Traditional concepts of God are no longer tenable for many people who nevertheless experience a strong sense of the sacred in their lives. The Religious Function of the Psyche offers a psychological model for the understanding of such experience, using the language and interpretive methods of depth psychology, particularly those of C.G. Jung and psychoanalytic self psychology. The problems of evil and suffering, and the notion of human development as an incarnation of spirit are dealt with by means of a religious approach to the psyche that can be brought easily into psychotherapeutic practice and applied by the individual in everyday life. The book offers an alternative approach to spirituality as well as providing an introduction to Jung and religion.
This book presents an approach to spirituality based on direct personal experience of the sacred. Using the language and insights of depth psychology, Corbett outlines the intimate relationship between spiritual experience and the psychology of the individual, unveiling the seamless continuity between the personal and transpersonal dimensions of the psyche. His discussion runs the gamut of spiritual concerns, from the problem of evil to the riddle of pain and suffering. Drawing upon his psychotherapeutic practice as well as on the experiences of characters from our religious heritage, Corbett explores the various portals through which the sacred presents itself to us: dreams, visions, nature, the body, relationships, psychopathology, and creative work. Referring extensively to Jung’s writings on religion, but also to contemporary psychoanalytic theory, Corbett gives form to the new spirituality that is emerging alongside the world’s great religious traditions. For those seeking alternative forms of spirituality beyond the Judeo-Christian tradition, this volume will be a useful guide on the journey.
Jungian analysts Vlado Solc and George J. Didier set out to explore the psychological dynamics and causes of religious fundamentalism and fanaticism. The book offers an in-depth-psychological analysis of what happens when a person becomes possessed by the unconscious energies of the Self. Dark Religion also reveals that spirituality is an inherent dimension of human life and one of its most essential needs. It only becomes "dark" when it denies, ignores, or separates itself from its vital roots. The authors coin the term "dark religion" to describe all forms of fanatical, radical and extreme religions. Their study shows how dark religion leads to profound conflicts on both the personal and cultural level--including terrorism and wars. surveys the vast contemporary cultural and religious landscapes. All the while discovering the emergent forms of spiritual praxis in light of postmodernism and the rise of fundamentalism in the new millennium.
In Religion and the Unconscious, Ann and Barry Ulanov provide a thoughtful study of the relationship between religion and depth psychology. An insightful contribution to the entire area of pastoral counseling, this book demonstrates how to combine religion and depth psychology in order to provide more effective counseling.
At a time when psychotherapy seems to be a purely secular pursuit with no connection to the sacred, The Sacred Cauldron makes the startling claim that, for both participants, psychotherapeutic work is actually a spiritual discipline in its own right. The psyche manifests the sacred and provides the transpersonal field within which the work of therapy is carried out. This book demonstrates some of the ways in which a spiritual sensibility can inform the technical aspects of psychotherapy. "The Sacred Cauldron is truly a book to be read by both therapists and non-therapists, for it offers a thoughtful, intelligent, sensitive passage through the spiritual quarrels and complexities of our time and addresses our common summons, which is to treat the life of the spirit with the respect, the gravity, and the centrality it deserves. This book is instructive to all, for Corbett not only marshals a wealth of scholarship and clinical experience, but also expresses challenging insights through a calm, reasonable, and commonsense appeal. After this book, the reader will be more thoughtful, more considered, more sophisticated, more appreciative of the importance of therapy as a vehicle for healing and for engaging the numinous." --James Hollis, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and author of What Matters Most: Living a More Considered Life Dr. Lionel Corbett trained in medicine and psychiatry in England and as a Jungian analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. He is currently on the core faculty of Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, and the author of The Religious Function of the Psyche and Psyche and the Sacred, as well as various professional articles. His main interest is in the religious function of the psyche and the ways in which this function expresses itself through the structures of personality.
In Religious but Not Religious, Jungian analyst Jason E. Smith explores the idea, expressed by C.G. Jung, that the religious sense is a natural and vital function of the human psyche. We suffer from its lack. The symbolic forms of religion mediate unconscious and ineffable experiences to the field of consciousness that infuse our lives with meaning and purpose. That is why we cannot be indifferent toward the decline of traditional religious observance so widely discussed today. The great religions house the accumulated spiritual wisdom of humankind, and their loss would be catastrophic to the human soul. As human beings, we hunger for spiritual experience. To be “spiritual but not religious” is one possible response, but it often doesn’t go far enough. All too easily it can become a kind of do-it-yourself spirituality, which lacks the capacity to effect the kind of growth and transformation that is the true goal of all the religious traditions. Smith argues that we need to be “religious but not religious.” We need an approach to religion that recognizes the essential importance of the individual spiritual adventure while also affirming the value of collective religious tradition. He articulates an understanding of religion as a participation in the symbolic life as opposed to a mere content of belief. By recovering our personal sensitivity for symbolic experience together with a symbolic understanding of religion, we facilitate a profound encounter with life and with the human condition through which one may be tested, tried, and transformed.
Jung's discovery of the 'collective unconscious', a psychic inheritance common to all humankind, transformed the understanding of the self and the way we interpret the world. In On the Nature of the Psyche Jung describes this remarkable theory in his own words, and presents a masterly overview of his theories of the unconscious, and its relation to the conscious mind. Also contained in this collection is On Psychic Energy, where Jung defends his interpretation of the libido, a key factor in the breakdown of his relations with Freud. For anyone seeking to understand Jung's insights into the human mind, this volume is essential reading.
Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, author of some of the most provocative hypotheses in modern psychology, describes what he regards as an authentic religious function in the unconscious mind. Using a wealth of material from ancient and medieval Gnostic, alchemistic, and occultistic literature, he discusses the religious symbolism of unconscious processes and the possible continuity of religious forms that have appeared and reappeared through the centuries. "These compact vigorous essays constitute Dr. Jung's most sustained interpretation of the religious function in individual experience."-Journal of Social Philosophy
This book is an important contribution to the history of psychology in America and the influence of William James on C. G. Jung, as well as a fascinating exploration of what it means to be fully human.Steven Herrmann offers each reader an intriguing journey through the open and curious exploration of human nature by two of the most influential psychologists of the modern era: the philosopher William James, Harvard Professor and founder of American Psychology, and C.G. Jung, who expanded our view of psyche and the nature of the unconscious. Based on historical research and a nuanced reading of their works, Steven Herrmann elucidates their reflections on the streams of consciousness, psychophysics, pragmatism, pluralism, yoga, spiritual democracy, vocational dreams, synchronicity, transmarginal fields, and the Self. "Doorways to the Self" is not a mere metaphor but an invitation to recognize the living spiritual reality that exists in every person.
