Anxiety and the Postmodern Condition

 This month, November 2016, Haruki Murakami received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award. He refers to Andersen’s tale “The Shadow” (you can read the story  here ), which is woven around the Faustian theme of losing, or selling the shadow, then being overtaken by it (see below an excerpt from  Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path ). Murakami warned against excluding outsiders and rewriting history. “No matter how high a wall we build to keep intruders out, no matter how strictly we exclude outsiders, no matter how much we rewrite history to suit us, we just end up damaging and hurting ourselves,” Murakami said. Both individuals and societies need to face their shadow; “we have to, when necessary, face our own shadows, confront them, and sometimes even work with them,” he said in his acceptance speech. And he is of course right, because if we don’t face the shadow, however difficult and aggravating that may be, the shadow has a Golem-like t

The chapter ' Four Hands in the Crossroads: Amplification in Times of Crisis'  in  The Dream and its Amplification ,  discusses dreams and amplification in times of crisis and turmoil, observing and explaining the increased synchronicity that may take place under such circumstances. The upstretched hands of Tanit at Tel Hazor. Collection of Israel Antiquities Authority, photo copyright Israel Museum, Jerusalem The following is excerpted from the introduction to the chapter: In amplification, we reach out beyond the boundaries of our ego, beyond the realm of ego consciousness, which by definition is temporary and limited. We humbly admit that our ego-identity is not the one and only, the grand-all and be-all. By amplification we recognize that the images that arise from the unconscious have a life of their own, and that the world of matter and psyche exists in itself, even when out of the beholder’s sight. The “I” of my awareness is not the grand creator of the

Should clinicians and mental health professionals remain with in the closed vessel of the consulting room, or should they step outside these confines and express themselves regarding trends that are taking place in society and the world, about elections and candidates, about democracy and the characteristics of different regimes? Psychoanalysts such as Freud, Jung, Winnicott, Erik Erikson, Erich Fromm, Erich Neumann and others have often stepped outside the consulting room and looked at the world and society around them. C.G. Jung  writes in his preface to "Essays on Contemporary Events," The storm of events does not sweep down upon him [the doctor] only from the great world outside; he feels the violence of its impact even in the quiet of his consulting-room ...  As he has a responsibility towards his patients, he cannot afford to withdraw to the peaceful island of undisturbed scientific work, but must constantly descend into the arena of world events, in order

 From Chapter 3, The Puer and the Puella Who are they, the young man and the maiden, the puer and the puella? We easily recognize them in everyday confrontations with moody teenagers, when sexual desire competes with dark rage, the one setting the house on fire, the other breaking up the walls. Alternatively, and even worse, inexplicable withdrawal makes the earth quake in deadening silence. There is beauty struggling with acne, and tender sensuality trying to contain awkward clumsiness. Eros and desire break through the face of insecure constraint, mercilessly exposing their blushing flare. Hope for the future competes with anxiety of failure and apocalyptic fears. Thomas Coyle: Youth Art and poetry, mythology, music and literature, abound with tales and pictures of the pain, suffering and sorrow of young Werthers, of hidden loneliness when the birds sing out of tune in a world without love, of trying to save the child in a world characterized by alienation and wi

In the present issue of Psychology Today, Pythia Peay, author of America on the Couch , interviews Erel Shalit (excerpted from the interview in  America on the Couch ): The hero archetype, as the mythologist Joseph Campbell taught, is common to all cultures. Yet the hero is writ especially large in the American psyche. From Gary Cooper facing down a gang of killers in High NAoon , to Captain Chuck Yeager (played by Sam Shepherd in  The Right Stuff ) piloting the X-1 rocket plane to the edge of the atmosphere and becoming the first man to break the sound barrier, it is a myth that animates the telling of our history, and that operates as a background force in all our lives. What is more—as vividly displayed by Republican candidate Donald Trump, whose invincible, strongman persona has propelled his rise to political power—our hero is an emotional tough guy. Yet according to Israeli Jungian psychoanalyst and author Erel Shalit, author of  Enemy, Cripple, and Beggar: Shadows in t

Europe’s Many Souls: Exploring Cultural Complexes and Identities by Joerg Rasche and Thomas Singer What is going on in Europe? In this book a number of outstanding Jungian Analysts explore the Cultural Complexes and Identities of their European homelands and nations. This is a new approach to old questions: What makes a people feel at home? How do their traditions and narratives form a cultural Self and identity? How do they differ from one another? Exploring cultural complexes as a part of answering these important questions requires knowledge of history, economics, sociology, anthropology, geography, psychology, religious studies, literature and poetry. But as every complex is built around an emotional core, the study of how cultural complexes live in the psyche is not limited to these disciplines. Each author and reader engages in a confrontation with their emotions, prejudices, and projections. The shape that the ideas and feelings of a cultural complex take in