Fieldnotes From A Depth Psychological Exploration Of Evil

In Fieldnotes from a Depth Psychological Exploration of Evil, Robin L. Gordon presents an accessible account of an attempt to define and understand the nature of evil. Gordon takes on the role of guide to this confusing land, tying together threads of Jungian theory, philosophy, etymology, neuroscience and history, as we are led on a personal journey of discovery. Gordon begins by analysing what a twelfth-century meeting between Chinggis Khan and Taoist priest Ch’ang-Ch’un can tell us about the presence of opposing traits and the nature of evil in human beings. We learn what depth psychology has said about evil and the shadow part of our psyches, and examine examples of human behaviour throughout history to understand the etymological, philosophical and historical understandings and definitions of evil. Gordon’s own relationship with her work, and the feelings that arise when researching the psychological framework of Nazi doctors, genocide in Rwanda, Bosnia and Syria, and the functionality of serial killers, are interrogated. We then return to Chinggis Khan’s and Ch’ang-Ch’un’s relationship, attempting to build a real and practical definition of "evil", and assessing their dialogues as a metaphor for Jung’s views of the transcendent function. Fieldnotes from a Depth Psychological Exploration of Evil will be essential reading for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, sociology, criminology and philosophy. It will also be a key resource for Jungian analysts and psychotherapists interested in the study of evil and its impact on society and the psyche, as well as anyone investigating and redefining their own meanings of evil, past and present.

A.D. 3485 When it comes to First Contact, there are no second chances. Taylor went along for the ride to help her mother survey a new planet, and the offer of a few extra course credits for doing field work certainly didn’t hurt. A planet on the edge of disputed territory, sure, but the war with the Xathen had ended thirty years ago, and the Commonwealth had won. It didn’t matter that the first survey ship failed to return, things like that happened during wartime. But this was just term break, with two whole months to work alongside her mother and get to know her better while she sharpened her Xenobiology skills in a verdant paradise. With any luck, she would graduate early. But Taylor messed up, big time. Now she was lost, alone and struggling to survive, stranded ten thousand light-years from home.

This book provides an exploration of the clinical practice of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology. It explores the ways psychoanalysts and other clinicians are taught to evade direct emotional connections with their patients. Sullivan, suggesting that relatedness is the basis of emotional health, examines the universal struggle between socially oriented energies that struggle toward truth and narcissistic impulses that push us to take refuge in lies. She maintains that, rather than making interpretations, it is the clinician’s capacity to bring relatedness to the clinical encounter which is the crucial factor. Examining the work of both Jung and Bion, Sullivan draws on the overlap between their ideas on the psyche and the nature of the unconscious. The book uses clinical examples to examine the implications that these perspectives have for the practising therapist. Specific areas of discussion include: the creative unconscious the structure of narcissism transformation in analytic work. New modes of listening and relating that deepen analytic work and greatly facilitate transformative changes are described in easy-to-follow language that will help the therapist to find new approaches to a wide range of patients. The Mystery of Analytical Work will be of interest to Jungians, psychoanalysts and all those with an interest in analytic work.

Gordon explores the lives and alchemical practice of a number of remarkable women and comments on the way alchemy fragmented into esoteric studies and modern chemistry. Readers will encounter sixteenth to seventeenth century politics, religion, scientific inquiries, medical discoveries, and even the way love can result in some misguided choices.

On the life and achievements of Jagjit Singh, b. 1941, noted ghazal singer and musician from India.

What are the blissful islands? And where are they? This book takes as its starting-point the chapter called ‘On the Blissful Islands’ in Part Two of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and its enigmatic conclusion: ‘The beauty of the Superman came to me as a shadow’. From this remarkable and powerful passage, it disengages the Nietzschean idea of the Superman and the Jungian notion of the shadow, moving these concepts into a new, interdisciplinary direction. In particular, On the Blissful Islands seeks to develop the kind of interpretative approach that Jung himself employed. Its chief topics are classical (the motif of the blissful islands), psychological (the shadow), and philosophical (the Übermensch or superman), blended together to produce a rich, intellectual-historical discussion. By bringing context and depth to a nexus of highly problematic concepts, it offers something new to the specialist and the general reader alike. So this book considers the significance of the statue in the culture of antiquity (and in alchemy), and investigates the associated notion of self-sculpting as a form of existential exercise. This Neoplatonic theme is pursued in relation to a poem by Schiller, at the centre of which lies the notion of self-sculpting, thus highlighting Nietzsche’s (and Jung’s) relationship to Idealism. Its conclusion directly addresses the vexed (and controversial) question of Nietzsche’s relation to Plato. This book’s main ambition is to provide a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary reading of key themes and motifs, using Jungian ideas in general (and Jung’s vast seminar on Zarathustra in particular) to uncover a dimension of deep meaning in key passages in Nietzsche. Engaging the reader directly on major existential questions, it aims to be an original, thought-provoking contribution to the history of ideas, and to show that Zarathustra was right: There still are blissful islands! This book will be stimulating reading for analytical psychologists, including those in training, and academics and scholars of Jungian studies, Nietzsche, and the history of ideas.

Imran is a boy growing up in present-day Pakistan. His family is one amongst many in Mohajir Colony: his sisters work as maids, his father runs a motorcycle repair shop and his mother stays at home. Things change when there is a new visitor in the house - emerging from the dust of the railroad graveyard - as much a disease, a jinn, a drug, as a spiritual voice. The order of things is broken and everyone around Imran is hurled onto a trajectory of thought and action. The novel rests on the frail shoulders of ordinary people. Imran's eyes portray an unreal take on his society and the myriad people brushing past him. It is a living/breathing/kicking palette of Pakistan - a kaleidoscope with all the different characters serving as mirrors in the maze. Beneath the layers, a new subconscious state is revealed, which plays with real and imagined love, the experience of growing up in Pakistan and the detrimental, often absurd, ideals that form the basis of fundamentalism.