungcenter.org/blog/ )

Recent discussion about the movie AVATAR conducted in an online forum led me to the following thoughts. What other films, pieces of literature, poetry, paintings or sculpture, or music that others have encountered that touched a plucked a chord in you while also making a "collective" chord vibrate? For example, the progression in "Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber evokes that effect. http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bernstein-Conducts-Barber-Schuman/dp/B0000CD5GJ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1273284763&sr=1-5

Another is "Herman Melville" by W H Auden. The first four lines stand alone for me in producing the effect.

Towards the end he sailed into an extraordinary mildness,
And anchored in his home and reached his wife
And rode within the harbour of her hand,
And went across each morning to an office
As though his occupation were another island.

Goodness existed: that was the new knowledge
His terror had to blow itself quite out
To let him see it; but it was the gale had blown him
Past the Cape Horn of sensible success
Which cries: 'This rock is Eden. Shipwreck here.'

But deafened him with thunder and confused with lightning:
-- The maniac hero hunting like a jewel
The rare ambiguous monster that had maimed his sex,
Hatred for hatred ending in a scream,
The unexplained survivor breaking off the nightmare --
All that was intricate and false; the truth was simple.

Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our own table,
And we are introduced to Goodness every day,
Even in drawing-rooms among a crowd of faults;
He has a name like Billy and is almost perfect
But wears a stammer like a decoration:
And every time they meet the same thing has to happen;
It is the Evil that is helpless like a lover
And has to pick a quarrel and succeeds,
And both are openly destroyed before our eyes.

For now he was awake and knew
No one is ever spared except in dreams;
But there was something else the nightmare had distorted --
Even the punishment was human and a form of love:
The howling storm had been his father's presence
And all the time he had been carried on his father's breast.

Who now had set him gently down and left him.
He stood upon the narrow balcony and listened:
And all the stars above him sang as in his childhood
'All, all is vanity,' but it was not the same;

For now the words descended like the calm of mountains --
-- Nathaniel had been shy because his love was selfish --
But now he cried in exultation and surrender
'The Godhead is broken like bread. We are the pieces.'

And sat down at his desk and wrote a story.

_______________________

Are there works that succeed at evoking a strong effect at the personal level while also opening you to the collective realm? If so, share them (possibly with a hyperlink that allows others to enjoy the uplifting or expansive effect you've had.

Special Theory of Relativity for Psychotherapy

2010-04-30T09:28:00.001-07:00

Special Theory of Relativity for Psychotherapy

Years ago, I taught courses in psychotherapy and supervised residents in training and psychology interns. I drew some conclusions that coalesced into a sort of Special Relativity of Psychotherapy. The recent excerpt from Dr. Stein’s Individuation about first visits from a Jungian perspective got me thinking about how Einstein’s theory pertains to the work of therapy.

In 1905, Einstein “On the Electro dynamics of Moving Bodies” described that the frame of reference of an observer determines what is observed. For example, an observer moving at a speed close to the speed of light will encounter drastic effects upon their perception of objects in different inertial frames. Your inertial frame governs what you observe. This is strikingly like psychotherapy. To the Freudian and Neo-Freudian analyst, the analysis of resistance and will help expose libidinal impulses that have been obstructed by conflicts with a strict super-ego resulting in neurotic structures employed by the ego. A Self-psychologist may seek to illuminate the connection between early relationships (and their representation as internal structures of introjects, object representations, self-object representations, etc). The Cognitive-Behaviorally oriented therapist will apply herself to identifying negative, unproductive cognitive schemas that contribute to symptoms. It begins to appear that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I could go on with other examples. One thing I concluded about schools of psychotherapy is that like Einstein’s inertial frames of reference, they determine what a therapist will observe. (No problem provided we understand that is the nature of our discursive thinking is always constrained by our frame of reference).

Another thing I concluded when teaching psychotherapy was that any model of therapy helps the therapist feel secured and anchored. The result is often that the therapist can provide a non-anxious presence to the client. In so far as the relationship is the critical element of healing in therapy, a non-anxious therapist allows the client to explore their interior life with less contamination. In this regard, almost any philosophic stance will do. Acknowledging this generic feature of therapy can help therapist in training (and all of us are truly therapist in training) to embrace the value of being well schooled in at least one frame of reference about how therapy ought to be conducted.

