From the category archives:

Psychology

Schools Kill Creativity

February 20, 2010

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Read the full article →

Carl Jung and the Holy Grail of the Unconscious

February 20, 2010

This is a story about a nearly 100-year-old book, bound in red leather, which has spent the last quarter century secreted away in a bank vault in Switzerland. The book is big and heavy and its spine is etched with gold letters that say “Liber Novus,” which is Latin for “New Book.” Its pages are made from thick cream-colored parchment and filled with paintings of otherworldly creatures and handwritten dialogues with gods and devils. If you didn’t know the book’s vintage, you might confuse it for a lost medieval tome.

Read the full article →

Out of the Darkness

September 13, 2009
Thumbnail image for Out of the Darkness

When I was in 9th grade a friend named David shot himself over a break up with a middle school girlfriend. 10 years ago Preston, a friend and a great athlete, died from a drug overdose. 5 years ago my buddy and long-time neighbor Seth took his own life after the Katrina hurricane destroyed his home. And, four years ago, after struggling with alcoholism, my buddy Tara also made the choice that she couldn’t go on living. Even though suicide affects us all the reasons are poorly understood. It’s not a topic most people even feel comfortable talking about – it just seems so out of balance with the natural order. Research has shown that major depression and bipolar disorder are to blame in most cases. Of course, like in murder, some people may just do it in the heat of the moment – caught up in emotions so powerful there doesn’t seem to be another way out.

Read the full article →

Carl Jung In a Box

March 18, 2009
Thumbnail image for Carl Jung In a Box

Like you, my life is very busy and I don’t always have the time I need to address my acute schizophrenia personal issues, so I often just talk to my personal therapist, Carl Jung. Sure, he may have died 40 years ago, but that doesn’t mean you can’t commune with him directly through the new Carl Jung Action Figure. If you ask Dr. Jung a question and focus very, very hard, he will actually give you a response. Sometimes you don’t even have to concentrate – he will just start speaking. Often I have to put him in a drawer or something because he’s always saying (insert Swiss accent), “For God’s sake doctor, help me get rid of this woman.” It doesn’t warn you on the package, but as we all know, “Invoked or not invoked, Jung is always present.”

Read the full article →

On Life after Death

November 1, 2008
Thumbnail image for On Life after Death

Attached is an essay from C.G. Jung on his view of life after death. His witting is always interesting and this one I enjoy in particular. Jung says, “What I have to tell about the hereafter, and about life after death, consists entirely of memories, of images in which I have lived and of thoughts which have buffeted me. These memories in a way also underlie my works; for the latter are fundamentally nothing but attempts, ever renewed, to give an answer to the question of the interplay between the “here” and the “hereafter.” Yet I have never written expressly about a life after death; for then I would have had to document my ideas, and I have no way of doing that. Be that as it may, I would like to state my ideas now.”

Read the full article →

Young Indiana Jones, Freud, Jung and Adler

October 29, 2008

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Read the full article →

Turn the Other Cheek?

September 16, 2008
Thumbnail image for Turn the Other Cheek?

Last week in New Delhi, a radical group of Muslims bombed at market full of civilians. The Muslim militant group Indian Mujahedeen took responsibility. The group sent an email to the media five minutes before the first bomb went off. I realize this happens all the time and not just in India. The problem is that it is happening more. The other problem is that we are allowing it to happen more.

Read the full article →

Black Tide of Occultism

June 15, 2008
Thumbnail image for Black Tide of Occultism

I’ve been thinking about a conversation I had last summer. Some friends and I were discussing Richard Dawkin’s book, The God Delusion, with Rupert. As always, Rupert’s ideas are well thought out and always seem to come out of left field – at least to me. This got me thinking… There are people everywhere that quietly practice their religion and seem very happy and truly believe. Then there are others that are discontent unless they are spreading the word to others. I don’t mean “spreading the word” in a benevolent sense but in a militant sense. When I was an undergraduate, these were the guys that ranted all day long at the student center about how we were all going to hell. It seemed that unless we accepted their point of view, we were condemned for all time to fire and brimstone.

Read the full article →