In Pursuit of the Functional Definition of a Mind: The Pivotal Role of a Discourse

This article is devoted to describing results of conceptualization of the idea of mind at the stage of maturity. Delineated the acquisition by the energy system (mind) of stable morphological characteristics, which associated with such a pivotal formation as the discourse. A qualitative structural and ontological sign of the system transition to this stage is the transformation of the verbal morphology of the mind into a discursive one. The analysis of the poststructuralist understanding of discourse in the context of the dispersion of meanings (Foucault) made it possible to formulate a notion of it as a meaning that is constituted by the relation between the discursive practice and the worldview, regarded as a meta-discourse or a global discursive formation. In consequence of this relationship, a discrete and simultaneous scattering of meanings arises, the procedural side of which is a concrete discourse, and its productive aspect is linked with the creation of a local discursive formation. Based on this view it is proposed a logical formula of discourse, which takes into account the entropy of the language and the entropy of the worldview, as a particular manifestation of the mind entropy. Using this formula and considering the reactive nature of discourse, it was developed a classification, which included such types of discourses as reactive, suggestive, synthetic and creative. In turn, the proposed types of discourses are correlated with the specific characteristics of certain activities, as a psychological category. Also, it was considered the translation of the structure of discourse dissipation from the cognitive plan into the affective sphere because of which it is formed a hierarchy of significances, which performs the sense-forming function. It was analyzed the inverse influence of the hierarchy of significances on the structure of meanings dispersion and for respective account it was introduced a conditional coefficient of the value deviation of the significance of the meanings. This parameter reflects the sense correction of the meaning that occurs in the process of the emergence of discourse from discursive practice. Thus, the discourse is presented as a complex dynamic formation of the mind arising at the maturity stage of the system as a result of the combined effect of entropic dispersion of meanings and the value deviation of their significances

The Significance of Paul Ricoeur’s Narrative Theory and Hermeneutics for Understanding Carl Jung’s Red Book

Hermeneutics is a significant dimension of C.G. Jung’s analytical psychology, although Jung did not develop a consistent hermeneutic method, and this aspect of his work has not yet been sufficiently explored. This paper examines the relevance of Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics and narrative theory for the interpretation of Carl Jung’s Red Book, which can be perceived as a narrative experiment. Ricoeur focuses on the narrative character of human experience. Paul Ricoeur’s ideas of narrative and plot are significant for exploring Jung’s inner experience described in his Red Book as well as the narrative structure of The Red Book

The Psychodynamics of Myth: The Absence of God as Mental Illness According to Post-Jungian Analytical Psychology

This dissertation introduces the subject of Analytical Psychology and identifies the importance of the divine in its practice, particularly in the post-Jungian scene. To achieve this, some vehicles through which religious manifestations occur are considered. Special attention is given to religious experiences, the psychodynamics of myth, and the role of suffering for the individual. The description of these manifestations as psychic fundamental dynamics is used to explore and synthesise the religious function of the psyche — first introduced by Jung as the ultimate therapy. Departing from works of reference in the field, the methodology used describes this particular analytical path regarding religious matters through their symbolism and accepted meaning. The religious concepts present in Jungian therapy are identified and explained through a conceptual and comparative analysis. The result of such effort includes the explanation of the relationship between religious/spiritual experiences, their mechanics and symbolical importance, and mental illness in the Jungian context. This thesis also connects the decrease of institutional religious affiliation with the intensification of spirituality, and how the latter is perceived by therapists. It is observed in the explored literature that such internal movement is considered an autonomous attempt to establish psychological balance. And that in order to respond to this, the therapeutic opinion is mostly concerned with the preparation of the professional in correctly understanding the religious experience and approaching it in a positive way, fostering more personal ways of exploring one’s spirituality.A presente dissertação identifica a importância do divino na Psicologia Analítica, dando ênfase aos desenvolvimentos pós-Junguianos. Para alcançar tal objectivo, são considerados alguns veículos pelos quais as manifestações religiosas ocorrem. As experiências religiosas, as psicodinâmicas do mito, e o papel que o sofrimento pode adquirir para o indivíduo são tópicos observados. A exposição destes recursos como dinâmicas psíquicas fundamentais é utilizada para explorar a síntese da função transcendente da psique — introduzido pela primeira vez por Jung como a derradeira terapia. A partir de obras de referência para o enquadramento Junguiano, a metodologia utilizada descreve este distinto caminho analítico considerando as questões religiosas, a sua respectiva simbologia e significado vigente. Os conceitos religiosos presentes na terapia Junguiana são identificados e explicados através de uma análise comparativa e conceptual. O resultado deste estudo circunscreve a explicação da relação entre experiências religiosas/espirituais, o seu mecanismo e importância simbólica, e a doença mental no contexto Junguiano. Esta tese também estabelece uma conexão entre a diminuição da afiliação religiosa institucional com a intensificação da espiritualidade, e como este último factor é compreendido por terapeutas. É observado na literatura que serviu de base para esta dissertação que tal movimento interno é considerado uma tentativa autónoma de estabelecer equilíbrio. De maneira a responder esta expressão, a opinião terapêutica compromete-se sobretudo com a preparação do profissional na correcta compreensão da experiência religiosa, abordando-a de forma positiva, fomentando uma conduta mais pessoal na exploração da própria espiritualidade

