General Purpose Jungian Analytic Psychology thread

Talking to a lovely member on EC and seeing a couple of small threads showing general interest into Jungian Analytic Psychology, I thought I would take a stab at opening some general and specific discussion into this art

So a short intro.

My name is Daniel and I am a Feminist Jungian therapist. I have run the line from dream interpretation, symbol integration and other Jungian tactics during internship and therapy sessions. I have studied Jung to a good extent.

Specifically I am a trauma and anxiety expert. I work with sufferers of PTSD, GAD and Acute Stress Disorder.

So I am opening this thread in hopes to enter into philosophical as well as clinical discussion of the works of Carl Jung.

I will answer questions and discuss self-made topics such as symbols and dreams.

My two cautions

1. I AM a Jungian therapist, but know that Analytic Psychology is a MASSIVE field. I do not know all. That is a good thing because the day you think you know it all is the day you find out you know nothing

2. I will do my best to keep the feminist perspective out as I am trying to keep this pure

So...let's see if there is any interest

Foxface

 

Some of the really common ones are falling or at least a falling sensation. The ironic part is (to the extent that you believe in dream interpretation) is that falling can mean something major in your life or be a simple physical feeling. Have you ever been falling asleep only to feel like you are falling and wake up suddenly? That's what I am getting at.

On the other hand falling can represent the loss of self or identity or safety. It's literally your personal foundation being pulled from you.

Other common dreams are of a cheating spouse or partner and of course the ever-present 'being chased' dream

Foxface

 

I'll relay what I said to my new friend on EC.

As we know the anima and animus are the representations of the 'opposing' gender nodes in the gender you inhabit. So for example, though I am male and consider myself male, I have a feminine side whether I want to admit it or not.

I'll break down what I see as the anima/animus in the LGBT crowd

In the LGB portion, I see the anima and the animus in a stronger fashion than those who are exclusively or mostly heterosexual. If we follow social stigma and standards, a man marries a woman and engages in manly things. A woman marries a man and engages in womanly things. However, in the LGB crowd, there is (in my opinion) a stronger acceptance of the duality and bisexuality of human. LGB people have a stronger attachment to those 'opposing' roles. In a way I see it in a positive manner as a sort of freedom from gender stereotyping. Of course there are masculine gays and very feminine lesbians so we can't generalize altogether.

But then we hit the T crowd. Now some may see transgender as an overemphasis with the anima or animus. In my case if I were MtF some would see me as having a disorder or making a choice to overemphasize my feminine roles.

Now I personally feel it is genetic and chemical but it isn't a disorder. Rather, the T crowd has so consumed the anima and the animus that they become the anima or animus. I just find it rather sickening that in this day and age we still want to see and MtF or FtM as someone who suffers a dangerous disorder

Frankly, in many case, the anima and animus in the LGBT crowd is strong and more accepted

Foxface

---------- Post added 17th Jun 2013 at 05:37 AM ----------

I am totally stepping away from Analysis here, but I HATE that falling awake feeling. It makes me shudder

Some self-disclosure time. I believe in sharing alike. If I am giving an open forum to discuss personal matters I should not be afraid to do the same.

NOTE: this is not me trying to coax personal stories from you, the membership of EC

The scariest dream I have ever had was a ridiculously benign dream in the grand scheme of dreaming

I am driving one night down a very familiar road. This road is surrounded on both sides by trees and no lighting. This particular street is known for it's low speed impact accidents with deer.

In my dream I am driving. I do NOT go off the road, nor hit a deer. However, I wake up in the worst dream-induced panic of my life.

Through interpretation with my own therapist we gathered that I was feeling lost and travelling a path that while it seemed familiar, it was terrifying to me because I was taking the same dangerous road agaian and again (my addiction to Vicodin). The tricky part is when she figured out that the possible presence of the deer equated to the possible and extreme dangers of od'ing on Vicodin

Foxface

 

We'll take these one at a time.

I am definately interested in the same-sex/opposite-sex dilemma you brought up. Now here is where warning two comes into play. I am going to throw my feminist spin on this.

Normally I would suggest that there is still a level of discomfort when fantasizing about same-sex relationships. However (and correct me immediately if I am wrong) but I don't get that impression from the very little I have seen of your posts.

So two things are possible here

1. There is some difficulty you still feel regarding same-sex intimacy

2. (and this is what I believe is the case) There is no difficulty regarding same-sex intimacy but there is still the social stigma. Perhaps there was a time when you had not come out and some shame still lingers. Even though yoy may be comfortable being out or having same-sex relationships, society and politics still want us to stick with the opposing gender. So I wonder if there is still that stigma in your nconscious

I have never directly dealt with finding new rooms in dreams but I wonder if perhaps these rooms are potential paths or pieces of your identity or psyche that you are either not understanding or not prepared to face yet. Often times in dreams, the setting, room, or structure you dream of is a representation of the self.

Foxface

 

Then I would imagine some shame is left over, though it is unconscious

Individuation is pretty much the same for all people. The process is to rebuild the psyche with both old and new pieces. Both the LGBT and straight community have internal conflict and external issues to bear when in this process. The only potential difference I can conceive of is that the LGBT community may have extra stigma and extra issues to consider but the process of rebuilding is pretty standard

Foxface

 

@Hexagon

And that is precisely what Jung meant by the bisexuality of man. Sometimes I wish he would have just stuck with saying duality of man because people see bisexuality and thing Jung thought we all desired men and women equally. The truth is, he was saying we all have in us the ability to emphasize the anima AND the animus. You are correct, balance is a wonderful thing. Jung believed that balance was the ultimate goal.

