The Ecocritical Psyche: Literature, Evolutionary Complexity and Jung

Posted by Nikole Hollenitsch on Jan 5, 2015 12:09:00 PM

A guest post by Dr. Susan Rowland. The following is excerpted from The Ecocritical Psyche: Literature, Evolutionary Complexity and Jung

 

"A psychologist, C. G. Jung was acutely aware of the difficulty of writing about nature. To him, the unconscious is how non-human nature inhabits human beings. Unfortunately, the non-human and the unknown psyche are territories resistant to everyday language.

Here is an example of Jung's use of nature as a simile, a kind of metaphor using `like' or `as':

The moment one forms an idea of a thing. . . One has taken possession of it, and it has become an inalienable piece of property, like a slain creature of the wild that can no longer run away.
(Jung 1947/1954/1960, CW8: para. 356)

Jung is looking at the nature of the psyche and how it can be captured in writing. After all, to write about the psyche is to fall into a trap. Only the psyche itself, meaning all the properties of the human mind, conscious and unconscious, can reflect upon the psyche. There is no standpoint outside the psyche from which to view it with scientific detachment. If there is a nature of the psyche, it is one in which we are always enmeshed.

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Posted in: The Psyche, C.G. Jung, nature, Engaged Humanities

Heartbreak: Recovering from lost love and mourning, Part I

Posted by Nikole Hollenitsch on Nov 10, 2014 7:30:00 AM

A guest post by Ginette Paris. The following is excerpted from her acclaimed book Heartbreak: New Approaches to Healing - Recovering from lost love and mourning.

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Posted in: The Psyche, Trauma, Mythology

Violence in America; 5 Forms Embedded in Our Psyche

Posted by Nikole Hollenitsch on Sep 19, 2014 9:00:00 AM

A guest post by Fujio Mandeville

There are many ways to think of and experience violence: we can consider it as war, brutal acts upon our person; as passive forms of violence that is expressed as oppression, impoverishment, or the marginalization of those in a particular class, gender or ethnicity; or as disturbances within our personal and collective psyche. Regardless how we view this phenomenon, we cannot ignore it nor can we resist it. Violence, whatever its form, is complex and mythic -- deeply embedded within our psyche.

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Posted in: The Psyche, Mythology