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The archetypal images of separation and dissociation are very present in Jung's model of individuation, and Jung proposed a dynamic relationship between conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche of analyst and analysand. In addition, numerous contemporary authors emphasize the multiplicity of the self and the emergence of the field created by both participants, allowing for symbolization and transformation. I describe here my attempts to reach the encapsulated psychic split of a client. Defeated in my search for any conscious, developed self-state that could readily match his, I had to nurture the field of our relationship, where a child was imprisoned and allow space for daydreaming. The field ultimately supported the emergence of a primitive part of me matching his, which he required to safely mirror his experience. In staying and dreaming within this field of longing, we reconstructed his initial trauma. The defeat of my ego and the response to the multiplicity of Mark's states through the sustained reverie of holding a child, a single archetypal image, stirred the good mother in me, forged a container for non-rational, affective somatic psychic splits, and initiated psychic changes., (© 2021, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

A trend towards political polarization and radicalization is observable in many countries across the world. The rise of populist movements and an increasingly heated polarized discourse in the face of mounting environmental and cultural challenges calls for a multifaceted psychological engagement with these phenomena. C.G. Jung's vision of individuation remains crucial for understanding, and possibly mitigating, developments towards radicalization and division within and between cultures. This paper considers classic and contemporary depth psychological ideas regarding individuation, shadow work and cultural complexes, and applies these ideas to current socio-political developments. To further elucidate, Jungian thought is brought into conversation with the findings of a body of literature within social psychology called Terror Management Theory (TMT) which points to unconscious death anxiety as amplifying a sense of separation and otherness, as well as judgment and conflict between individuals and groups. This paper aims to deepen the understanding of current cultural polarization phenomena as well as to collective healing and growth by synthesizing ideas from Jung and TMT research, and to rekindle the fire of individuation as a counter to the trend of polarization, alienation and conflict., (© 2021, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years a renewed scientific, public and commercial interest in psychedelic medicines can be observed across the globe. As research findings have been generally promising, there is hope for new treatment possibilities for a number of difficult‐to‐treat mental health concerns. While honouring positive developments and therapeutic promise in relation to the medical use of psychedelics, this paper aims to shine a light on some underlying psycho‐cultural shadow dynamics in the unfolding psychedelic renaissance. This paper explores whether and how the multi‐layered collective fascination with psychedelics may yet be another symptom pointing towards a deeper psychological and spiritual malaise in the modern Western psyche as diagnosed by C. G. Jung. The question is posed whether the West's feverish pursuit of psychedelic medicines—from individual consumption to entheogenic tourism, from capitalist commodification of medicines and treatments to the increasing number of ethical scandals and abuse through clinicians and self‐proclaimed shamans—is related to a Western cultural complex. As part of the discussion, the archetypal image of the Hungry Ghost, known across Asian cultural and religious traditions, is explored to better understand the aforementioned shadow phenomena and point towards mitigating possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper will focus on what the author calls the 'green factor': the 'plant world's' ability to foster and manifest profound healing and self-healing processes. This factor could be considered an element capable of promoting the analytic couple's journey in individuation through a good enough rhythmical interaction. Such interaction is made possible by creating and maintaining, in therapy, a good level of empathy, mirroring and resonance that - echoing natural cyclical rhythms primarily in non-verbal communication - fosters the passage from dissociation to integration. This dynamic depends mainly on paying constant attention to the various kinds of images referring to nature, both inside and outside ourselves, i.e. attention on the green world that reconnects us with the wider ecosystem of which we human beings form a part. The author suggests that remembering and respecting the profound relationship between 'Mind and Earth' or Psyche and Gaia means developing and cultivating an ecological attitude or eco-oriented epistemology, a theory according to which, individual wellbeing can be considered a fragment of the health of our planet, in the same way as the individual anima is a spark of anima mundi. This theory has been embraced by numerous scholars ranging from Jung to Bateson, Mancuso and Schore., (© 2022 The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

