This Jungian Life Podcast
Episodes
Archetypal Aspects of School
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Schools have existed across cultures and throughout time; the knowledge they transmit leads us out of childhood, shapes our values and world view, and...
Dream Incubation with Machiel Klerk
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Guest Machiel Klerk has worked with dreams and healing traditions worldwide; his new book is Dream Guidance: Connection to the Soul through Dream Incu...
DEATH: A Jungian Perspective
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Awareness of death can help us create an intentional life—one that serves the movement of soul toward wholeness. Jung realized that although we expe...
Hans Christian Andersen: Persona & Personhood
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While many of Hans Christian Andersen’s 19th-century stories have moralizing motifs, their universality and depth places them among ageless fairy ta...
POISON: Toxic or Transformative?
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Pharmakon, the ancient Greek word for drug, can mean both “remedy” and “poison.” There is a close connection between poison and cure. Poison i...
HOMESICKNESS: Longing & Belonging
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From Homer’s Odyssey to the Wizard of Oz our native soil draws us home, whether home is a small Greek island or a simple Kansas farm. The soul has a...
VOCATION: Answering the Call
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Vocation, once associated with serving God through service to others, is now most strongly associated with a career having personal worth. Vocation sp...
THE PRODIGAL SON as Shadow, Ego & the Self
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jung interpreted religious traditions from the viewpoint of their psychological significance. The allegorical tale of the Prodigal Son illustrates Jun...
SHADOWLAND: DETRANSITION – THE STORY OF BETH
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Beth underwent gender transition from natal female to trans male and has since de-transitioned. In her early teens, Beth felt she was not like other w...
Causal or Creative: Is History Destiny?
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Roman god Janus had two faces. They looked in opposite directions, representing dualities, especially beginnings and endings, past and future. Psy...
THE GETHSEMANE ENCOUNTER
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Garden of Gethsemane is the place of life crisis; it permits no escape or compromise. There, we suffer the agony of choosing between personal will...
MORAL INJURY: Violation of Meaning
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Moral injury violates our sense of justice, loyalty, and meaning—and creates a storm in the soul. Those who directly affect others’ lives are most...
Jung & Freud: From “Bro” to Broken
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We welcome Jungian colleague, psychiatrist, and historian Dr. Bert Price, whose research in Vienna during a 2019 international conference led to the d...
Hunting: An Archetypal Perspective
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
To hunt is to engage the opposites: the hunter must attune and align with nature in order to kill part of it. According to mythographer Joseph Campbel...
FAILURE as TEACHER
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We first encounter failure in learning to walk—we fall down, the root definition of failure. Coming up short is a lifelong experience that stretches...
CAUGHT IN THE CONFLICT: The Tension of Opposites
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Holding the tension between opposites was one of Jung’s foundational precepts. Although contradictory views are often a better witness to truth than...
Amor Fati: Love of One's Fate
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Greek mythology, three Fates represented life forces beyond our control. One spun the thread of life, another determined its length, and the third ...
Trust: The Bedrock of Relationship
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Intimate attachments, workplace effectiveness, and stable social systems depend on our ability to rely on one another. Trust is the foundation of soci...
Special Re-release: The Archetype of War
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Recent events in Ukraine have again put war at the forefront of collective consciousness. War’s destruction belongs to the mythic realm. Mars, the R...
Forgiveness or Fury: Finding a Way Forward
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Forgiveness has long been the province of morality, virtue, and religious values. Psychologically, forgiveness requires the capacity to hold both the ...
DUPED: What Makes Us Gullible?
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jung says, “The more one turns to the light, the greater the shadow behind one’s back.” Unacknowledged shadow can increase vulnerability to coer...
Reality as Medicine
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The nature of reality may be a complex philosophical question, but from a psychological viewpoint, reality is largely a question of adaptation to the ...
Contagion: Pollution, Protection & Purity
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When the archetype of purity is activated, science and psychology intersect. Fear of contamination has deep instinctual roots, evidenced in universal ...
PORN: Technology, Consumerism & Soul
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly every civilization since ancient times has portrayed explicit sexual acts. Sexuality’s numinous aspect has long brought it into close associa...
he Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Connie Zweig, Ph.D., retired Jungian-psychotherapist and author, joins us to discuss her new book, The Inner Work of Age. She extends her well-kno...