Not all schools of psychotherapy are created equal. In addition, the therapeutic approach that proves well-suited to one person may be ill-suited to another. Psychotherapy is not an exact science; it is nothing like testing for antibiotic sensitivity or resistance with acute infections. Instead, a therapist is guided by some amalgam of evidenced based science and deep intuition. An excessive reliance on either often proves detrimental to a client.

There is a natural inclination toward being purist in public while being far less dogmatic, and much more adaptable in our consulting room. This is reminiscent of the difference between those poets who can write metered or rhyming verse who choose to compose free verse and those who cloak themselves in the mantel of vers libre simply because they have neither the gifts or discipline to cultivate metered or rhymed verse. We suspect one another of being less dogmatic behind closed doors. And why shouldn’t we; we know what we do?

While we are striving to maintain a suitable stance with clients it is our duty to notice when we deviate. We strive to remain alert to those deviations, to be alert for those moments when our process adversely influences the work of the client (and vice versa). But we are never impeccable. Instead, we endlessly seek to remove ourselves in service of the other.

In the process of monitoring our process and its potential impact upon the other we honor Einstein’s discoveries in our own way. We begin by reconciling ourselves to the fact that we cannot extricate ourselves from some frame of reference. We can acknowledge that any system of ideas supports the illusion of certainty and this, it turns our, fosters in us a non-anxious presence. We end up focusing less on defending dogma and more on present moment, mutual discernment. We admit that in the midst of our striving toward a relatively pure theoretical stance we encounter detours; we allow others to know that the mystery of therapy can never be circumscribed by a theory, no matter how sound that theory appears.

Ask yourself the following three questions.

How would I articulate my personal theoretical/philosophic stance about the work I do with clients?
Where do I see evidence that having a stance helps me relax enough to really be with my clients?
When I depart from my theoretical/philosophical stance, what causes can I recognize?

I have found the following to be true about the last question. Sometimes, my deviations from a coherent stance occurs because I am slothful, I do not always maintain highest degree of vigilance when conducting therapy. Mostly, these tend to be minor deviations, worthy of note but hardly exploitive or destructive. Sometimes, I am visited by my own complexes that insert themselves in the process. This is fertile ground for me and especially fertile ground for my client when I attend to it. Sometimes, the client’s process is so intense that it warps the fabric of our relationship like a massive object warps the space-time continuum. I may deviate because there seems to be no recourse for the moment but these are the most fertile realms of exploration.

As I seek to balance all these forces I am reminded of the closing lines of Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”

Ulysses

Tennyson

...Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

In Arizona, Brown is the New Black: Immigration and the Other

2010-04-27T17:36:00.001-07:00

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up. (Martin Niemölle)
Arizona passed a new law intended to deal forcefully with illegal immigrants. the law makes it a state crime to not have an alien registration document and requires police to question persons they suspect of being in this country illegally. Comparisons to Nazi Germany are partly hyperbole and partly true. Let’s examine the psychological roots of this controversial law?
The Other
There are signs that the controversy unfolding in Arizona is reflective of how we deal with the other when the other looks different from us. There is a xenophobic thread running through North American cultural paralleled by European’s growing discomfort with Muslim immigrants, or Asian’s distrust of Caucasian, western, capitalist immigrants.
Miroslav Volk, a Yugoslav theologian who admits to the difficulty he has reaching out to Serbs says that no matter what someone has done to you, you must be willing to begin the process of making your enemy your friend.
Newsweek’s (September 9, 2009) cover story titled “Is Your Baby Racist?” described the research of Birgette Vittrup out of the University of Texas has studied racial attitudes among families in the Austin area and found early evidence among infants and toddlers that they recognize racial difference. One researcher noticed randomly assigned school children to either a group who wore a red T-shirt or a blue T-shirt. The children were otherwise not treated differently. Quickly, the subjects identified with the group wearing like colored shirts and assumed an inherent greater worth and value to being a member of their like colored T-shirt group. What’s worse was the natural tendency to vilify those wearing the other colored T-shirt.
Anyone wishing to discover their own implicit bias might be interested in Harvard’s Project Implicithttps://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/research/ . This 10-15 minute test may surprise you when you discover that we have implicit associations about race.
It is the tendency to vilify and denigrate the other both explicitly and implicitly that dwells in our unconscious. It is from this oceanic realm that pogroms, ethnic cleansing, the Holocaust, and other atrocities emerge and in their collective power unleash destructive forces. But I am suspicious of quick, easy remedies.
Fishing in a Bass Pond
The Asheville Police Department (APD) recently conducted a raid on a local nightclub frequented by Hispanics. Reportedly they separated the patrons who looked Hispanic and proceeded to interrogate them and uncovered a number of undocumented persons. Their professed intention was to address gang related activity. The following week a client expressed her passion and outrage at the incident and fully expected that because I am a Cuban-American I would share her sentiment. I did not.
First, I noted that if I took my children fishing for bass, I might consider going to a stocked bass pond where their chances of catching a fish would be substantially better. The police were doing something similar. By isolating the darker skinned patrons who looked Hispanic, they were improving their odds of success. As a long-standing member of the ACLU I see enormous, substantive issues regarding constitutional protections against search and seizure. However, I also acknowledge the efficient methods employed by the APD. I know she was dismayed by my upside-down perspective on the incident that drew public protests. However, I believe she was also unsettled by my unexpected reticence to let my tribal identity rule my heart and my head. The normal response is to align with your tribe and vilify the other. I did both and neither.

