We welcome Sonu Shamdasani, PhD, scholar and historian of depth psychology and Jung’s opus. His research and expertise were instrumental in bringing Jung’s Red Book to the public in 2009. Jung’s Black Books, the journals in which he recorded “my most difficult experiments,” have just been published. We discuss Jung’s encounters with figures and images from his psychic depths–experiences foundational to Jung’s subsequent work and which opened a portal to humankind’s imaginal mind and mythic substrata.
REVIVING OUR CAPACITY TO FEEL: the heart of Jung’s legacy
Nov 5, 2020
Marie-Louise von Franz, Jung’s close collaborator, capped her public work in a 1986 lecture that summarized Jung’s signal contributions to understanding the human experience.
ADAPTATION: meeting life’s demands creatively
Oct 15, 2020
The world is the canvas on which we paint our lives. Through this lifelong work, we express personal vision, develop skills, and come to terms with the realities of our outer and inner worlds.
NEUROSIS: befriending our broken places
Oct 8, 2020
Jung says neurosis “must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul which has not discovered its meaning.” The purpose of neurosis is to help us discover our purpose.
SACRED SYMPTOMS: how does the numinous heal?
Sep 24, 2020
Life crisis and trauma can also open us to the numinous: fairy tales, myths, and religious texts relate happenings of help when all seemed lost. Whether sought or suffered, something greater appears when ego yields. We can act on the guidance that is given, and may attain the healing gifted by experience of the numinous.
At Home in Our Bodies: Incarnation & Individuation
Sep 17, 2020
Embodiment is the ground of being, and engaging the tension between instinct and archetype shapes consciousness and character.
Intuition: Non-Rational Knowing
Sep 10, 2020
We all have intuitive experiences, from an occasional hunch to powerful gut feelings. Unconscious intelligence is a storehouse of instincts and wisdoms humankind has accumulated over millennia.
The Provisional Life: Redeeming the Real
Aug 20, 2020
The provisional life might be defined as a vague malaise: current relationships, work, and lifestyle feel like placeholders until the ‘real thing’ arrives—someday.
Episode 123 — Every Hero’s Journey
Aug 7, 2020
The would-be hero first declines, then answers the call; he suffers tests and trials, succeeds with help from unexpected sources, and returns with the gifts of all he has learned.
Creativity: Drawing from the Inner Well
Jul 16, 2020
The root of create, “to bring something into being out of nothing,” echoes divine creation. Ideas arise from mysterious sources, yet creativity is such an intrinsically human function that Jung considered it one of five human instincts, together with hunger, sexuality, activity, and reflection (a function of consciousness).
The Religious Attitude: What Do You Worship?
Jul 9, 2020
The religious instinct is as basic as the need for food...
Dissociation: Encountering Our Inner Exile
Jul 2, 2020
Jung discovered the psyche’s dissociative nature through his Word Association Test. Subjects would delay or make nonsensical responses to ordinary words associated with troublesome personal memories or traumas.