Archetypal Art Therapy: A Jungian-Transpersonal Perspective

Art therapists are well trained in t he Freudian psycho- analytic approach to the unconscious . The expression of the non- verbal symbolic language is often viewed as an act of repression or defense . In this paper, theory and psychotherapy from a Jungian- transpersonal perspective are examined , including Jung\u27s theory of the collective unconscious and archetypes. Inner experience and the symbolic language of psyche are viewed for their positive qualities and their healing potential. Attitude s of the therapist toward the image and toward the client are re- examined from this alternate viewpoint . The Jungian-transpersonal perspective provides a more individualistic and therefore meaningful approach toward greater awareness for both therapist and client

Romantic Metasubjectivity: Rethinking the Romantic Subject Through Schelling and Jung

This thesis takes up Friedrich Schelling’s philosophy and Carl Jung’s analytical psychology to develop Romantic metasubjectivity, a model of the subject absorbing more of the vast compass of Romantic thinking on subjectivity than what prevails in Romantic criticism. Romantic criticism tends to be dominated by psychoanalysis as well as deconstruction and poststructuralist theory, which see the subject as either a linguistic phenomenon or simply a locus of difference without a unified “I.” In response to this critical tradition, Romantic metasubjectivity discerns a notion of Self which is neither a linguistic fantasy nor a transcendental essence which is or becomes fully present to itself. The Introduction supplies historical and theoretical parameters for what follows, explaining why Schelling and Jung are crucial to the concept of Romantic metasubjectivity. The first chapter establishes analytical psychology as a Schellingian Naturphilosophie après la lettre, with the latter illuminating analytical psychology’s differences from psychoanalysis (particularly Jung’s rethinking of libido). The second chapter focuses on analytical psychology and Naturphilosophie to develop the topography of the Romantic metasubjective unconscious as a dissociative economy of energy. I establish Schelling’s actant and Jung’s archetype as isomorphic dynamisms which create this economy in Nature and the psyche, to articulate the uniquely Romantic historicity and materiality which resists coagulation into history and materialist notions of the subject. Chapter Three articulates the experience of Romantic metasubjectivity as a limit-experience of this dissociative historicity via Schelling’s idea of intellectual intuition (later ecstasy) and Jung’s development of synchronicity as an acausal connecting principle. Chapter Four focuses on the individuation of Romantic metasubjectivity as a radically non-teleological, purposively driven force of self-organisation which informs the person’s experience in the world. Paradoxically, it is Romantic metasubjectivity’s traumatic experience of historicity which both makes this individuation possible and guarantees its interminability. Chapter Five turns to Romantic literature, examining William Wordsworth’s The Prelude and Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound as “case studies” of the Romantic metasubjective psyche. The Conclusion touches on John Caputo’s Against Ethics and the contemporary hit TV series Breaking Bad to question the possibility of a Romantic metasubjective ethics

Detecting the myth : an application of C. G. Jung's analytical psychology to film analysis

