Depth psychology
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Depth psychology is a broad term that refers to any psychological approach examining the depth (the subtle or unconscious parts) of human experience. It includes the study and interpretation of dreams, complexes, and archetypes, and it encompasses any psychology that works with the concept of an unconscious mind.[1]
The margin of reality is the threshold between potential and actual realities. These are the fundamental elements of the conscious and the unconscious minds. Potential reality becomes actual as consciousness breaches the margin of reality.
In practice depth psychology seeks to explore underlying motives as an approach to various mental disorders, with the belief that the uncovering of these motives is intrinsically healing. It seeks the deep layers underlying behavioral and cognitive processes.
The initial work and development of the theories and therapies by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Otto Rank that came to be known as depth psychology have resulted in three perspectives in modern times:
- Psychoanalytic: Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott (among others)- Object Relational Theories
- Adlerian: Adler’s Individual psychology
- Jungian: Jung’s Analytical psychology and James Hillman’s Archetypal psychology
[edit] Summary of primary elements
- Depth psychology states that psyche is a process that is partly conscious and partly unconscious. The unconscious in turn contains repressed experiences and other personal-level issues in its "upper" layers and "transpersonal" (e.g. collective, non-I, archetypal) forces in its depths.
- The psyche spontaneously generates mythico-religious symbolism and is therefore spiritual as well as instinctive in nature. An implication of this is that the choice of whether to be a spiritual person or not does not exist—the only question is exactly where we put our spirituality: do we live it consciously or unknowingly invest it in nonspiritual aspirations.
- All minds, all lives, are ultimately embedded in some sort of myth-making. Mythology is not a series of old explanations for natural events (cosmic, meteorological, agrarian); it is rather the richness and wisdom of humanity played out in a wondrous symbolical storytelling.
[edit] Related reading
- Robert Aziz, C.G. Jung’s Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity (1990), currently in its 10th printing, a refereed publication of The State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-0166-9.
- Robert Aziz, Synchronicity and the Transformation of the Ethical in Jungian Psychology in Carl B. Becker, ed. Asian and Jungian Views of Ethics. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999. ISBN 0-313-30452-1.
- Robert Aziz, The Syndetic Paradigm: The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung (2007), a refereed publication of The State University of New York Press. ISBN 13:978-0-7914-6982-8.
[edit] See also
- Analytical psychology (also Hillman's Archetypal psychology)
- Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism
- Psychoanalysis
- Psychotherapy
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Pacifica Graduate Institute
- Sonoma State University M.A. program in Depth Psychology
- Integral Science
- What is depth psychology?
- Kaleidoscope Forum Jungian Discussion Forum. All levels of discourse welcomed.
- Website of leading Freudian-Jungian scholar-author, Dr. Robert Aziz
- Center for Depth Psychology. Newport Beach, CA. USA
- What is Jungian Psychotherapy?
- :: Psychology terms ::