The birth of a new sibling can create a state of inner chaos for the first born. Conflict, aggression and regression often occur as the replaced child adjusts to his loss of exclusivity. This paper describes a short analytic sandplay case of a 5-year-old boy manifesting anger and anxiety as the birth of his new sibling approached. Throughout this individuation process, a fluid back and forth movement occurred from regression to progression, and from deintegration to reintegration (Fordham 1988), as he advanced from the regressed Uroboric phase of development, forward to the age-appropriate phase of the Patriarche (Neumann 1990). As he grieved the loss of his exclusive status, Roy worked with his aggressive feelings towards his mother and the new baby, as well as with his feelings of despair. This process developed in the context of a positive maternal transference which allowed for both moments of deep resonance, states of participation mystique, and moments of projected rage and aggression towards the 'abandoning mother'. His work in analysis resulted in an opening of the ego-Self axis, a solidifying of the depressive position, and a movement forward in development. At the end of treatment, an initiatory process into the realm of the 'Father' was activated. Roy's symptoms had diminished and he was ready to leave the regressive pull of the Great Mother and move out into the world of peers, with a strengthened ego and an expanded sense of self., (© 2022 The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

Synchronicity describes a meaningful coincidence of events, which is familiar to us from treatments of our patients, but unfortunately has not yet been empirically substantiated. Adding to previous findings that point out beneficial aspects of synchronicity (Marlo, 2022; Lagutina, 2021; Connolly, 2015), in this paper I will show through a series of five synchronistic moments which happened in the context of therapy and analysis and which have been documented empirically, how synchronicities occur and can be used therapeutically. In my research I found several situational factors that can be considered structural aspects of synchronistic moments. Furthermore, I will show that synchronistic phenomena can have a positive influence if certain relational and transference‐countertransference referential aspects are considered by the therapist and analyst. The concept of synchronicity brings the possibility of a further therapeutical instrument for the patient‐analyst‐dyad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper explores the healthy narcissism related to self-expression and looks at how this is frequently pathologized and split-off, with problematic consequences for the individual and for culture. This is explored through Yeats' poem, 'The Second Coming', as are other personal, cultural and clinical manifestations, with a split evident between those who advocate self-denial and those who are 'full of passionate intensity' and seen as narcissistic. The paper argues that the process of individuation requires us to embrace a multiplicity of self-states, and thus a broadening of ego-identifications, including states of vulnerability, self-denial, self-centredness, murderousness and power, in contrast to the unworkable unitary identifications of previous eras, where such states were projected onto scapegoat groups in, for example, racism. The neurobiological underpinnings of the core self are outlined which, the paper argues, help us better understand and accept the broad range of narcissistic phenomena. Embracing guilt, out of care and concern as described by Loewald (1979), and thus addressing states of both passive and active blindness to the other, allows us to put a 'human head on the lion's body', described in Yeats' poem. Some clinical manifestations and dynamics are also outlined., (© 2022, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the symbolism of the cultural image Sun Wukong (the Monkey King), a Chinese legendary hero, and how it influenced an eight‐year‐old boy's psychic development. Through an analysis of Sun Wukong's life from his birth to attaining Buddhahood, a three‐phase healing process is identified in Sun Wukong's tale and the psychotherapeutic process: "naming and initiating," "nurturing and taming," and "transforming and transcending," proposed by Dr. Heyong Shen. Sandplay visually highlighted these key clinical changes in conscious awareness and developmental behaviour influencing the boy's individuation process. Images found either in cultural traditions or spontaneously emerging from the unconscious in individuals are of significance in human life, offering pathways to psychic healing and development. Further, myths and cultural resources used in clinical work demonstrate that having cultural competency is invaluable in Jungian analysis. Pathogenic and health‐maintenance factors of culture can be explored in future clinical practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper contains reflections on the use of the imagination in technologically-mediated therapy and analysis. As part of the individuation process the psyche is seen as needing to adapt to new technological ways of communicating. The notion of a technologically-mediated self is posited describing a self which can only be apprehended through, and by, the use of telecommunications. This self is seen as identical to the in-person self, a subset, or superset of it. There is a revisioning of our notions of the container and the field in this work performed through technological-mediation. The need to engage the imagination in approaching this kind of work is emphasized in order to create an imaginal play-space in which the body will be deeply affected. Some thoughts on how the process of individuation might look through such analytic work is presented., (© 2021, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