LEGACY: Living Toward the Long Future
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Is the future relevant? Can we suspend immediate satisfaction in favor of our descendants’ quality of life? Legacy comes from the Latin root legati...
Jonah & the Whale: a dream for our time
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Bible as sacred text serves as a source of revelation and wisdom about the divine. As mythology, the Bible establishes norms for daily life and or...
Mr. Grinch on the Couch
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Seuss’ case history of the Grinch presents him as “uncheerful, unhealthy, unclean.” We hope that adding an analytic perspective will be help...
Libido: Tracking Inner Energy
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jung understood libido as psychic energy: desire, will, interest, and passion. Libido includes instincts for fulfilling bodily appetites and engaging ...
The Archetype of the Crocodile
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The crocodile and its alligator cousin appear regularly in the dreams of people far from warm, wet habitats. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the divine...
Archetypes and the Creative Process: A Discussion with Third Coast Percussion
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The creator, the hero, the explorer: these are just some of the archetypes made famous by Carl Jung that inspired the latest album from Chicago’s Gr...
Falling in Love: Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jung says, “Love is a power of destiny, whose force reaches from heaven to hell.” Falling in love is an initiation into the divine—light, and da...
A Well-Aligned Mind: How to Be Alive
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Guest Iain McGilchrist is a renowned psychiatrist, researcher, and author. His 2009 book, The Master and His Emissary gained worldwide fame for showin...
Humanizing the Hero
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mythological heroes defend, protect and quest. They range from warriors, adventurers, and saviors to magicians, loners, and rebels, but one way or ano...
The Fiery Furnace of Ambition
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ambition is a fire whose flames first rise in the first half of life when hopes and dreams are fueled by possibilities in the external world. It takes...
The Archetype of the Witch: Dangerous, Denied & Dishonored
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s witching season, the time when women of all ages embrace a mythical image of unfettered feminine power. The witch may cast spells, seek vengean...
Assessing Our Psychic Inheritance
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jung said of the parent-child relationship: “Nothing exerts a stronger psychic effect upon the human environment, and especially upon children, than...
Does Analysis Work? A Conversation with Jonathan Shedler, PhD
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“Talk is powerful medicine.” Renowned researcher and clinician Jonathan Shedler, Ph.D., joins us to discuss the effectiveness of psychodynamic psy...
JUSTICE: The Struggle for Balance
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Principles of fairness and justice have deep roots in the human psyche: we want to receive our fair share and a fair shake. When man injures man, we m...
Confronting Shadow: The Work of Self-Discovery
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Psychotherapy is essentially the work of making shadow conscious—all that we have not discerned then disowned, or projected onto others. We seldom w...
Self-Reflection: What Was I Thinking?
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jung says, “There is another instinct, different from the drive to activity and so far as we know specifically human, which might be called the refl...
INFLUENCE: Connection or Contagion?
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We have always been subject to the influence of others—it’s how we learn language, become socialized, cooperate and collaborate. It’s also how w...
SHADOWLAND: Prostitution - the story of Kay
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is Shadowland, a new podcast experience from This Jungian Life that explores the lives of people who work and take refuge in the hidden places of...
SHADOWLAND: a new podcast experience – September 9 on TJL
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On September 9th, This Jungian Life will launch a new podcast experience - SHADOWLAND. In this series, we meet soulfully with people who live and work...
The Archetype of WAR
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Recent events in Afghanistan have again put war at the forefront of collective consciousness. War’s destruction belongs to the mythic realm. Mars, t...
The Music of Metaphor: Healing in Therapy & Life
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Guest Mark Winborn is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst who teaches in the U.S. and internationally. Author of three books and numerous arti...
Splitting: Understanding What Divides Us
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We seem hard-wired to split the world into polarities: right/wrong, either/or, victory/defeat, Democrat/Republican. Infants and toddlers have not yet ...
The Wounded Healer
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are three major models of healing: medical, shamanic, and psychoanalytic. In the first, the doctor does it to you; in the second, the intermedia...