Ambivalence & the Other
Arizona’s recent legislation has stepped into the center of a minefield of ambivalent content. Let me enumerate some of the ambivalent elements:

We enjoy a cheap supply of labor (lower food costs, lower expenses in hospitality industry, low cost construction labor, etc) but resent undocumented workers for their downward effect upon wages.
We accept tax payments through withholding from persons who will never collect the benefit while vigorously complaining of the drain undocumented workers place upon an already taxed social safety net.
We proclaim the value of free trade and through NAFTA advance initiatives intended to integrate the Americas while acting toward our southern neighbors like we would toward an infectious agent that must be quarantined.
We focus upon the surge of Mexican gangs who control drug importation into the United States while we fail to craft effective policy that addresses the demand on this side of the border that creates the market opportunity gangs exploit.
Many Americans believe we are under siege from Muslims in our midst but it is easier to engage undocumented individuals from Mexico and Central America than it is to address other potentially volatile immigration related issues, particularly while we are at war in two Islamic nations.

The list goes on.

Take a Stand
Each of us will be called upon to fend off our tribal instinct while also honoring it. At the moment, the debate rages over Arizona’s brazen experiment in applying immigration laws at the state level. There are likely to be citizens in Arizona who see their state as disproportionately burdened by the federal government’s ineffective enforcement of existing immigration laws. They may feel a tribalism about being an Arizonan and perhaps they are right, after all, what does a citizen of Arizona have in common with one from Maine (where 1% of the population is Hispanic) on this issue.
Here is a challenge you may find interesting. Where are you noticing your tribal instinct being aroused. Try to refrain from starting with the broadest trends that stir you to identify with your own kind, things like Brazilian, French, German, Israeli, North American, Jungian, man, woman. Instead, bring the inquiry to a more granular level. My company vs the competitor, my friends and companions vs those I share little affinity with, fans of my favorite sports team vs fans of this weeks opponents, people who know how to drive (like me) and those who appear deficient. Cultivate the ability to recognize when you are being swept up by a tribal impulse to align with others like you and see if you can uncover the quality by which we exclude the other. And whenever you can, see the folly in such dichotomies and explore the realm where you stand astride both, holding them in tension, without rejecting or inflating either. Consider this a novel form of taking a stand, one informed by our appreciation for how psyche works. I offer the following poem by John Milton as a subtler exposition of this blog entry.
WHEN I CONSIDER HOW MY LIGHT IS SPENT
John Milton
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or His own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.

