Scan barcode
A review by morgan_blackledge
Man and His Symbols by C.G. Jung
4.0
AA has a phrase for disliking, discounting or dismissing something before completely understanding or trying it:
“contempt prior to investigation”
When it comes to the depth orientation, I am plainly guilty of contempt prior to investigation.
Some of my contempt for depth psychologically stemmed from needing tangibility and clarity in my early training as a clinician.
I rejected old, non-scientifically derived models in favor of more contemporary, “evidence based” approaches e.g. CBT/DBT/ACT etc.
This is not a bad thing.
It was (and remains) a necessary counterbalance to my chaotic, new-age hippy childhood, and my flaky (but fun as fuck) party with me punker young adulthood.
When I (finally) stumbled into therapy in my early thirties, my therpaist jolted me out of my confused dysfunction with a little CBT and a lot of simple common sense, something I was severely lacking but desperately needed.
If she had been a Jungian, I may not have survived that painful period. I needed boundaries, structure and confrontation.
After my anarchic, acid test of a prior life, I needed the clarity and tangibility of positivistic, rational scientific materialism.
I am very grateful to myself for asserting that need in my clinical training. I didn’t want to emerge from that experience without something very concrete. It was absolutely the right move, and I’m still deeply rooted in CBT/DBT/ACT.
I worked in addiction treatment for the next 10 years, and CBT/DBT/ACT was precisely suited for that environment.
Given all that….
As I transition from working in a short-term, crisis management, milieu driven, team based recovery context, into a longer term private practice context, the use value of the depth orientation (and psychodynamic psychotherapy more generally) is absolutely apparent.
And that makes sense, as these methods were created in, and for, the private practice context.
I’m grateful that I have the foundations of CBT/DBT/ACT to build upon, and the boundaries I learned to set as a clinician in residential treatment are priceless.
But the depth/dynamic way of conceptualizing and working is speaking to me in a way that I simply can’t ignore.
And I’m going with it.
Of course, there is lots (AND LOTS) of useless nonsense to parse through, particularly in these (50+ year-old texts), but I’m not looking to these types of books for valid truth claims.
I’m looking to them for something that is useful, and wise, even if imprecise and subjective.
With that lengthy preface.
I kind of loved this book.
And it sort of blew my mind.
I was already familiar with most of the constructs covered in the book.
But I have to say.
I am relating to them in a much different way than in the past.
The important issues covered herein include:
The role of unconscious processes (instincts and preconscious thoughts and feelings) in human functions.
The role of archetype in human functioning.
And the process of individuation i.e. the process of emerging from the structureless pure potentiality of childhood, into the focused, self aware, specificity and focus of adulthood.
Individuation entails a close examination and a very personal interpretation of psychological content, and the archetypal symbolism and themes found therein.
In this way of viewing the project of human becoming. Consciousness holds the keys to the unconscious. In other words, reifying our unconscious, undifferentiated psychological content into conscious, specific from is the definitive human endeavor. And we need explicit language and constructs to give specific form and meaning to the otherwise undifferentiated miasma of our phenomenological experience.
Reading this has me trying new things, and pursuing new directions in therapy.
I feel vital and curious.
I’m glad I waited.
The timing seems perfect.
4/5 stars ⭐️
Why not five?
I was hoping for more original work.
Most of this book was authored by contributors other than Carl Jung.
And (of course) the text is dated in areas.
It’s like over 50 years old.
But don’t let that stop you.
Go ahead and get it if you’re curious or otherwise so inclined.
“contempt prior to investigation”
When it comes to the depth orientation, I am plainly guilty of contempt prior to investigation.
Some of my contempt for depth psychologically stemmed from needing tangibility and clarity in my early training as a clinician.
I rejected old, non-scientifically derived models in favor of more contemporary, “evidence based” approaches e.g. CBT/DBT/ACT etc.
This is not a bad thing.
It was (and remains) a necessary counterbalance to my chaotic, new-age hippy childhood, and my flaky (but fun as fuck) party with me punker young adulthood.
When I (finally) stumbled into therapy in my early thirties, my therpaist jolted me out of my confused dysfunction with a little CBT and a lot of simple common sense, something I was severely lacking but desperately needed.
If she had been a Jungian, I may not have survived that painful period. I needed boundaries, structure and confrontation.
After my anarchic, acid test of a prior life, I needed the clarity and tangibility of positivistic, rational scientific materialism.
I am very grateful to myself for asserting that need in my clinical training. I didn’t want to emerge from that experience without something very concrete. It was absolutely the right move, and I’m still deeply rooted in CBT/DBT/ACT.
I worked in addiction treatment for the next 10 years, and CBT/DBT/ACT was precisely suited for that environment.
Given all that….
As I transition from working in a short-term, crisis management, milieu driven, team based recovery context, into a longer term private practice context, the use value of the depth orientation (and psychodynamic psychotherapy more generally) is absolutely apparent.
And that makes sense, as these methods were created in, and for, the private practice context.
I’m grateful that I have the foundations of CBT/DBT/ACT to build upon, and the boundaries I learned to set as a clinician in residential treatment are priceless.
But the depth/dynamic way of conceptualizing and working is speaking to me in a way that I simply can’t ignore.
And I’m going with it.
Of course, there is lots (AND LOTS) of useless nonsense to parse through, particularly in these (50+ year-old texts), but I’m not looking to these types of books for valid truth claims.
I’m looking to them for something that is useful, and wise, even if imprecise and subjective.
With that lengthy preface.
I kind of loved this book.
And it sort of blew my mind.
I was already familiar with most of the constructs covered in the book.
But I have to say.
I am relating to them in a much different way than in the past.
The important issues covered herein include:
The role of unconscious processes (instincts and preconscious thoughts and feelings) in human functions.
The role of archetype in human functioning.
And the process of individuation i.e. the process of emerging from the structureless pure potentiality of childhood, into the focused, self aware, specificity and focus of adulthood.
Individuation entails a close examination and a very personal interpretation of psychological content, and the archetypal symbolism and themes found therein.
In this way of viewing the project of human becoming. Consciousness holds the keys to the unconscious. In other words, reifying our unconscious, undifferentiated psychological content into conscious, specific from is the definitive human endeavor. And we need explicit language and constructs to give specific form and meaning to the otherwise undifferentiated miasma of our phenomenological experience.
Reading this has me trying new things, and pursuing new directions in therapy.
I feel vital and curious.
I’m glad I waited.
The timing seems perfect.
4/5 stars ⭐️
Why not five?
I was hoping for more original work.
Most of this book was authored by contributors other than Carl Jung.
And (of course) the text is dated in areas.
It’s like over 50 years old.
But don’t let that stop you.
Go ahead and get it if you’re curious or otherwise so inclined.