Tarot, Divination & the Symbolic Life
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Guest T. Susan Chang is a writer, podcaster, and teacher of tarot, the most commonly recognized modern form of divination. The archetypal symbols in t...
Time & Truth About Its Use
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Guest Oliver Burkeman states in his new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, that “outrageous brevity is life’s defining proble...
The Cosmic Meaning of Consciousness
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Answer to Job, Jung states, “Whoever knows God has an effect on him.” If, as Jung claims, individual human consciousness affects God, what we a...
Archetypes
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Although the concept of archetypes has philosophical ancestors, Jung’s theory was developed over time and rested on a foundation that was scientific...
Paying Attention: What Are You Spending It On?
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We plainly pay attention, using the finite currency of time and energy issued in the 24-hour increments that add up to a life - well spent? We have ch...
Letting Go: When Is It Time?
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the first half of life, we strive to develop ego strength and achieve our dreams. To want, will, and work is worthwhile and adaptive--until a life ...
Threshold: Moving Between the Realms
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In medieval times, the threshold was a plank that kept barnyard “threshings” outside the house. In the sciences a threshold is the limit of magnit...
The Unspoken Wounding of Men
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jung’s earliest dream, at age three or four, preoccupied him all his life, “in an underground chamber, a giant phallus stood erect on a golden thr...
Extroversion
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Although Jung’s theory of typology is the foundation of various personality assessments, it is important to appreciate its profundity as Jung’s th...
The Power of NO
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Toddlers have ready access to no as they discover the power of me—the start of a lifelong process of differentiating self from all that is other. Wh...
Risk & Reality: When Fear Traps Us
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We can’t help knowing that something bad could happen if we do X…or Y…or maybe Z. Like Odysseus steering his ship between sea monsters Scylla an...
Assessing Your Values: Meaning & Motivation
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There is value in examining your values, the powerful emotional and cognitive attitudes that underlie large and small life choices. Although values ar...
INTROVERSION
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The terms introversion and extraversion, now cultural staples, originated with Jung and describe the overall direction of life energy. The widely used...
Tending the Ego-Self Axis: Reconnecting with Source
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Erich Neumann publicly proposed the concept of the ego-Self (or Self-ego) axis and began to sketch its implications in his 1952 Eranos lecture, "...
When Words Lose Their Meaning
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1543, Andreas Vesalius dissected a corpse, thereby inaugurating a scientific attitude toward the human body. This new attitude taught us to stand a...
The Dark Side of Mothering
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our colleague Puddi Kullberg, author of The Bad Mother, joins us to acknowledge motherhood’s shadow. A link to her paper is below. Our culture ideal...
The Alchemy of Writing
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The wellspring of consciousness has long been located in word. Once words were etched on clay or inked on papyrus, a new way of knowing was born. Writ...
The Phoenix: Life’s Transformative Fires
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The splendid-feathered phoenix lives for hundreds of years builds its own funeral pyre, sets it on fire, and rises from the ashes after three days. Th...
Archetype of the Fool
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The fool in various guises has appeared since ancient times. The court jester seduces through comedy, song, and story. The dummling son of fairy tales...
Bonus Episode - MILKMAID REVELATIONS: JUNG’S EROTIC STAMP COLLECTION
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Swiss Jungian scholar Jager Schmallzenburger has recently released news of the discovery of Jung’s erotic stamp collection. Found tucked into the wa...
Exile & Alienation
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
not chosen but is imposed and unwanted: a relational break-up, job lay-off, or deportation. Exile can affect the human spirit so powerfully that the a...
A Comedian Walks into a Jungian Podcast…
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Elliott Morgan, comedian and PhD candidate in depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, joins us to explore humor and psyche. Elliott grew up a...
Belonging: The Search for Home
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Horses herd, birds flock, whales pod, and people tribe. The need to belong is as intrinsic to human nature as the need for food, touch, clothing and s...
Chronic Anger: Trapped in Resentment
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Like fire in a wood-burning stove, resentment burns long and hot: bitterness, frustration, and hostility. The fires of resentment are lit when we feel...
Navigating Young Adulthood: Risks & Rewards
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The twenties are a period of emerging adulthood, a time to engage in the maturational tasks of finding one’s place in the wider world and forming in...
