Love in Psychoanalysis

The author gives an account of her experience with Jungian analysis.

Collaboration between the Conscious and the Unconscious: A Jungian Analysis of the Negotiation Process

The common approach to the negotiation process focuses on the external manifestation of the interaction between two parties who are trying to reach a satisfactory agreement. This view does not take into account the internal drivers of behavior of the involved parties. The externalized dynamic between the negotiators is only the secondary result of the interplay between the conscious and unconscious elements in the psyche of both parties. The condition of a long-lasting agreement is therefore a collaboration between the conscious and unconscious representation on the individual level. This article examines the transcendent function as a union between the conscious and the unconscious, specifically the ego and the self. It focuses on the tendencies of these two factors that can either hinder or make the transition of energy possible in view of reaching a successful manifested agreement. The study provides a straightforward reference that can be used by analysts and business professionals to help them understand what are the psychological aspects that affect the negotiation process, both on the individual and on the collective level.

Individuation in The Seventh Day of Creation: A Jungian Analysis

Jung's individuation process is associated with the shadow, anima, self, sage, and persona archetypes, during which the protagonist achieves self-discovery and self-awareness. Abdel Khaliq al-Rikabi’s The Seventh Day of Creation is one of the most popular Arabic novels in the twentieth century which has postmodern techniques including polyphony and time travel to present two main distinct narratives. If these intertwined narratives are considered separately, one can detect therein the archetypes informing Jung's idea of individuation. Most notably, the function of these archetypes in advancing the author's goal, which is a kind of self-discovery and creation of the novel, could be recognized in the novel’s first narrative, namely, Kitab al-Kotob (Sirah al-Zatiyeh). The psychological analysis of this narrative shows that the author encounters unconscious archetypal elements such as shadow, anima, and sage; toward the end of the process of individuation, he becomes aware of how the form and content of the narrative are created. The first story is Sirah al-Zatiyeh which presents the process of self-discovery of the author himself, undergoes the process of individuation in order to collect the manuscripts of Rawouq. In a three-step process, the novel’s protagonist sets out on a symbolic journey to know himself and achieve self-discovery, after encountering the archetypes of the shadow (Badr and the poet), the anima (Warqa), and the sage (Shabib).

A Jungian Analysis of the Chinese Kitchen God Image

This article studies the impact of Kitchen God beliefs and worship on Chinese mentality and behavior, both consciously and unconsciously. At the conscious level, the evolution of the Kitchen God beliefs has gone through four stages; Nature God, Animal God, Half-animal/Half human God, and finally Human God. The evolution of the Kitchen God in China displays the features of a couple, aging and secularization. The experience of “returning to the sacred origin” can be obtained through Kitchen God worship by burning an old paper image of the Kitchen God and pasting of a new one of him beside the kitchen stove year after year during the Kitchen God festival. The secret to continuity of life lies in repetition. The image of the Kitchen God as an important graphic symbol is formed by a constellation of images; good pot and evil pot, two dragons playing with a bead, rooster and dog, the psychological archetypes as yin and yang, unity of opposites, transformation and integration. This ritual serves as a bridge between Chinese people and their “ancestors,” “the other realm” (nirvana), and “the Self.” On an unconscious level, the psychological significance of Kitchen God beliefs is analyzed through “the family hexagram.” The collective unconscious for the Chinese can be revealed by a continuous pattern of concentric circles structure, that is, “heaven and earth—the Kitchen God—ancestors—parents—offspring.” Through a clinical case using Sandplay Therapy, this article will show that Kitchen God imagery unconsciously shows the constellation of “family.” Family is the place of belonging and home for Chinese people, helping the client return to his inner source and gain strength through acceptance and transformation. The implication of Kitchen God beliefs for today’s Chinese society is to return to the most primitive “Tao,” which presents a possible cure for many kinds of psychological problems we are facing. It suggests that researchers pay attention to the psychological phenomenon of clients’ using the Kitchen God image to express their cultural feelings toward family in psychological practice.

Archetypes and Creative Imagination in ‘Ode to Psyche’: A Jungian Analysis

John Keats’ ‘Ode to Psyche’ is steeped in mythology and dream symbolism, which encourages us to understand it from the perspective of depth psychology/archetypal criticism. The odes of John Keats have been studied from historicist, feminist, and biographical perspectives. This paper aims to complement these perspectives by elaborating the mythical dream imagery of the poem as referring symbolically to the process of psychic integration and poetic creativity. The paper also views the poem as exemplifying the need for a complementary ongoing communication between the conscious and the unconscious aspects of the mind to maintain a holistic psyche. Archetypal theory is used to frame the figurative structure of the poem as a symbolic mythical variant of the process of poetic creativity. The paper employs three theoretical constructs, namely syzygy or complementation of opposites; active imagination; and individuation, as a framework to analyze the poem from an archetypal perspective. Employing a depth psychological perspective to understand poetry enhances the aesthetic pleasure derived from reading poetry and enhances the 'healing effect' of poetry by illuminating the psychological connotations of the poem. The paper concludes by attempting to answer two research questions explored in the analysis. First, does archetypal perspective contribute to enhancing readers' aesthetic pleasure derived from reading poetry? Second, what are the theoretical contributions of the current analysis towards contemporary Jungian literary theory?

The Coronavirus: A Jungian Analysis

Since we’ve talked repeatedly about the importance of Systems Thinking, we want to examine the Coronavirus from a different form. It brings out different aspects of the Virus that along with the Psychodynamic theories we examined in Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-71764-3_1 are difficult to ascertain without it.

Vom Krieg zur Liebe. Nietzsches Philosophieren über Männlichkeiten im Lichte von Gegenwartsdebatten

Recent discussions have connected Nietzsche’s philosophy of masculinity to the return of authoritarian politics. Neoconservative debates about masculinity, and right-wing extremism, explicitly refer back to Nietzsche’s philosophy and often present democratization, a feminization of society, and political correctness as responsible for a weakening of masculinity. One example for this reception of Nietzsche’s writings is Jordan Peterson’s psychological diagnosis of a presumed crisis of masculinity. This article undertakes a comparison of Nietzsche’s philosophy of masculinities with Peterson’s neo-Jungian psychology of masculinity in the context of recent conceptualizations of patriarchy, misogyny, and gendered forms of ressentiment. This comparison will highlight that Nietzsche’s conception of masculinity is more complex, and has philosophically more to offer, than neoconservative ideas about masculinity that onesidedly foreground male strength. Finally it will be pointed out how a Jungian analysis discloses aspects of the Dionysian that are of relevance to contemporary gender studies of Nietzsche’s philosophy.