I signed up for a short jungian psychology lecture. What I enjoyed most was the introduction to depth psychology. It was amazing. There was one comment that struck with me and I am not 100% sure if I got that right, but I'd like to share it here. Please don't assume this is a point of view that is shared by all jungian psychologists.
We looked at the effect that unconscious archetypes have on mental health at a group level and how these archetypes are expressed in religions, narratives and cultural identities. Our spiritual beliefs play a big role in how we connect with the unconscious (both individual and collective), with each other, and with the planet.
For example, ancient belief systems often attributed certain behaviors to the influence of gods and goddesses like Venus, Mars or Cupid. When a person acted out that part of their psyche in a way that was disfunctional or disruptive (maybe too much jealousy, fear or ambition), they had a conceptual framework that could be used to describe how they were feeling as well as clarity on what needed healing. If my ambitious or competitive nature got the best of me, I could easily say “Mars is getting the best of me; I need to do something about this.”
Whether we saw that Mars energy as external and supernatural, or internal and subconscious didn’t matter. Only that we had a framework to work through those feelings. As we heard in class, the rise of monotheistic religions may have had the unintended consequence of eliminating this pathway to speak of and integrating the psyche; the world has seen a rise in psychological and emotional problems. Other factors may also be involved, I imagine it’s more complicated than that, but I still found the idea fascinating. NOTE: I have done my best to capture these ideas; it wasn't the point of the class - it was an aside.
The pagan side is interesting though because it would have given people a vocabulary to talk about what was happening, and also reducing self blame - but not taking away the incentive to deal with it.
This isn’t to say that everyone needs to be pagan or polytheistic. Or that we would attribute it just to that - there are chemical imbalances, different types of stress and other things involved. But the language aspect, I found interesting. I personally feel that most religious beliefs were meant to be symbolic and not literal, connecting with a Higher Power through our imagination and intuition. But the mental health tendency does highlight a need to connect with the psyche and the unconscious.
After thinking about it for eight years, I have finally decided to apply to a masters degree in counseling psychology with an emphasis on Jung and depth psychology.
Reiki hugs,
Regina
>> Update: I put that counseling psychology masters on hold. I am not a psychologist.
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