This Jungian Life Podcast &#8211; Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, Lisa Marchiano

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If you’ve been struggling in the dark trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams⁠⁠⁠⁠ from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.

JUSTICE: The Struggle for Balance Oct 07, 2021

Show notes

Principles of fairness and justice have deep roots in the human psyche: we want to receive our fair share and a fair shake. When man injures man, we may protest, strive for redress, and measure wrong with morality—but what about godly misfortunes? Life, myth, and religion are rich with issues of injustice. Whether personal injury, social inequality, or divine mystery, over-insistence on fairness can lead to depression, resentment, and fixation.

Instead, we must distinguish injustice from loss, recognize what can and cannot be changed, and orient to the future. Imprisoned in a concentration camp, Viktor Frankl later wrote, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.”

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“I stood opposite my husband as he told me he’d found somewhere else to live, and with a mystery woman. I paced around; we were in a busy place. I reached for my phone, unsure whom to phone or text. I felt panic as I realized I wasn’t sure who I could rely on, aware of a sense of burden. I didn’t have a job yet; how would I support myself and our children? In the dream, I was aware there was a separation that felt as if I had instigated it in order for him to realize our marriage was worth saving. However, him moving on so swiftly made me feel as if I’d made a huge mistake. As I returned home, my neighbor invited me to a cafe to talk. I felt hungry, and junk food was placed in front of me. She wanted the gossip. I felt the urge to share but knew everyone would soon know about my husband leaving.”

REFERENCE:

Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006IU470/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_8Q0BT8KHK0WD6CCPAHWJ

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Confronting Shadow: The Work of Self-Discovery Sep 30, 2021

Show notes

Psychotherapy is essentially the work of making shadow conscious—all that we have not discerned then disowned, or projected onto others. We seldom welcome shadow, for it is marked by emotions and motivations that deflate, disturb, and dethrone ego. From family scuffles to political hostilities and outright war, we most often meet our shadow in others. Its presence is signaled by a strong urge to take action, with feelings ranging from judgment to antagonism, from pity to self-sacrifice, and from obsession to disgust. If we have the courage to face and relate to the inner world of another, we experience and expand our own inner world. Shadow is the dark doorway to renewal and development, creativity and compassion. Jung said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“I am in the backyard of my grandparents’ house. It’s night and very dark out, and I can see the lights on in the house. I have a bird feather in my hand that is luminescent with green and purple. I stick it in the ground, and a bird appears—a dove, I think. It flies away, and I stick the feather in the ground a second time. Another bird appears and flies away. I do it a third time, but this time I take a feather from the bird that appears and replant it in the same spot. When I do this, the ground trembles. Something big is happening, and I’ve started something I can’t stop. The third bird flies back to me and tells me to find a swan to make something called svala. Then I’m at some sort of school party, like a reunion or homecoming. I see an Indian woman I knew and used to be friends with. We haven’t seen each other in a long time and are no longer close, but I think she might know the meaning of svala and how I am supposed to make it, and what it will do. I keep trying to talk to her, but things keep getting in the way. Finally, she invites me to her room. There is beautiful music playing in the background, and her room is full of soft, golden light. I tell her about the dream with the feather and needing a swan to make svala and that I don’t know what it’s about. She laughs and says, “What is a swan but transformation? The hardest part in making svala is finding the swan.”

REFERENCES:

Swamplands of Soul: New Life in Dismal Places by James Hollis. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0919123740/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_GNTQ1XCB9YT354TFFPDS

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Self-Reflection: What Was I Thinking? Sep 23, 2021

Show notes

Jung says, “There is another instinct, different from the drive to activity and so far as we know specifically human, which might be called the reflective instinct.” Self-reflection is correlated with consciousness and is arguably humankind’s unique and essential competency: a meta-cognitive capacity that is aware of its own awareness.

If this is lacking, we may share the fate of Narcissus, who fell in love with his image, mirrored in silvery water--but every time he sought an embrace, his loved one retreated. Because he was unable to reflect on his reflection, Narcissus wasted away from psychic starvation. Many of today’s cultural forces make image supreme and tempt us to identify with reflections and appearances. Instead, we can choose to turn inward and observe ourselves, using consciousness to unite outer and inner worlds, feeling, and thinking. Only seeing into ourselves can clarify motivation, make meaning conscious, and bring our scattered parts into harmony and wholeness.