This paper explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on my relationship with analysands and my inner world. I reflect on the role of the archetypal Self during times of existential anxiety that may lead to an experience of 'essential anxiety'. This term refers to a meeting by a fearful ego with an inward recognition of the Self, when faced with threat. The efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic changed our ways of life, while the virus itself threatened our existence in debilitating or outright destructive ways. But what also came into view, in sessions of analysis and supervision, was the creative instinct, and a celebration of life. The soul-to-soul relationship, and the connection with images of the archetypal Self, made the experience of existential anxiety at times an essential experience that facilitated psychological growth. I discuss some advantages of on-line Jungian analysis where, despite distance and partial view, the body still serves as container to hold important psychological material, conferring a sense of wholeness for analyst and analysand. The COVID-19 crisis is terrible and terrifying but it also provides an opportunity for self-regulation and individuation., (© 2021, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the question of why the pattern of narcissistic object-relating (collusion) develops early in life and how it may impact the lifelong process of individuation. Narcissistic adult couple relationships are one of the arenas in which unresolved aspects of the past, alive in the present, are unconsciously brought and endlessly repeated with intensity. Adult relationships are often formed in the hope that both partners will wipe out their old wounds. However, despite apparent differences in overt social functioning, people unconsciously tend to select partners who are at the same basic level of personality differentiation, but who have opposite patterns of defensive organization. Primitive defences and projections, which are played out by the narcissistic couple, become a substitute for true identity. They can rigidify or disrupt the ego-Self axis rendering it inflexible. These dynamics inhibit the ability of the ego to gain access to the unconscious, and the Self to get access to the ego, disrupting the possibility of emergence of a dialogical relationship. This process creates obstacles to growth and individuation, which leads this author to suggest the notion of 'impeded individuation' in narcissism., (© 2021, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

This paper considers the topic of the 'good' within the literature and in clinical work. Milder forms of the good which arise on the personal level generate defences against personal vulnerability. More powerful forms of the good, which the author calls the 'truly good', arise on an archetypal level and overwhelm the ego, generating fear, even terror. The 'truly good' invokes defences against the dissolution of an intact sense of self. In both mild and intense forms, the good will arise in every analysis, will challenge boundaries of both client and analyst, and touch the core of the analytic relationship. It demands acknowledgement. Within these two categories, the author identifies five forms of the good that may arise in containable and uncontainable intensities: beauty, intimacy, becoming, love, and encounters with the divine. Exploring encounters with the good in its various forms expands the range of tolerable human experience - one of the fundamental goals of analysis. Living the good, or at times suffering the truly good, furthers individuation as it enlarges access to experiences of profound meaning, including the divine or the numinous., (© 2021, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the inevitable pain that integration requires in our individuation process. The unspeakable agony we defended against in order to survive we now experience consciously, including moments of going out of existence at the core of our madness. Clinical examples are given of these 'extinction points' and the abject helplessness analysand and analyst suffer in the face of this destructiveness. The first and second witness to this process (usually the analyst and the psyche itself) and the primordial creative life force are recognized in the process of recovery, a recovery that recoups the blessings of our finite human living., (© 2020, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

Jung's study centres on the amplification of pictures painted by a woman patient and posits their sequence as evincing the initial stages of the individuation process. His text performs a dialogue with its audience whereby Jung persuades us of this truth, and also reveals Jung's dialogue with his patient and with his own ideas. The present paper revisits the clinical material first with a focus on the interaction between Jung and his patient. The second part compares the 1940 and 1950 versions of Jung's study with attention to tensions that traverse them, such as Jung's attitude to the animus and his two voices as a practitioner and a theorist., (© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Analytical Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

This paper describes narcissism as our natural, infant-like behaviour, and specifies three characteristics relating to the evacuation and avoidance of distress, to control, and to distancing from relationship. It suggests that the processes of incarnation and individuation represent the development of the early ego and the 'resolution' of these narcissistic ways of being, including escape from the 'mirror trap'. The development of the early, controlling 'homunculus-ego' entails the loosening and broadening of ego-identifications and the ego becoming subject to the Self. This is an embodied-relational-social-spiritual process outlined in detail by the full 20 woodcuts of the Rosarium Philosophorum, and specifically the lunar (relational) and solar (self-expressive) paths, which are explored herein. These processes are illustrated with respect to the interaction between infant and caregiver, clinical vignettes and examples from the political sphere., (© 2020, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