Len Cruz, MD

Remembering, Repeating, Working-Through: Working with the Shadow

2010-04-27T17:35:00.001-07:00

“Everyone carries a shadow”, according to Jung, “and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is."
Being an irrational realm, the Shadow is prone to being projected so that our own inferiority ends up appearing to us as a deficiency in the other. "The projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object--if it has one--or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power."
In dealing with Shadow, three phases of our engagement can be seen. In the first phase, a person is either unaware or so dimly aware that the only evidence that can be detected consists of the projected contents. These are reflected back to a person in the form of other’s deficiencies. Another phase consists of revealing of Shadow in its true form, that is, as disowned, unacceptable aspects of the Self. This is a phase of recovery of projections. An individual begins to be emancipated from the enslavement to Shadow. In the course of this phase the bondage imposed upon others by the projected contents is diminished. We might compare this phase to the aroma that wafts through the air, it does not sate the appetite but may arouse the appetite for the actual victuals. Finally, there is a phase that involves integrating Shadow into the personality. Here Shadow becomes integrated into the whole Self. There is no longer a need to stow The Secret Sharer of our unconscious below deck.
In Freud’s essay, “Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through” he offers relevant insights that can be adapted to the work with the Shadow. In order to adapt Freud’s ideas you must overlook how his thoughts are encased in his theories of psychosexual development. Patients, according to Freud, begin by repeating. “As long as the patient is in treatment he cannot escape from his compulsion to repeat and in the end we understand this is his way of remembering.”
“...the patient yields to the compulsion to repeat, which now replaces the impulsion to remember.” Substitute projection of Shadow for repeating in Freud's essay. Where you see Freud discussing remembering replace it with the notion of recognizing and recovering the project Shadow elements. Finally, Freud credits the handling of transference as the main instrument for converting a patient’s compulsion to repeat into a motive to remember. “One must allow the patient time to become more conversant with this resistance (to remembering) with which he has now become acquainted, and work through it.”
What striking similarities exist between Freud’s evolving psychoanalytic techniques and the work with the Shadow proposed by Analytical Psychology. Both render the unconscious realm as pressing itself upon life in the form of either repetition (Freud) or projection (Jung). Both assert a critical role for remembering (Freud) and becoming conscious (Jung). And the notion of working-through (Freud) and integration (Jung) seem to be one in the same. Both Freud and Jung were pointing toward a cauldron of unconscious, instinctive, irrational psychological stuff that plays out to the detriment of all concerned when it remains unconscious and can be incorporated and dealt with through therapy.
Ask yourself what means you have found to work with Shadow. How do you foster the ability to move from projecting (and repeating to do so) to recovering projections? How do you encourage the arduous task of helping clients make the journey from repeating to remembering, from projecting and recovering a projection? And finally, what have you found helpful with regard to working-through (or integration of Shadow)?
References
Jung, C.G. (1938). "Psychology and Religion." In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.131
Jung, C.G. (1951). "Phenomenology of the Self" In The Portable Jung. P.147
See http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/220 for a text of "The Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad.
See http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/1914FreudRemembering.pdf for a copy of the essay "Remembering. Repeating and Working-Through:

Len Cruz, MD

Mother Knows Best: of volcanoes and global warming

2010-04-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

Global warming is a growing concern among industrialized nations. What about indigenous people, do they worry about such man-made effects? Perhaps indigenous people are more attune to Gaia. As we become aware of human impact upon the earth there is a place to consider that the earth may be capable of reversing such impact in dramatic ways.

The volcanic eruption in Iceland was pouring out an estimated 750 tons of ash every second. An estimated 26,000 flights in and out of Europe were grounded. that represents a significant amount of carbon that was not dumped into the atmosphere. Previous volcanic eruptions have cooled the earth. Our destructive human influence reversed, albeit slightly, by this single natural event.

As Jungians we honor the natural movement toward integration and wholeness. We suppose that the transcendence of opposites, the integration of shadow elements, the embrace of anima/animus to be a grand opus. Given the opportunity, a person not only heals psychologically, they will thrive and unfold themselves as individuals.

There is a certain hubris in supposing that human beings, a small portion of the biomass, should be able to impose an insurmountable stress. Tonight Nightline featured a report about Mother Nature reminds us of just how vulnerable we really are. Perhaps we can open to a larger vision of the destructive influences of global warming. Just as stress upon an individual often foster psychological growth and integration, the same may be true of Mother Earth. Mother Earth has been through warming periods and ice ages many times. She endures. While we may be unique among species in our ability to orchestrate our own annihilation, that does not imply that we are destroying the earth.

Just suppose Mother Earth let off a massive amount of dust into air in order to cool her skin. If we were living in closer relationship with the earth we could see such things as signs. Between the indigenous person and the modern person spans a long distance. But when a tsunami’s hit the Pacific several years ago certain indigenous people took refuge on high ground. They knew the language that mother earth speaks.

When the dust and ash from the volcano will we listen to Gaia whispering?

To balance the alarm about global warming let’s consider the vast, unintelligible features of Gaia, our primordial mother. Without dismissing the reality of global warming it is possible to consider that Mother Earth can adapt. Mother knows best and we’d do well to listen when she speaks.

