The Quest: Vision in an age of Crisis. Economic & Financial Crisis. Jungian Psychotherapy

S3 Ep14. La gran relevancia del gnosticismo en la psicología junguiana. Jung y Gnosticismo. Parte C. Spanish Language Podcast.

Jung se identificó con los gnósticos por varias razones. En primer lugar, tenían un intenso sentido espiritual de alienación; en segundo lugar, ofrecían una crítica radical del judaísmo y del cristianismo oficial; y tercero, encontraron una ruta hacia el dios desconocido, su redención que, para Jung, se convertiría en el arquetipo del Self. Por todas estas razones, el gnosticismo y la psicología junguiana también son de gran relevancia para el mundo moderno que carece de guía espiritual en la crisis de nuestro tiempo.

S2 Ep54. Traditional, Modern, Postmodern, and Jung‘s view of technology. The Crisis of our Times. Part 27. Technology and Consciousness. Part D.

Firstly this episode explores the broad phases in social and cultural epochs emphasizing the critical determining role of technology and economic structures. Those most mentioned by social theorists are: Traditional, Modern, Post-modern to which is added the Post-human - the period we are now potentially entering.

Secondly it examines various viewpoints of Carl Jung expressed in Memories, Dreams, Reflections:

A. His anti-technology views.

B. His belief that one should live close to one's ancestors and past generations - that their unresolved questions needed answering in the present.

C. His conviction that other cultures lived closer to archetypal reality than the modern European.

D. That the modern white man and woman were archetypally and mythically impoverished.

E. That contemporary issues in his day related to sexuality and gender roles were leading to a future goal - the prevention of reproduction.

References in the podcast include:

Cushman, P. (1990) Why the self is empty: American Psychologist vol. 45, no.5.

Frosch, S. (1991) Identity Crisis: Psychoanalysis and the Self.

Gergen, K.J. (1991) The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life.

Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self Identity.

Jung C.G. (1962) Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

S3 Ep13. Los Siete Semones a los Muertos. Jung y Gnosticismo. Parte B. Spanish Language Podcast

En este episodio vamos a enfatizar el impacto personal del gnosticismo sobre Jung.

Lo haremos a través de su escrito llamado: los Siete Sermones a los Muertos. Es este un texto sumamente personal y esotérico. Nuestro argumento es el siguiente: Jung experimentó una iniciación en su confrontación con el inconsciente; fue el espíritu gnóstico y la voz gnóstica lo que lo poseyó en su descenso durante los años 1913-1917.

Los gnósticos vivían una tradición mística muy poderosa y tenían diversas ideas metafísicas y mitológicas que formaban un puente hacia los aspectos transpersonales de la psicología analítica. También su influencia personal sobre Jung fue inmensa, ya que él experimentó la gnosis a través de su espíritu.

S2 Ep53. The thoughts of two major thinkers - McLuhan and Mcgilchrist. The Crisis of our Times. Part 26. Technology and Consciousness. Part C.

This episode outlines the thoughts of two major thinker on the subject of Technology and Consciousness.

Firstly, Marshall McLuhan, a prophet of technology of the 1960s. who argues that technologies profoundly change our consciousness.

Secondly, Iain Mcgilchrist, the author of The Master and his Emissary. An account of the different hemispheres of the brain is given and their impact on the changing nature of consciousness during the development of civilizations. Especial emphasis is placed in this episode on the connection between technology and the left hemisphere and the impact of this one-sided development.

S2 Ep 52. The role of evolution and historical change. The Crisis of our Times. Part 25. Technology and Consciousness. Part B.

This episode considers our emergence as a species and the deep entanglement with technology from the beginning especially its interaction with the changing genetic structure and therefore with developing consciousness of the homo genus or lineage.

Technologies also alter human identity by deeply influencing the psychology of distinct periods of the history of civilizations.

S3 Ep12. Jung y Gnosticismo. Parte A. Spanish Language Podcast.

Jung dijo que el origen de todo su trabajo radica en los años en que persiguió las imágenes internas, cuando el inconsciente lo inundó y amenazó con quebrarlo. Lo que descubrió en su descenso al inconsciente fueron los gnósticos. Este espíritu fue el que habló a través de él. El siguiente grupo de episodios explorará cómo los gnosticos son componentes de la fundacion de la escuela de psicología de Jung.

S2 Ep51.Deep history and our entwinement with technology. The Crisis of our Times. Part 24. Technology and Consciousness. Part A.

