Neilsen's characters played in some hilarious ways with what Jungians call persona and shadow. It's as the character of police Lt. Frank Drebin that most people will remember Neilsen. Drebin always presented with absolute deadpan seriousness, completely the stereotypical image of a serious policeman while…
I'd like to share a personal experience of mine through which I became changed, and, I believe, much more resilient. It's not that I'm trying to suggest that I've "got it all figured out", or that this set of experiences gave me "the key to…
The story of rescue of the miners trapped at the bottom of the mine at Copiapo, Chile embodies resilience,to a remarkable degree. The world's media have been following the fortunes of the miners with tremendous verve and intensity. From a psychological point of view, why…
We all like to feel that we know ourselves, and that we are fundamentally honest with ourselves, but is it so? Sometimes deliberate not-wanting-to-know keeps us from being conscious of things that we really need to understand for our own individuation process. To set yourself…
Andrea Huffington commented recently in the Huffington Post on Sarah Palin's use of archetypal imagery in the political ads that she has recently run with incredible success online. Huffington seeks to use the concepts of Jungian psychology to analyze Palin's message. In my opinion, it's…
Regret can be a potent emotion, and a great many of us have experienced its power. In my next few postings, I will be examining the phenomenon of regret, and the way it impacts us. It can have a huge grip on us. It can…
Jung's Red Book, which I wrote about in an earlier post, has created quite a stir in certain circles, and has been very well popularized. It has had quite an impact in cultural and literary circles, and has gained a lot of attention in the…
Let’s face it: there are a lot of different forms of therapy / counselling out there. So, why would someone choose to work on themselves with a Jungian therapist, as opposed to another type of therapist? Well, here’s a list of 6 prominent factors, which certainly led…
Anxiety Behind the Mask, Part III, Heart Trouble …I asked him why he thought the whites were all mad. “They say that they think with their heads,” he replied. “Why of course. What do you think with?” I asked him in surprise. “We think here,”…
Anxiety Behind the Mask, Part II, The Armoured Self, My Prison In the course of thousands of years of mechanical development, the mechanistic concept, from generation to generation, has anchored itself deeply in man’s biological system. In so doing, it actually has altered human functioning…