Len Cruz, MD

Goldman Sachs and the Cerberus Within (Greed, Envy, Pragmatism)

2010-04-27T17:28:00.001-07:00

Goldman Sachs and the Cerberus Within (Greed, Envy, Pragmatism)

Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus to see a watercolor by William Blake of Cerberus
Cerberus, watercolour by William Blake
On April 16th, 2010 Goldman Sachs was charged with fraud for betting against the very investments they were selling to others. Upon reading the news I immediately felt a sense satisfaction that the firm that is alleged to have contributed to the debacle of housing crisis was getting what was coming to it.
It seems that Goldman Sachs was allowing an advisor, John Paulson to purchase investments that would appreciate in value when the housing market collapsed and also allowing him to choose the mortgages that would be bundled into an investment called collataeralized debt obligations. These were sold to other investors, mostly banks. Read more about the details at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/business/17goldman.html?th&emc=th . There was no regulation of this fledgling realm and as we eventually discovered there simply wasn’t enough actual cash to pay the insurance against the bad loans.
Imagine selling cars that you thought had reasonable prospects of exploding and killing their occupants and simultaneously purchasing life insurance on the driver because you foresee a reasonable prospect of collecting. I had three reactions to the fraud charges and they arose in quick succession.
First, I felt my vengeful spirit satisfied. These fat cats deserve to be charged (and potentially be fined $1 bn). They are partly responsible for the loss of enormous sums that caused some companies to fail and others to nearly fail. Government intervention, designed to keep complete economic collapse from overtaking the US and other economies seemed necessary. I am indignant, righteously indignant concerning the unprecedented transfer of wealth from average individuals to wealthy individuals and corporations (through taxes, bailouts, stimulus funds, and eventually long-term national debt). All this leads me to want to see swift justice executed without mercy.
But soon I felt deep envy. There is still a cesspool of envy in my spirit about Goldman Sachs and other firms like it. I resent those who made obscene amounts of money through the early part of the decade primarily because I didn’t. If I had been one of the traffickers in these investments or one of those receiving spectacular compensation, my righteous indignation would have given way to complicit silence. At the first sign of trouble I would have wanted to be among those who were savvy to hedge their bets like Goldman Sachs did to extend the party a little longer. The promise of glory and wealth would have enchanted me, and before long I would have been certain to feel entitled to it all. My second reaction was to acknowledge that the vengeful side of me sometimes serves as a thin, but comforting, disguise for envy and sense of entitlement. I met the enemy and it is me.
Then, a third perspective emerged. It is a more sober one, a sort of amalgam or marriage of the two earlier ones. I may be a modest transcendence of opposites. Let’s face facts, the employees at Goldman Sachs are adepts. They may be more adept at garnering wealth than any group of individuals in recent American history. Therefore, I can’t imagine they didn’t have an idea that fraud charges might be handed down. While the public has oscillated between vilifying Goldman Sachs and glorifying the company and its employees, they may have seen either situation as an opportunity to make money. These are folks who know about mitigating risk (and apparently also how to create risk); in fact, that is part of what they are charged with. They covered a bet they knew was likely to be a bad one while encouraging others to stay at the table and continue gambling. My third reaction led me to pick up the phone and call my broker and ask if she thought now might be a good time to buy some Goldman Sachs. I figure these are smart people who will find the angle that will let them earn profits, record profits, again.
Whether Goldman Sucks or not is not clear yet. However, I appear to be a three headed beast, a Cerberus (see link above). I stand in harsh judgment of the scoundrels who exploit the capitalist system better than I do, I envy the spoils they enjoy, and it turns out that when the psychological dust settles I am a pragmatist. I don’t know if I will get in bed with Goldman Sachs since I still maintain Goldman Sucks but if I buy Goldman Sachs low and sell high I will be reconciled to the fact that Goldman Sucks no more than I do.
Len Cruz, M.D.

Spiderwebs & Women's Web of Relationships

2010-03-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

A husband and wife are out for a rare, intimate dinner when the wife's cell-phone buzzes (she has been considerate enough to turn the phone to vibrate). She tries to ignore the phone but grows anxious. She finally pulls it out of her purse and looks at it and puts it back in her purse. He seems visibly bothered and stops talking. Before long, things have deteriorated and they finish their intimate dinner talking about how he is being unreasonable and he complains that she can't even put things aside for one evening to devote herself to him.

