Search

In this paper, we explore how the emotions of eco-anxiety and eco-anger can be perceived as potentially constructive responses to the climate crisis. We examine the context in which these emotions are experienced and expressed in light of the relationship between human beings and Nature. We argue that these eco-emotions are both visceral and numinous, and that this dual characteristic is critical when determining how best to respond to eco-anxiety and eco-anger. We propose that a suitable approach to this challenge is to draw from the imagination and the symbolic domain, and we offer personal reflections on what this process may look like., (© 2022 The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

This paper distinguishes between Jung's theoretical discourse regarding the archetypes and his phenomenological account of numinous experience. For this author, the initial attraction of 'my Jung' came from both the vivid Romanticism of his descriptions of the anima and the apparent 'ground of being' offered by his theory of archetypes. However, the essentialism inherent to archetypal theory in general and the anima in particular has necessitated a re-evaluation of Jung's theory in terms of emergence theory. My own version of this emphasises the role of symbols in the constitution of affect through collective human action in the world. In this reconfiguration, the visceral energy of numinous experience is retained while the problematic theory of archetypes is no longer needed., (© 2018, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

In this article a specific type of narrative, which often appears in analytic sessions, is discussed. It is characterized by a seemingly ordinary, everyday topic and by a peculiar disruption of the narrative flow. The threefold structure of this type of narrative is described, along with its main characteristics. One element of this type of narrative is very similar to symbolic content or complex symbolic structures, e.g. dreams, the sort of material that can be used for the purpose of interpretation. The similarities as well as the differences are elaborated in the article. Thanks to the observed general structure and 'symbolic' nature of some parts of the narrative, it is easy to notice some of the unconscious elements, which are not familiar to the patient's ego, and to make an interpretation. Because these elements are close to the threshold of consciousness, the patient willingly accepts an interpretation based on them. This is especially true for patients whose dominant function is thinking. A temporary, working name for this type of narrative is proposed in the article: 'disrupted narrative' - and for its disruptive part 'narrative symbol'., (© 2018, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)