HERE’S THE DREAM WE ANALYZE:

“I had a dream that I was in a half-abandoned house; it looked old and needed to be renovated. It was spacious with many rooms and corridors. My younger son, four years old, was by my side. He was occupied with something, and I was getting frustrated as I needed to go to the toilet to relieve myself (to do #2). I was getting frustrated as he wasn’t listening, and my urge was becoming greater. I left him behind and started looking for a toilet. I was entering some rooms, and they looked like abandoned, old, destroyed, non-functioning toilets. I realized that I can’t take it any longer, so I decided that the next door I open, I will relieve myself. I opened the door and the room looked disgusting: some feces were just on the floor. I don’t remember seeing an actual toilet; everything looked as if it was abandoned many years ago (e.g., paint peeled off the walls, dust). I stepped into some shit, and somehow it landed on my cheek (I didn’t feel too disgusted but more annoyed, as I just needed to receive myself. I felt “I can’t hold it any longer,” as I started to squat, about to relieve myself. The floor collapsed, and I started to fall down. I had to grab onto something with my hands and to pull myself…and woke up (feeling a bit scared).”

REFERENCES:

Classical Tales of Mythology: Heroes, Gods and Monsters of Ancient Rome and Greece by Thomas Bulfinch https://www.amazon.com/dp/1839406631/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_PJKRPY1X5QCMHDNHZQJ8

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INFLUENCE: Connection or Contagion? Sep 16, 2021

Show notes

We have always been subject to the influence of others—it’s how we learn language, become socialized, cooperate and collaborate. It’s also how we exclude, denigrate, and assault others. Today, we are subject to unprecedented social influences. Multiplicities of media shape our ideas, identities, beliefs, and values--and foster connections and communities around the world. If tulip mania took hold in 17th century Holland—perhaps the original speculative bubble--today we have non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrencies. “Heretics” are now exiled via “cancel culture.” Cultural contagions and psychic epidemics are not new—they just come dressed in the flashy new garb of social media and telecommunication. Amid so many influences, it is newly necessary to engage in the discernment and differentiation crucial to individuation, the fulfillment of our innate potential. Consciousness cannot be held hostage to intellectual simplifications or emotional reactivity. Each of us can uphold social norms that rest on foundations of fact, reflection, and spaciousness.

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“It’s nighttime, and I’ve traveled to France with my immediate family and also a woman I’ve known who has a lot of money involved in the fashion industry. We arrive at where we are supposed to stay for the night-- a very run-down part of town. We come to a pink house with bars on the windows. My company, used to five-star accommodations, hesitatingly agrees to stay at these dodgy houses. The next scene: I’m in a twin bed, with my brother asleep in the twin bed next to mine. I know my parents are asleep in the room next to ours. All the lights are out, and it’s dark. A darkly figured shadow man enters the room, an intruder. I’m at once frightened and also intrigued. I gasp, and he notices I’m there and turns to leave. As he leaves, I ask, “who are you?” He turns for a moment from the door, and I feel his gaze. I’m overcome by a sense of longing for him and he leaves. My father enters the room moments later and tells me he saw him, too.”

REFERENCES:

C.G. Jung, Collected Works, Volume 10: Wotan, pp. 179-193.

From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era, by Edward Shorter. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0029286670/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_SCTDD834KQH02VXCS5DY

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SHADOWLAND: Prostitution - the story of Kay Sep 09, 2021

Show notes

This is Shadowland, a new podcast experience from This Jungian Life that explores the lives of people who work and take refuge in the hidden places of our culture. Lisa, Deb, and Joseph collaborate with songwriter Wells Hanley, creator of I Wrote This Song For You podcast, to bring insight, compassion, and understanding to the darker side of human experience.

Nietzsche wrote, “I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.”

In that spirit, we meet Kay, a 21-year-old single mother who works throughout the American southwest as a self-described prostitute. We explore how she found her way to that life, what she aspires to, and how she holds the complicated tensions between herself, her clients, and the current culture.