I believe men and women often have enormous difficulty understanding some fundamental differences between the sexes. Women arise in the context of a web of relationships. Their identity is tightly connected to the relationship environment in which they develop. For many women, their sensitivity and awareness to the web of relationships is extraordinarily well developed.

It is like a spider on a web. If something tickles some distant part of the web, even one in the periphery, the spider is immediately aware. It demands the spider's attention. That is how women feel ripples in the web of their relationships. So when the phone rings it doesn't matter that they have a responsible babysitter, she has felt the ripple. Maybe it is the kids. If she tries to ignore the buzzing phone, she feels a gripping degree of agitation. She has to check what is disturbing the web.

Now men do not arise in a matrix of relationships. Men are encouraged to believe that our identity is crafted from distinguishing ourselves from others and sometimes by outright opposition. Men are very adept at isolating one relationship from another. The interconnectedness of their relationships is often not as inherently relevant to a man. So when he is with his wife for their intimate dinner out, he is not as aware of the vast web of relationships in which his life exists. His resentment at his wife's need to check her phone fails to appreciate how embedded his wife is in her web of relationships. His wife is likely to misunderstand that her husband experiences her checking the phone as and either/or phenomenon. When he has her attention he is reassured that he is of central importance. When she checks the phone or attends to any other ripple in the web of relationships, he may feel he has been displaced, or cast out to the periphery of her web. Men have enormous trouble understanding that in a web, every strand is, in a sense, connected to every other strand.

If a man can remain mindful that his wife must attend to the entire web of her relationships. And a woman may benefit from remaining mindful that her husband wants to be assured that he is at the center of her world, even if just for a moment. And both men and women will benefit by accepting difference as inherent. If a couple can do this, they may be able to develop effective ways of honoring their differences and perhaps learn from one another.

Addressing Chronic, Unproductive habits

2010-03-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

If you suffer depression or anxiety here's an idea for dealing with chronic, unproductive habits that aggravate psychological symptoms. Suppose you were intending to write an instruction manual whose purpose it was to assure that your symptom or complaint would either be provoked or aggravated. What methods do you use to arouse a symptom or perpetuate it. For example, if you were someone given to anxiety perhaps your list might look something like this:

Whenever possible, think about things that are far off in the future about which you can do nothing.
When something good happens begin thinking about how it could turn sour.
When something frightens you, avoid it, even if it is important.
Convince yourself that everyone is paying attention to how anxious you appear.
Consider that at any moment others might discover that you are really a fraud.
Remind yourself often of occasions when things went badly.
When things are bad, tell yourself that things could be worse.
etc

Try to compile your list of phrases in generic terns by looking for the general theme of what you do that makes you more anxious. This exercise is a gentler way of addressing your chronic complaint.

Buddhist Geeks

2010-03-01T20:06:00.001-08:00

An interesting website http://www.BuddhistGeeks.com/

Sidewalk Art, Out of Body Experiences, and the Nature of Reality

2010-03-01T19:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/3d-sidwalk-art-that-will_n_478649.html

How do you understand perspective and the tricks our mind plays upon us and our perceptions? Look at the images of sidewalk art. The enchantment comes from how easily we shift frames in these amazing 2-Dimensional images that convey such a dramatic 3-D experience.

Consider the recent evidence that Out of Body Experiences can be induced experimentally with the use of virtual mannequins. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6960612.stm

Let these things percolate for a moment and then consider that we are always seeing a map, a representation of the world that reflects the sum of our pas experience (and the conditioning of our cognitions), our bias arising from limbic centers regulating emotions, and various other contributing factors.

Our understanding of reality should reflect the fact of such oddities in our cognitive function. It should also give us all pause when we become too self-assured about what we know.

Are Insurance Companies Adding Value?

2010-02-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

Check out this article from the New England Journal of Medicine published in 2003. It compares the administrative costs for the United States healthcare system and the Canadian healthcare system. Though the data is about a decade old, the implications are just as provocative, perhaps more provocative, at this time of fervent debate and bombastic rhetoric. Here is a link to the article http://www.pnhp.org/publications/nejmadmin.pdf

In the midst of such strident posturing we are ignoring certain fundamental themes. So, I pose the following question. What value is the health insurance industry adding to the landscape of providing comprehensive health care to our nation?

