A Troubled World and the Practice of Psychotherapy

Human science psychologies have recognized that a significant dimension of the distress that clients bring to psychotherapy arises from living in a disordered world. Drawing on insights from philosophical hermeneutics (Cushman), phenomenology (van den Berg), and archetypal psychology (Hillman), this essay considers the virtuous (Illich and Schwartz) practice of psychotherapy in a world increasingly inhospitable to human dwelling.

Dream Tending and Play

Dream Tending is a system for working with dreams that draws from elements of Jungian psychology and archetypal psychology, focusing on encountering dream images as living entities. The element of play is a vital but unarticulated aspect of Dream Tending, which merits exploration. The concept of play has been a significant topic for psychologists such as D. W. Winnicott, as well as contributors to the fields of social history and philosophy such as J. Huizinga and H. G. Gadamer. This article reviews the theoretical basis of Dream Tending emerging from the ideas of Jung, Hillman, and H. Corbin, and then applies the idea of play as developed by Winnicott, Huizinga, and Gadamer to the Dream Tending skills set. It concludes with a discussion of the clinical implications of focusing on play as a mediator of what Corbin referred to as imaginal space.

Ideas and sophisms. The process of education in the perspectives of polytheistic psychology

The author of the article looks at the processes occurring in contemporary culture through the prism of archetypal psychology of James Hillman. This “Jungian heretic” had a significant impact on many pedagogical ideas (aesthetic education, ecological education). Hillman’s polytheistic perspectives are processes that lead to the creation of the soul (“creation of the soul”) and awakening.

THE POLYTHEISTIC PSYCHE: RE-IMAGINING SOUL AND SELF IN JAME'S HILLMAN'S ARCHETYPAL PSYCHOLOGY

This article examines the notion of psychological polytheism in the context of Jungian depth psychology. The author focuses on the concept of the “polytheistic psyche” which American psychologist and philosopher James Hillman, founder of the post-Jungian

THE POLYTHEISTIC PSYCHE: RE-IMAGINING SOUL AND SELF IN JAME'S HILLMAN'S ARCHETYPAL PSYCHOLOGY

This article examines the notion of psychological polytheism in the context of Jungian depth psychology. The author focuses on the concept of the “polytheistic psyche” which American psychologist and philosopher James Hillman, founder of the post-Jungian

Towards an imaginal dialogue: archetypal symbols between Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Islam

This paper explores the potential for a dialogue between religious traditions based on art, in order to complement the dominant channels that rely on conceptual meanings. Building on a theoretical framework of post-Jungian archetypal psychology – as developed by James Hillman and Henry Corbin – we propose that the utility of such a dialogue inheres in the notion of an imaginal realm, or mundus imaginalis. In the first part of the paper we highlight three key features of this notion: the distinction between the imaginal and the imaginary; the significance of a culturally differentiated collective unconscious; and a reflection of the imaginal in practice rather than conceptually. We emphasize the materiality of sacred symbols that emerge from the imaginal realm. In the second part, we illustrate the importance of two archetypal symbols: the fish and the chalice. The significance of these symbols in history and in the practices of communities of believers is discussed. Thirdly, we discuss specific features of the dialogue emerging from these ubiquitous archetypal symbols.

Virtual Psyche in Play and Tending the Collective Unconscious

Knowingly or unknowingly, games manifest archetypal forces from the unconscious. Through play and fantasy, unconscious content of the psyche is able to express its deep longings. Hypnogogic landscapes of videogames provide immersive realms in which players enact psychological dramas. Game designers reside on a unique axis from which their work with the imaginary realm can create profound psychic containers. At this pivotal point in our culture, digital games hold tremendous influence over the creation of new myths, lore, and possibilities. This chapter investigates archetypal psychology concepts of Carl Jung and James Hillman for insight into 21st century realm of virtual play and its relationship to the collective unconscious. It focuses on how games provide a means for bringing individual and cultural unconscious impulses into consciousness through personification, pathologizing and meaning making within virtual play. It aims to introduce an alternative lens to bridge psychological dynamics with the video game design.

Archetypal aesthetics: viewing art through states of consciousness

A Jungian and archetypal psychology approach to aesthetics includes noticing which archetypes are activated when viewing or engaging with art. Archetypes provide vitality to art and can be accessed by viewers through attention to bodily responses and emotional awareness enhanced by imagination. Connecting these personal experiences to the collective requires framing viewers' responses within comprehensible patterns. Joan Kellogg's theory ‘The Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala’ offers a system for identifying archetypes as states of consciousness and making them accessible to a wide audience in order to aid understanding of one's responses to art.

Archetypal psychology and non-figurative painting

Given that the idiom of archetypal psychology is emphatically figurative, how do we deal with non-figurative painting from this perspective? This paper focuses on the kind of abstract painting in which spontaneous, gestural marks create a ground where specific forms cannot be clearly distinguished (Jackson Pollock's ‘drip’ paintings being a well-known example). Such ‘chaotic’ paintings call into question the whole notion of what we mean by ‘image’. I relate these to Anton Ehrenzweig's concept of ‘inarticulate form’, as well as to some of James Hillman's ideas about aesthetic apprehension, and also draw on my own experience as an artist in creating a series called ‘The ground of All Being’.