This paper presents a preliminary sketch of what we have termed a Jungian socioanalysis - an emerging theory combining analytical psychology, complexity theories, sociological theories, socio- and psycho-analysis, group analysis and affect theories. Our assumption is that Jungian theory and practice need to attend to and focus more on social contexts, sociality and the influence of societal developments. But also, on the other hand, that analytical psychology, primarily Jung's theory of individuation and the transcendent function as well as the broad complexity perspective of his theory of psyche, can be extended to a 'socio' and not just a 'psycho' perspective. The paper presents five foundational assumptions for a Jungian socioanalysis, with the following headings: 1) A Jungian socioanalysis calls for a complex psychology; 2) (Un)consciousness is social and sociality has a dimension of (un)consciousness; 3) A Jungian socioanalysis explores social fields 'from within' by smaller groups; 4) A Jungian socioanalysis enables and is enabled by emerging metaphors and affect-imagery; 5) Socio-cultural fields have an impulse toward individuation. This is the first of two papers in the present edition of the journal - the second paper gives socio-clinical illustrations of our thesis in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper opens with a personal introduction to the topic of syncretism within the context of a comparison of enlightenment associated with Eastern religious traditions and individuation as experienced through Jungian analysis. A brief exploration of the recent scholarly revival of interest in syncretism follows. Some close parallels with Jungian theory are highlighted, especially in the work of Timothy Light. Applications to the syncretic trends in Tang culture along the Silk Road(s) suggest deeper patterns of interconnectedness lie at the heart of these trends. A complex systems view highlights similarities between syncretic connections and non-local aspects of synchronistic field events. The final section attempts to extend this approach to innovation in general terms through the recently articulated concept of the 'adjacent possible' from the writing of Stuart Kauffman. From this, the notion of a collective pre-conscious dimension to the psyche is extrapolated. The unifying thread of acausal emergent forms provides a potential synthetic network for these phenomena., (© 2019, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

The paper is a reflection on the conflictual relationship between adaptation and subjectivity, persona and individuation, starting from Jung's seminal writings, and their developing features in contemporary society. With reference to sociologist Zygmunt Bauman's speculations on so called liquid society and retrotopia, concepts like nostalgia are examined in the article. A case of a manic and violent nine-year-old child, a millennial-to-be boy treated in the mid-nineties, is presented to describe issues like shame, object promiscuity, consumerism and overexcitement, and suggests questions on whether and how these patterns would be different for patients belonging to the Generations Z (born between 1996 and 2010) and Alpha (born after 2010). The case material shows how the construction of a suitable persona was the only aim of the child's family, in terms of a merely quantitative regulation, their model being that of being adequately capable of consuming and being consumed, using each other for utilitarian purposes, and essentially avoiding the sense of self-and-other as live objects. Psychoanalysis is theoretically and clinically challenged and confronted with the conflict between the new features of adaptation and a dimension of subjectivity whose traits are more and more difficult to detect., (© 2018, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