Of the ten horsemen of the apocalypse,  the pandemic, the financial and economic crises have been described. The technological crisis is now examined, in particular the relationship between technology and our consciousness, a matter of enormous importance to our own age. This will take more than one episode.

This episode  will have a nDeep history and our entwinement with technologyumber of items for exploration:

Technology is and has always been deeply entwined with our consciousness and our human nature. They are systemically intertwined, mutually influencing, catalytically interconnected.

Hominids that existed long before our species (Homo sapiens) and their technologies.

Early humanity and its technology.

The Agricultural Revolution.

Capitalism, the most technological of all economic systems - the Kondratiev technological waves that are its motor. We are in the fifth characterised by a fusion of technologies of unprecedented power and danger.

 

 

S2 Ep50. The Financial Crisis part B. The Crisis of our Times. Part 23.

Financial collapses have been at the heart of all major economic crises of capitalism and examples from the 1890s and 1990s are given, observing that they are growing in intensity and frequency. Examples from early presidents of the United States, Jefferson and Jackson, are given,  both of whom spoke loudly against banking interests believing that they were inimical to democracy. It is argued that financial crises have been severe since the deregulation of the banking system in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 things have gone from bad to worse.

The present situation is that the major economies are not only hiding their chronic economic difficulties behind a financial façade of money creation and debt, they are also hiding their financial chaos and instability behind the same façade. You may ask then where is this infamous financial crisis that is so feared. The answer should be no surprise by now. We are already in it and have been so for a long time but its full force is yet to be revealed.

S3 Ep11. Carl Jung: Sus contribuciones a la psicoterapia, parte F. Spanish Language Podcast.

En este episodio se describen los siguientes puntos de la psicología junguiana:
La relación entre el terapeuta y el paciente.
La importancia relativa no absoluta de la transferencia.
Imaginación activa: la relación directa y creativa con figuras del inconsciente.
Terminología esotérica junguiana y tradiciones de sabiduría: Opus, Telos, Nigredo, Hierosgamos, Coniunctio oppositorum, Enantiodrama, Entelechy.
Una interpretación psicológica de amplio espectro de la mitología.
La importancia de la sincronicidad.
Arquetipos, ritos de paso, rituales, técnicas ancestrales.

S2 Ep49. The Financial Crisis part A. The Crisis of our Times. Part 22.

Firstly. some key terminology is explained, such as Financialization, Quantitative Easing, Moral Hazard, Price discovery, Gosbankification, Zombies, Gales of Creative Destruction, The Danger of Debt.

Secondly, a coherent narrative is given that is comprehensible to non-specialists concerning the recent history and likely future development of this financial crisis. It will also be of interest to those who have had a training in economics and finance since much of this does not prepare for this financial crisis at all.

Finally, this episode explores the emerging role of Central Bank Digital Currencies which will be key to reshaping the world financial order in the immediate future.

S3 Ep10. Carl Jung: Sus contribuciones a la psicoterapia, parte E. Spanish Language Podcast.

En este episodio continuamos explorando la contribución de Jung a la psicoterapia. Esto incluye: la crisis de la mediana edad; su clasificación de tipos psicológicos; dos metodologías, la analítica y la sintética; el tratamiento constructivo del inconsciente, el rol central de sentido y propósito; como contactar e elaborar los contenidos inconscientes; la activación de la función trascendente; la interacción entre el ego y el Self; el inconsciente no como un almacén de material reprimido sino un sistema interno que guía y transmite mensajes por medio de símbolos.

S2 Ep48. The long pause. The Crisis of our Times. Part 21.

The Economic Crisis, the next horseman of the apocalypse,  is updated and explained. We are currently in a  pause as the underlying malaise is disguised by money creations and bail outs. But this only postpones and augments the crisis to come.

# The post 2007/8 Global Financial Crash led to a new stage of capitalism in which massive government intervention in the financial system became the new paradigm

# This was accomplished through cheap and abundant money, propping up of the financial system at all costs

# Moral hazard has increased enormously

# Zombified companies have saturated the economy

# Stock markets have become disconnected fro the real economy

# Inflation in asset and housing prices have been typical of many counties.

# Increasing inequality

# Paralysed or declining productivity growth rates

# Astronomical and un-payable national debts which are ruinous for the future

# Price discovery, the essence of the free market system has been substantially eroded

 

Useful links for this episode:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?end=2019&start=1973

https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/publication/global-productivity

 

S2 Ep47. Decline of Civilization and the Pandemic. The Crisis of our Times. Part 20.