Here’s Kay’s dream that we analyze:

“I am in a pet store with my best friend and my daughter, who is in a stroller. The woman proprietor went in the back. I saw an alligator in a cage eating a piglet and looked at my daughter’s stroller -- she wasn’t in there. Then I am somewhere running through halls trying to find her. I see a lot of kids about her age running around [but she isn’t among them]. I think she is in the ventilation system because she likes to crawl around. I tell someone to hide the weed that’s in my car so we can call the police.”

We shared this interview with Wells Hanley, who was moved to create a song for Kay. We hope you’ll be as touched by her story as we were.

You can support Wells Hanley’s creative work by becoming his patron here: https://www.patreon.com/iwrotethissongforyou

His website is here www.iwrotethissongforyou.com/

SONG: PART OF THE PLAY

I will listen

receive you

affirm you in every way

And I will hold you

but as I’ve told you

it’s just part of the play

I will undress you

and then impress you

we’ll make a game of predator and prey

I’ll be unrestrained

but as I’ve explained

it’s just part of the play

She is hiding in the walls

she is watching through a screen

She is frightened to come out

so she lingers there unseen

calling, “Mama, help me!”

I’ll be your Echo

a kind of mirror

your missing Helen I am willing to portray

And you may long to claim me

but you’ll never tame me

I’m too refined for that cliché

You see, my heart is never part of the play

See her high above the crowd

see her fall into the cage

See her flee into the walls

as she steps onto the stage

crying, “Mama, help me!”

You call me princess

tell me I’m beautiful

I’m not immune to the things you say

But when the curtain falls

I walk these empty halls

and even though I can never go, I can show you the way

and I will swear that everything’s ok

Hush little baby, don’t say a word

about what you’ve seen or about what you’ve heard

There’s a fat, hungry beast in need of a meal

so don’t ever share

no, don’t tell a soul what you feel

Singer: Ali Thibodeau at https://linktr.ee/deaueyes

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SHADOWLAND: a new podcast experience – September 9 on TJL Sep 02, 2021

Show notes

On September 9th, This Jungian Life will launch a new podcast experience - SHADOWLAND. In this series, we meet soulfully with people who live and work in the hidden places of our culture.

Walk with us and discover the voice of psyche on unexpected paths.

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The Archetype of WAR Sep 02, 2021

Show notes

Recent events in Afghanistan have again put war at the forefront of collective consciousness. War’s destruction belongs to the mythic realm. Mars, the Roman god of war, was a primordial force whose altars were placed outside city gates. Although acknowledged, he was not accepted. His paramour, Venus, is warfare’s seductress, offering spectacle, pageantry, and glory.

Like all the gods of Mt. Olympus, Mars and Venus live in us as opposing forces of aggression and eros. We are charged with holding the tension of these impassioned opposites and making them conscious, lest we project shadow onto designated enemies or wage war internally as neurosis. We can stand in the complexity of conflict, suspend action, and allow the gods a place inside our psychic city gates.

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“I had a dream me and my boyfriend adopted a child and were living in a rundown apartment full of darkness that resembled a studio we rehearsed in. Then we went to the balcony to watch missiles falling and exploding in the sky; my boyfriend was aloof to the situation. My first thought was, “this must be very exciting for the child because it’s like fireworks,” Then I realized that it’s actually really dangerous and life-threatening, so I grabbed the child and ran inside, leaving my boyfriend outside gazing at the sky. The room was pitch dark, and I could hear the voices of my mother and my brother talking about me; they were saying, “how is the baby going to survive without a shell”? Then I realized the kid has turned into a round egg in the palm of my hand, and the shell was dissolving like wet paper, leaving a bubble of fragile liquid with a fetus inside. I knew that any sudden movement could burst the bubble and kill the baby, so I tried to be as gentle and careful as I could.”