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In 1923, Sandor Ferenczi wrote a paper entitled 'The dream of the clever baby', in which he identified a phenomenon he discovered through his clinical work: the notion that young children who had been traumatized often had accelerated developmental characteristics that led them to acquire highly acute sensitivities and intuitions--in short, wisdom beyond their years. He characterized them as 'wise' babies. Similarly, C. G. Jung, with Karl Kerenyi, (1949) elaborated a myth known as the 'divine child'--identifying an archetype which activates healing and intuitive understanding in children and adults. In their work, Jung (and Kerenyi) explored the 'divine child' archetype from a mythological and a psychological perspective. The following paper elaborates aspects of Ferenczi's 'wise child' and Jung's 'divine child', comparing and contrasting them, and suggesting new perspectives on the connections between Ferenczi's and Jung's theoretical and clinical perspectives, and the two men themselves. As well, and specifically, the paper explores a comparative understanding of the development of two different modalities of early psychodynamic concepts with regard to children and their response to trauma, aspects that continue through theoretical and clinical practice today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper looks at some of the processes that are at work in finding oneself in analysis. It explores Jung's unique contribution to our thinking about the self and its dynamic of individuation. The author attempts to show how the Self, in its quest for consciousness, requires the surrendering of ego inflation—the narcissistic delusion that the ego is the self. A case is made for seeing analysis as an individuation process which offers the opportunity for experiences of a more authentic sense of oneself. Jung stated that individuation requires the ego to enter into service of the Self. For this to happen, the author argues that both patient and analyst must be prepared to make sacrifices and take risks. Using clinical examples, he illustrates that, although purposive, the Self can be experienced as violent and destructive if the ego is unable to facilitate its expression. This may result in an individuation crisis for both analyst and patient. The paper demonstrates how impasse in analysis can evoke the transcendent function, which also requires sacrifices to be made and risks to be taken for analysis to proceed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myers-Briggs typology is widely seen as equivalent to and representative of Jungian theory by the users of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and similar questionnaires. However, the omission of the transcendent function from the theory, and the use of typological functions as its foundation, has resulted in an inadvertent reframing of the process of individuation. This is despite some attempts to integrate individuation and typology, and reintroduce the transcendent function into Myers-Briggs theory. This paper examines the differing views of individuation in Myers-Briggs and Jungian theory, and some of the challenges of reconciling those differences, particularly in the context of normality. It proposes eight principles, drawn mainly from Jungian and classical post-Jungian work, that show how individuation as a process can be integrated with contemporary Myers-Briggs typology. These principles show individuation as being a natural process that can be encouraged outside of the analytic process. They make use of a wide range of opposites as well as typological functions, whilst being centred on the transcendent function. Central to the process is the alchemical image of the caduceus and a practical interpretation of the axiom of Maria, both of which Jung used to illustrate the process of individuation., (© 2016, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper discusses attachment, the longing for familiarity and sameness (mimesis), the search for difference and separateness (alterity) and the problem with the Other seen through the lens ofthe individuation process in adolescence. These are explored with reference to relational aspects and Levinas and Girard's divergent views of the Other. The relational space, which in Phillip Bromberg's (2003) words is 'uniquely relational, but still uniquely individual' and in which analyst and patient 'stand together in the space between realities', might under exceptional circumstances be transformed into 'a twilight space where the impossible becomes possible' (p. 573). I will sketch a developmental trajectory starting from primitive states, in which the presence of the Other,as a separate entity cannot be tolerated and where the patient strives for total mimesis. Should the analyst prematurely shatter this illusion, she becomes an alien 'Other'; a wolf in sheep's clothing. I trace the current psychoanalytic paradigm shift to an emphasis on the co-creation of meaning in the interpersonal space and explore what alterity consists of and how much of the other's unknowability can be tolerated and respected without a translation into one's own idiom. The clinical vignettes illustrate aspects of therapy which normally lie outside the analytical remit and are culled from an inpatient setting and private practice., (© 2014, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

This paper takes the shape of a diptych. The first part explores the ancestors as embodied ghosts, internal objects or as mediated through ancestral heritage, as these aspects intertwine in a Möbius strip. The second part looks at ancestral heritage and the different ways in which 'family myth' appears in a Jungian context and in Systemic Psychotherapy (family therapy). Both share an interface through the current paradigm shifts towards mutual reflexivity in patient and therapist and a focus on the interpersonal space. The ancestors give substance to the eternal riddle: 'from whence do we come, who are we and where do we go', which connects past, present and future. Our ancestors are part of our minds, perhaps in the way Damasio (2010) postulates that ancestral experiences mediated through culture shape our brains. The leitmotiv of individuation through mimesis (sameness) and alterity (difference) runs through both parts., (© 2012, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