Truth Telling: Revelations & Realities
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Subjective truths yield multiple realities—political and religious truths famously differ. Objective truths rely on independent realities—two plus...
Facing Your Feelings: Avoidance or Encounter?
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
While we welcome “good” feelings, we often try to banish “bad” ones like sadness, fear, vulnerability and shame. We may deny them by trying to...
Self-Loathing: What’s Gnawing on Your Bones?
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The judgmental inner voice has volume, speed, pitch and range. It may appear as a perfectionistic critic, demanding taskmaster, or abusive bully. It a...
MYTH AS MEDICINE: An Interview with Kwame Scruggs, PhD
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kwame Scruggs inspires men through mythology, drumming and connection to community and culture. As a young man Kwame discovered his inner fire through...
The Archetype of the Good King
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The king is figured prominently in myth, religion, and fairy tale. This compelling archetypal image has roots in our earliest human beginnings, when t...
Willpower: Choice, Energy & the Power to Achieve
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The ability to choose and exercise will is a defining characteristic of humans. Only humans have enough energy available to consciousness to escape th...
Fierce Female Initiations: Claiming Authority & Selfhood Through Trials
31 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mythological Paths to Personal PotentialMyths and fairy tales depict women’s initiation into authority and adulthood. Hades abducted Kore (maiden) i...
Scrooge on the Couch: How the Numinous Transforms
24 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Something's going on in Scrooge's soul...and it's tired of waiting for an invitation.Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol, vividl...
The Archetype of the Divine Child: Light Reborn
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people. Luke 2:10 The divine child appears when least expected,...
FANTASY: Do We Have Fantasies or Do They Have Us?
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is fantasizing helpful or harmful?Fantasy is the process of engagement with unconscious processes, from the depths of the mythic unconscious to the ma...
Doubt: Facing Life’s Unknowns
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Doubt disturbs us. Unlike the more defined polarities of ambivalence, doubt is pervasive, muddy, and ranges from crippling to constructive. We may dou...
Visionary Imagination: Jung’s Private Journals
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We welcome Sonu Shamdasani, PhD, scholar and historian of depth psychology and Jung’s opus. His research and expertise were instrumental in bringing...
Spider Parents: Finding Freedom from Dependence
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The spider is a symbol of generative and destructive capabilities. As creator, spider spins the sustaining web of life. As predator, spider’s sticky...
QAnon: Ancient Lies & Sexual Slanders
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
QAnon is a recent iteration of a historical pattern: Romans persecuted Christians, Christians libeled Jews, and citizenries hunted witches. When exist...
REVIVING OUR CAPACITY TO FEEL: The Core of Jung’s Legacy
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Marie-Louise von Franz, Jung’s close collaborator, capped her public work in a 1986 lecture that summarized Jung’s signal contributions to underst...
Horror: Why Can’t We Look Away?
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The hair on the back of our necks bristles in response to the horrors of the uncanny. Transfixed by shock, awe, dread and fascination, we can neither ...
When Despair Prevails: Facing Suicidal Darkness
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! There are few more painful thoughts or frightening events than sui...
Adaptation: Meeting Life’s Demands
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! The world is the canvas on which we paint our lives. Through this lif...
Neurosis: Befriending Our Broken Places
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Although neurosis is no longer a clinical diagnosis, it is ofte...
Curiosity: The Inner Engine of Change
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! We celebrate curiosity’s role in discovery, and regret its potentia...
Sacred Symptoms: How the Numinous Heals
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Jung states “the main interest of my work is not concerned with the ...
At Home in Our Bodies: Incarnation & Individuation
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Jung teaches that soul and spirit have a home in a living body, the f...
Intuition: Non-Rational Knowing
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! We all have intuitive experiences, from an occasional hunch to powerf...
Seeking Certainty: The Seduction of Conspiracy Theories
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!In times of uncertainty truth is hard to discern, collective cohesion ...
The Money Complex: Incarnating Our Dreams
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Money reflects our shadows and strengths as much as our bank accou...
The Provisional Life: Redeeming the Real
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! The provisional life might be defined as a vague malaise: current rel...
Pets: A Lived Relationship with Soul
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!When far from life in the wild, relationships with animals are often thro...