The pause button has been pressed on the economic and financial crisis with the rocketing debts of many nations which by trading current stabilty against future danger will lead to a mighty financial collapse. Civilization decline in the West is explored in the Romantic poetry of the 19th century. The causes of the current pandemic are presented as the consequences of a  fundamental disconnection and unprecedented attack upon nature.

S3 Ep9. Carl Jung: Sus contribuciones a la psicoterapia, parte D. Spanish Language Podcast.

Este episodio explora aún más la contribución de Jung a la psicoterapia. Esto incluye la Función Trascendente, el enfoque sintético que tipifica la terapia junguiana, y la interpretación junguiana de los sueños. Este episodio termina con un ejemplo de cómo trabajar con el reino arquetípico de una manera junguiana.

S2 Ep46. Overview of Series. The Crisis of our Times. Part 19.

An overview of The Crisis of our Times  series is provided; the ingredients of civilizational collapse are presented; future podcasts are indicated; the complexities of multidimesional crises are mentioned; a parable is given but the answer is not provided.

S3 Ep8. Carl Jung: El viaje interior de Jung: la Lucha por el Self. Parte C. Spanish Language Podcast

El concepto de Jung del Self no solo fue una de las grandes contribuciones a la Psicología Profunda, sino que surgió de su propio retiro y desintegración durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y su notable viaje para encontrar su propia mitología. Este episodio contará la historia de este descenso y renacimiento.

S2 Ep45. Spiritual Transformation, Taoist Philosophy and a Poem

In today’s episode I have decided to do something rather different. I have chosen a mythic individual at the start of Chinese history, the Yellow Emperor, and have constructed a poem using the story of  his retreat to the Mountains of the West in search of enlightenment at the feet of the sage Guangchengzi. This is one of the earliest stories we have of the search for spiritual illumination and its impact not just on an individual but on the collective which was in deep discord. I believe such a story, myth, or archetype is right for our time.

The literary sources for Taoist philosophy are taken from The Secret of the Golden Flower, a book of great importance to Jung. There are also references in the poem to the I Ching, the Book of Changes.

S2 Ep44. Part 18. Consciousness, Capitalism, and Death Potential. The Crisis of our Times.

This episode explores Death Potential which is not a psychological trait but a mythological and metaphysical category. Moreover, it is archetypal and universal and therefore is not unique to capitalism but exists within our consciousness across its whole history. The immense technological powers of capitalism constellate this Death Potential in the most intense form yet experienced by our species. This distinguishes it from Freud’s notion of the death instinct. I do not believe such an instinct exists in the human psyche but I do believe that mankind has a tremendous fear of death which is repressed, becomes intolerable and is then projected outwards. I also believe that the whole perinatal period, (that is the period around birth: in the womb, actual birth, and immediate post-birth) can be an intimate, dramatic, sometimes traumatic, encounter with the forces of death that can deeply shape human character. In other words our entrance into consciousness is through the gates of potential death. This is projected onto nature,other human beings, and the world. This is our greatest danger.

S3 Ep7. Carl Jung: Sus contribuciones a la psicoterapia, parte B. Spanish Language Podcast

En el último podcast esbocé una visión clásica de Jung del proceso de individuación. Cubrí la Persona y la Sombra. En este episodio describo las siguientes dos etapas: el encuentro con el Anima o Animus, y también con los arquetipos.

 

S2 Ep43. The Crisis of our Times. Part 17. Consciousness, Capitalism and Modernity. Part B

An extensive list is explored  of the changes in consciousness brought about by the development of capitalism. This includes:

The removal from nature. A material view of the world.  The increasingly rational and economic viewpoint. The abandonment of the religious outlook.  More individualism, less individuation.  An economic view of societal relationships.  A legalistic view of relationships.  Rational and bureaucratic systems of control.  Specialisation but fragmentation of knowledge.  Dominance of money relationships.  Greater education.  Wealth creation and enjoyment.  A vast increase in consumerism.  The impact of property ownership.  Technological reliance.  Greater freedom.  A change in the nature of the repressive apparatus within the collective psyche. Increasing dominance of the conscious over the unconscious.  Disenchantment and loss of soul. Nature is viewed as a completely exploitable resource.  The movement to a de-gendered human being. Informational capitalism – in which the consciousness of humanity is becoming fused with digital and virtual realities. The rise of artificial intelligence and the alteration of human nature.