Gender assignment, as a key aspect of identity and cultural position, has existed throughout recorded time and across all cultures. An individual's biological sex and particular cultural milieu has a profound effect on their sense of themselves as a gendered being. Sexuality is a more recent marker in identity formation. In the last few decades there has emerged a great deal of interest in the psychology of gender formation, in the interplay of biological sex, culture, brain development, and attachment experiences in the formation of gender identities. Queer theory in its post-modern deconstructionist thinking has suggested that gender is a socially 'constructed' concept having no biological or psychological precursors or realities. Contemporary developmental psychoanalysis is bridging the gap between concepts of gender as purely biological and gender as non-existent. In this paper I explore the emergence of same-sex desire at mid-life, presenting two case histories with extensive dream material. The impact of sexual desire on gender identities is examined through the lenses of culture, dynamic systems theory, neuroscience, and depth psychology. The use of dream analysis as a window into the body/mind movement of gender emergence reflects my sense of gender as a fluidly shifting reality of mind, neither hardwired nor fictional.

This paper discusses the characteristics of psychotherapy for pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) in the context of the curative effects of the movement of images. The 'autistic spectrum' is widened here and includes not only PDD, but also ADHD. The main common characteristic in these two sets of disorders seems to be the lack of a subject, which manifests itself as the absence of awareness of otherness and difficulties with boundaries and language. In these cases a normal psychotherapy is ineffective as it presupposes an established subject. However a psychotherapeutic approach with these patients can contribute to the emergence of a subject. In severe cases the process of union and separation which is enacted either in the therapeutic relationship or in symbolic play leads to the birth of a subject, and of language. In milder cases, such as ADHD, the moments of separation and confrontation with the therapist suffice. I will discuss a case of my own with Asperger's syndrome in which union and separation in the play therapy occurred simultaneously. This indicates that union and separation are not a consecutive process, but are simultaneous and lead to dialectical movement. However, in neurotic cases with an established subjectivity the symbolic meaning of image plays a central role. This corresponds to Jung's understanding of image in alchemy.

This paper is about the psychotherapy of a woman who passed from what Waddell (1998) would term 'older age' to 'later life', by which latter I mean the inevitable decline into dying and death. However unwelcome these developments may be to the individual, they are none the less activities of the soma, and therefore activities of the self-deintegrates. Much of the work of the psychotherapy centred around the task of enabling the patient to relate to and accept the bodily and emotional correlates of this process, which she tended to want to disown and deny by means of a split between mind and body along the lines of a long-standing internal depressive relationship. Permitting her contact with herself allowed her a much greater sense of internal company and peace, and arguably facilitated an easier process of dying, involving a self reconciled with itself rather than one at odds. Technically, the approach involved a greater concentration on the intrapsychic relationship rather than on the relationship between patient and analyst, and this is briefly discussed in terms of the work of Armando Ferrari who had himself died, shortly before the paper was first presented, and to whom therefore it is in part a homage.

The film American Beauty is used as a vehicle to explore difficulties in the individuation process, to look at a particular aspect of couple relationships in which mourning is avoided, and to make a general comment about the relationship between film and psychological experience. The thesis of the paper is that the individuation process is both an intra-psychic experience and an inter-psychic one which relies on relationships with external figures to enable development. The adult couple relationship is taken as one of the key areas of emotional life for the individuation process and as an area that can best show up false starts, successes, or even retreats in psychological development. Using the poetry of William Blake and the work of Michael Fordham, I show a process of anti-individuation going on in the relationship between the characters of Lester and Carolyn Burnham in the film.

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the last ten years both analysts and neuroscientists have begun to challenge the analytic world to explore the analytic view of the mind in relation to knowledge emerging from the field of neuroscience. I find that ‘in many ways it is Jung's understanding of the mind, the human condition, and the self, that is most compatible with the insights that are emerging from neuroscience today’ (Wilkinson 2004, p. 84). In this paper I consider the insights that neuroscience has to offer us as we seek to work with those patients whose early experience has diminished their capacity to be ‘in mind’ and with it their capacity for reflective self-function, whose defences are dissociative, whose need has been to keep unbearable experience at bay, out of mind. I look first at dissociationist theory and its development, then focus on the insights to be gained from neuroscience with regard to early trauma and its effect on the encoding and recall of memory. Finally, I turn to the nature of cure and argue that hemispheric integration is the key to undoing dissociation and the prelude to individuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]