I apologize now…this is going to be long

Feminist psychology has its basis in the idea that the political is personal. You can literally sum it up in that one line

“The political is the personal.”

Essentially what Feminism is saying is that political, emotional and social constructs place pressure on us as a psyche. This can be something big like the concept of marriage inequality keeping you from truly expressing yourself or it can be a local example like a homophobic mother keeping you in the closet. It simply states that our constructs affect us.
Feminist therapy originally started as a rejection of classical psychoanalysis (Freud) by Karen Horney (I know…what a name). It stated that gender affects our lives. It branched out to show us that every large and small construct affects the women of the world. Now in modern Feminist psychology it has taken the next (see also: logical) step to saying that we are all affected by our constructs.

Now here is the tie-in. Feminist psychology has phases or stages of therapy.

Building a collaborative relationship
Exploring the issues
Goal setting
Making power dynamics visible to the clients
Examination of power dynamics and assumptions
Balancing power
Personal action
Global action

So the purpose of feminist therapy is to get the client to see how the constructs are affecting him or her, recognize the power dynamics and take personal action to balance the dynamics. But Feminist therapy takes one final step and asks us to take global action and that involves balancing the dynamics of those outside of us. It can be the world, your country, your state or even a friend. Obviously this is delicate but you get the point.

Now the tie in is this. In Jungian therapy we seek to make close personal connections between our psyche and our masks we wear. Feminist therapy goes hand in hand with Jungian as you approach both. Both therapies explore the issues, set goals, and look at the dynamics of the mind and constructs. Jungian therapy looks at the constructs as well because we have to know how the environment and people around us affect our psyche.

The beauty of combining the two is that you offer the client the ability to look inwards towards himself while also looking outwards towards the fields around them. Finally, you take both personal action by attempting to individuate as well as personal action to balance the power dynamics in your life. Finally, feminist therapy asks the client to help enact change in the world around them.

I hope this was clear enough…thank you

@kadeshiswarmer – you and one other member really helped me to decide to make this thread

@greatwhale – you sir earn a gold star for asking an amazing question. Though I won’t take away from the equally enlightening questions and statements other members have made. Remember! Dynamic power balance! (lol)

Anyway there has been a terrible misrepresentation of what the anima and animus were and it comes down to those who reject analytic psychology. It comes in a few flavors

1. The outlier believes I am telling them that they are gender confused. The anima and animus is not about gender confusion. It is simply stating that each of us carries with us feminine and masculine traits. We are asked to attempt to come to terms with it

2. The outlier believes that I am telling them that they are confused concerning orientation. Again, I am not trying to place people on the Kinsey scale. I am simply putting forth the idea each of us has these traits in some respect

3. And this is the one I really can’t stand. There are cases of therapists misusing the anima and animus and making attempts to ‘balance’ a client. It seems small jut to explain it as thus, but the reality is some therapists are trying to mold a client into something they are not. I will state this in caps to be clear

A THERAPIST’S JOB IS NOT TO TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE

So yes there are certainly several misrepresentations of both

@Paradox15

I thank you for the bravery of self-disclosure. And don’t think I didn’t notice the ‘you are perfect’ statement in your profile. YOU are perfect as well

Now then, there are three major forces in the world of traumatic stress.

1. Complex trauma – This doesn’t apply here because it involves a person going through multiple and varying traumas during childhood.

2. PTSD – this is the onset and long lasting severe emotional reactions and avoidance of the triggering events or events. Typically the reactions have to last a lot longer than 6 months to be diagnosed

3. ASD – Acute Stress Disorder is a traumatic and avoidant reaction of triggering events that last less than a month

In your case, yes it is normal to have a delayed reaction to traumatic stress. There are a few things that occur in a helper-victim scenario. You witnessed a terrible injury and helped, hence you are the helper. Now obviously not all these will apply to you but here is the run down.

The helper may feel he or she didn’t do enough to help the victim. In this case there is a shame spiral

The helper may feel they should have been the injured one (though typically this is the survival guilt that accompanies an incident where the helper was involved in the trauma but got away cleaner)

In your case however, I would tend to think that you are having a typical reaction. You witnessed something horrible. I wouldn’t be so quick to slap a diagnosis on you. Yes for a diagnosis you’d have to have a prolonged reaction to the incident but I am certainly not telling you that you have ASD or PTSD. Rather, I am stating that you went through a bad experience and frankly are probably reacting quite typically.

Now the caveat is this. If you find yourself becoming crippled by this experience, then yes see someone. Don’t delay. The quicker you can resolve the better. I wouldn’t worry much

And yes you are perfect

@JoshS

Finally at the bottom…from our brief discussions I see a maturity in wisdom in you. You are a good wholesome person. The wise old man can be anyone though who has the maturity to coach or teach a life lesson. If you find yourself even as a silent teacher by proxy then you are portraying the wise old man. Not every lesson has to be loud and blaring. It can simply be leading by example.