Performance Anxiety and Beta-Blocking Medicine

2010-02-27T10:20:00.000-08:00

Someone recently asked me about anxiety that had erupted since she started having to speak to strangers to grow a MLM business she had just started. The answer I provided may be helpful to others.

Your anxiety is tightly bound to the context, having to speak in front of people you don't know about the business. This is an important and distinguishing feature from certain other anxiety disorders where there is not always such a clear and solitary cause or provocation of the anxiety.

There are two distinct features to anxiety of this sort. The involves the acute anxiety brought on during (or in proximity to) an occasion when you must speak to people about the business. There is a second kind of anxiety that involves anticipation of the situation of having to speak to others about the business. The second variety of anxiety involves the fear, expectation or dread that you will experience a surge of anxiety. These two different aspects to your anxiety call for slightly different approaches.

Remember that racing heart, tremor, rapid breathing (often somewhat more shallow), feeling flushed, mild sensations of lightheadedness, and the subjective sense of anxiety are symptoms that are mediated by two chemicals, epinephrine & norepinephrine. These chemicals are released in response to a perceived threat. They provide the physiological basis for the fight or flight response. There is a class of medicines, beta-blockers, that effectively block the peripheral effects of these chemicals (increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, tremor, etc).

There are some other aspects of your history that may be pertinent. Below are listed some of the items that might typically be explored in an initial visit.

Past History

If you have ever had a previous history of acute anxiety attacks, particularly attacks of anxiety that arose without a clear provocative stimulus, this may have bearing upon the approach to treatment. I would also have potential implications for your children (in that they might be slightly more at risk of experiencing panic attacks sometime in their lifetime.

Family History

If you have family who have experienced acute anxiety attacks, that may be relevant. As you can imagine, persons with anxiety symptoms are embarrassed by their symptoms so it is not unusual for family to keep their symptoms and suffering to themselves.

Past Medical History

Although I asked you about a history of irregular heartbeat, let me encourage you to check your pulse the next time you are feeling the acute anxiety. It is unlikely that you have an irregular heartbeat but sometimes a person may notice an occasional dropped beat or irregularity to their rhythm. If you noticed something like b-b-b- - - b-b- - - b-b-b-b-b-b- - - b-b (a slight pause) that would be worth noting and mentioning to your physician. When your heart is examined it may be that a murmur or click is heard. This may occur with persons who have a mitral valve prolapse, a condition that is usually not serious but is associated with panic attacks.

Your anxiety is similar to stage fright and there are accomplished performers who sometimes use beta-blockers to suppress the symptoms of their anxiety. Beta-blocking drugs include agents like Inderal (propranolol), Tenormin (atenolol), and metoprolol. Your doctor will tell you if you have any contraindications to taking these medicines (for example, rhythm disturbances of your heart or asthma)They interfere with the action of epinephrine and norepinephrine. Consequently, they can slow heart rate and lower blood pressure, suppress tremor, reduce flushing, etc

Ideally, these medicines will permit you to suppress the symptoms of anxiety which often cause persons to feel embarrassed thereby aggravating the anxiety. Once you are assured that you can master the situation that makes you anxious, you may not need to utilize the beta-blocker.

Another approach involves the use of anti-anxiety medication, like Xanax (alprazolam), Ativan (lorazepam), Valium (diazaepam). These agents are effective in reducing anxiety by their effects on the brain and the regions that are responsible for anxious perceptions and flight from a noxious stimulus. Many individuals considering using these medications express concern about their potential for tolerance and addiction. Ideally, they would be used for short-term relief to help a person refrain from avoidance of whatever situation is challenging them (in your case speaking in front of others). If you were to resort to using this, then it would also be episodic. Provided you are using these agents on an occasional basis there is little risk of becoming physiologically dependent. Of course, if you come to believe that the only thing likely to give you relief is a medicine in this class it can foster a sort of psychological dependence.

Keep in mind, whether it is a beta-blocker or an anti-anxiety agent you use, you will also be continuing to push yourself to get through those difficult situations and you will continue to use rational self-talk to combat the anxiety. It helps to know that the best rational self-talk may provide little relief when a person is experiencing persistent anxiety.

As you grow more familiar and comfortable speaking to others, you may find the anxiety subsides. I urge you to keep in mind that mastering anxiety is something that really builds self-esteem. Not all anxiety is bad. When you find yourself able to speak to others about the business without feeling overcome by anxiety, you will discover again the value of mastering anxious impulses.

I hope others will find something helpful in this post.

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