Lionel Corbett: The Value of a Depth Education

Posted by Erik Davis on Aug 11, 2016 1:38:11 PM

A depth education has value for any individual because it fosters the journey of individuation, and allows you to get to know yourself. To “know thyself” is one of the greatest injunctions in the history of our thinking, suggests Dr. Lionel Corbett, Jungian analyst and professor of depth psychology at Pacifica, because the more we know our shadow, the less we project it onto others, and the more understanding and compassionate we will be.

If you are a therapist, it enables you to realize that when a client presents with a specific problem, that problem is not the main area of concern. Rather, it is the attempt of the personality to deal with the problem. Dealing with a problem at a superficial level is like ripping out a warning light and not dealing with the issue at a deeper level, notes Corbett. A depth approach enables us to deal with the deeper level of the problem.

At Pacifica, Dr. Corbett teaches students to deal with the deeper level of the problem, first by engaging in their own therapy with someone who practices from a depth perspective in order find out what it’s like to experience one’s own unconscious, and second, by undergoing supervision with someone who works with a depth approach. http://www.pacifica.edu/degree-programs/phd-psychotherapy