Love is not abstract it is particular. I hate to shatter your illusions, but when Michael Jackson shouted out I LOVE YOU on stage, as he was want to do, he wasn't referring to you in particular, so I hope you didn't take it too seriously Love is not something you give to your community, it is not something you give to mankind, it is not something for the poor, or even for God. This is an illusion perpetrated by Holy Men...
This is a guest post by Ryan Parker. I was recently privileged enough to spend two weeks on holiday in the UK, in part visiting Stephen, during his marathon sabbatical, and in part simply spending time in London visiting as many places of personal interest as time and money would allow. Naturally, being a competitive Jo'burger I couldn't help comparing life in London with life in Johannesburg and actively seeking out the positives and negatives of both places. In the course of...
As people we always want to know things. We are incurably curious you might say. We want to know about what the neighbours are doing, what the latest celebrity gossip is, what the headlines are, who won the presidential election, when does the newest TV show start, who won the soccer, what time will they be here and so on. The list is endless: Who What Where When Why How How much With whom What for Now in that spirit let's ask another question, a question about the nature of curiosity itself....
I have been wondering recently what the ideal man looks like today. In a broader sense what does the ideal person look like? But in terms of applying Jungian theory it may be easier to look at the question from the perspective of a single gender, in this case a man. And possibly we can infer something about the ideal woman from there. Firstly let's contextualise the question. When I talk of an ideal man (today) what I am referring to...
Can you personally make a difference? Can you, as a single human being, in a world population of six billion (and counting), actually make a difference, have an impact? I know that the not so new age would have you believe you can, like the positive thinkers before them they are into the warm fuzzy feel good stuff. You can't blame them really its sells and let's face it like any religion the not so new age is a business. But forget...
There is great disorder under heaven, the situation is excellent. (Mao Zedong, as quoted in Living in the End Times, Slavoj Zizek) Nothing is ever lost, not even the blood pact with the devil. (C. G. Jung, CW 9.1) This post takes a closer look at the 'apocalyptic' era that we are living in. It is a follow on and amplification of the apocalyptic theme first raised in my last post These are Strange Days. My intention is to better articulate the...
In 1980 the iconic American Jungian, founder of the so called Archetypal or Imaginal School, James Hillman made the following observation. I find today that patients [coming to Hillman for analyses] for are more sensitive than the worlds they live in. Rather than patients not being able to perceive and adapt 'realistically' it is the reality of the world's phenomena that seems to be unable to adapt to the sensitivity of the patients. I am astounded by the life and beauty...
One of the classics of contemporary cinema The Matrix addresses a timeless question. What in analytical psychology we would call an archetypal question. Simply: is this it? Is this life, the world and this reality, fundamentally, essentially and absolutely real or not? If we conclude that it is fundamentally real, and furthermore that this is not only it but this is all there is to it, , then that is really that. The question is answered; and we can...
This post is a brief look at what creates meaning in our lives. And a list of a few of the containers in which the gift of meaning is to be found. To watch this post as a video click here . Meaning is not the province of reason, it is an irrational phenomenon. We cannot arrive at meaning (in the sense we use the word here) through a process of logical deduction. Meaning is not quantative, it cannot be measured using...
This post is largely drawn for a recent conference by OPUS (an organisation for promoting understanding in society) appropriately named: Man to Superman, Humans, Robots and Communities. The conference was held at the University of London, 9 October 2010, and included two presentations. The first by Dr. Simon Western was entitled:
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