REFERENCES:

A Terrible Love of War by James Hillman. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143034928/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_46A683TF2489P8WNSC8Y

Depth Psychology and a New Ethic by Erich Neumann. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0877735719/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_7W8QHPPGHMJ6SJ6RYS9R

The Moral Equivalent of War by William James. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1445529866/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_JF75M92ZS5N96ST1M49G

A Story Waiting to Pierce You by Peter Kingsley. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1890350214/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_BHEFTMVSZCJ6JF0X86N7

A Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M2YED0C/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_KGW7PQX1J4DH4WB2HQCF

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The Music of Metaphor: Healing in Therapy & Life Aug 26, 2021

Show notes

Guest Mark Winborn is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst who teaches in the U.S. and internationally. Author of three books and numerous articles, Mark is an active member of the IRSJA and the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich/Kusnacht. Psychotherapy is talk therapy—but what kind of talk are we talking about? The most fundamental medium of our knowing is language, and metaphor imbues language with music.

To understand and engage another’s internal world requires language which speaks in harmony with the unconscious. Metaphor speaks beyond ego and traverses the realms between past and present, bodily sensation and feeling, conscious and unconscious. It infuses lived experience with connection and creates shared space for healing. Jung says, “Whoever speaks in primordial images speaks with a thousand voices; he enthralls and overpowers, while at the same time he lifts the idea he is seeking to express out of the occasional and the transitory into the realm of the ever-enduring.”

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“I am in the bathroom of a hotel room where I am staying. I may have just gotten out of the shower. I see a fat, red, slimy worm-like creature several inches in length crawling along the floor. I am horrified and think that it is a snake. As I inspect it more closely, I notice a tiny pair of limbs along the upper portion of the body. At this point, I wonder if it is a baby alligator. I find this idea less repugnant than a snake. My wife comes into the room and tells me that it is actually a bird. As I study the tiny limbs, I begin to think that these must be embryonic wings. At this point, I begin to ponder how I should nurture this creature, wondering if it would be best for it if I took it outside.”

REFERENCES

Website: www.drmarkwinborn.com

Edinger, E. (1991). Anatomy of the psyche: Alchemical symbolism in psychotherapy. Chicago: Open Court

Meltzer, D., & Williams, M. H. (1988/2008). The apprehension of beauty: The role of aesthetic conflict in development, art, and violence. London: Karnac.

Siegelman, E. (1990). Metaphor and meaning in psychotherapy. New York: Guilford

Winborn, M. (2018). Interpretation in Jungian Analysis: Art and Technique. Routledge.

Winborn, M. (2014). Shared Realities: Participation Mystique and Beyond. Fisher King Press.

Winborn, M. (2011). Deep Blues: Human Soundscapes for the Archetypal Journey. Fisher King Press.

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Splitting: Understanding What Divides Us Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

We seem hard-wired to split the world into polarities: right/wrong, either/or, victory/defeat, Democrat/Republican. Infants and toddlers have not yet achieved the developmental capacity for complexity; they are believed to split their feelings toward caretakers into “good” and “bad,” depending on whether their needs are being met in the moment.

Although it distorts reality, splitting reduces anxiety by locating the problem “out there,” allowing us to reject what we find aversive and affirm our own virtue, self-worth, and blamelessness. The capacity for ambivalence—the ability to hold opposite feelings—requires more differentiated cognitive skills and emotional range. Can we bear anxiety in the face of what seems intolerable without retreating to the fortress of one-sided (usually righteous) certainty? Doing so can increase capacity for objectivity, self-reflection, and ability to bridge the split.

HERE’S THE DREAM WE ANALYZE:

“I was in a room full of people, not sure where or with who, but I suppose they were all friends of mine. I was walking past the couches of people, and I stumbled upon this table. Underneath the table was a head of a person who looked a lot like Sigmund Freud. I approached the sort of “floating head” and said, “you look a lot like Sigmund Freud.” He was smiling at me greatly, and he said, “that’s because I am.” Then his head disappeared like a ghost disappearing into a wall. I jumped back, gasped, and looked around the room to see if anyone saw what I just witnessed. No one had, they all were busy talking, and so I just stared at the spot where his head was trying to make sense of what I saw.”

REFERENCES:

Kaplan and Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry Eleventh Edition by Benjamin J. Sadock https://www.amazon.com/dp/1609139712/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_FXHRS2XVKGW5Q17ZR2K7

Love, Guilt and Reparation. By Melanie Klein https://www.amazon.com/dp/074323765X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_ZK5F7D7B07XRKH5XJBJ4

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