This thesis applies the analytical psychology of C. G. Jung to the study of films. The thesis is in three parts. Part One forms an introduction to the theory of analytical psychology and makes the initial links to film theory. Part Two involves the development of a model for systematically applying the theory and Part Three is a detailed analysis of one film. Part One: In Chapter One Jung's theories about conscious behaviour are explored, some initial points of contact are made with film analysis, and a variety of films are used to illustrate the relevance of the theory. Chapter Two finds areas of correspondance between Jung's theories of the unconscious and film theory. This is a bridging of what had previously been regarded as separate critical traditions. Chapter Three is a detailed analysis of Tightrope (Dir. R. Tuggle, Warner Brothers, 1984) which demonstrates the applicability of analytical psychology n the analysis of films. Part Two: Chapter Four presents more theory about the nature of archetypes, and from this a model is derived. This model enables the central tenets of analytical psychology to be used for the analysis of films. This is demonstrated in Chapter Five which is an analysis of the detective film Blade Runner (Dir. R. Scott, Columbia, 1982). Chapter Six explores the function of the symbol in film, especially how it relates to the development of the narrative and to the psychological growth of the film's central characters. Chapter Seven is the last of the theoretical chapters and indicates how the individuation process can be applied to films. The figures of the shadow and the femme fatale are regarded as having a particular generic and cultural importance. Part Three: The remaining chapters are a detailed examination of Trancers (Dir. C. Band, Lexyen Productions, 1984), in which the model established in Chapter Four is used to facilitate the analysis of the film. This reveals that beneath the visual and narrative surface of the film there exists a series of mythological and psychological structures. Ultimately the film is regarded as an expression of collective latent unconscious psychological needs

Dreams, desire and addiction : an archetypal analysis

Bibliography: leaves 239-280.This thesis suggests that dream analysis is a crucial theoretical tool, not simply to assist the individuation process, but also to gain understanding of the severing of body from soul that is so linked to addiction. Thus the thesis proposes that dream analysis is a key means to access one's spirituality, not, simply a psychoanalytic technique. It draws on a range of disciplines and discourses, located in a Jungian and ecofeminist framework, to suggest that a growing crisis of ill health - at both individual and ecological levels - is attributable, in essence, to a loss of soul. It focuses on addiction as a reflection of this loss, attempting to show that the relentless craving of the addict is best understood as spiritual hunger. The deep desire which underlies this hunger is expressed in multiple ways in our dreams. A major aspect of the thesis is an attempt to explicate the nature of the loss, and of the hunger which points to it. I suggest that both have their roots in the patriarchal conquest and denigration of women and the feminine, which may be seen inscribed on the ravaged bodies of women and Mother Earth. The first four chapters lay the groundwork for the case study of a woman whose experience illustrates much of the complexity of this theoretical discussion. The value of dream analysis as a theoretical tool which actively assists the individuation process is presented in Chapter 1 within a multi-disciplinary framework. In Chapter 2, the focus details and analyses the Jungian model and approach to dream interpretation in preparation for the concluding 9ase study. Parallels between relevant aspects of the Buddhist and Hindu traditions and Jungian models are also explored. Chapter 3 examines archetypal patterns of addiction seeking to understand the dynamic of wounded desire and displaced spiritual hunger. Postmodern links are made. Chapter 4 suggests that the devaluation and violation of the female body has its roots in the elevation of the patriarchal sky god of the Abrahamic tradition. The need for a rigorous application of a hermeneutic of suspicion towards androcentric constructions of meaning is highlighted and related to the vulnerabilities females experience in relation to embodiment. Foreshadowing key issues of the case study and linked clearly to the thematic of addiction, the impact of sexual abuse on the child's experience of embodiment becomes a theoretical focus. The case study conducted with a 31-year-old bulimic after her release from hospital, attempts to demonstrate the practical relevance of these ideas. A series of dreams recorded by her are analysed thematically and interpreted to support the claim that dreams offer a window on the transformative process of soul recovery. Thus major theoretical issues explored include the nature of the feminine, in various notions of "soul", themes of embodiment in relation to the disembodiment characteristic of the addict, the contemporary relevance of the archetypal imagery contained in myth and folk tales, and convergences between Jungian, ecofeminist, New Age, Eastern and postmodern discourses. Dream work, I suggest, opens the way to healing and empowerment

The Way of Transformation (The Laban-Malmgren System of Dramatic Character Analysis)

The dissertation is a 'critical edition' of a system of actor training based on three main sources: a vocabulary of movement analysis developed by Rudolf Laban in the last years of his life; C. G. Jung's theory of psychological functions and types; and the acting system of C. Stanislavski and his main followers. The three strands were brought together by the dancer and acting teacher Yat Malmgren (1916-2002), who taught his system for over forty years to some of the major figures of world theatre and film: Peter Brook, Pierce Brosnan, Simon Callow, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Adrian Noble among others. The dissertation is presented in two volumes: - Volume I sets the system in context, historically as well as in terms of current discourses about the nature of acting. It includes a survey of its origins, followed by an in-depth examination of its three main sources, focusing on the central concept of energy in acting. Further chapters describe: a. a systematic, step-by-step psychophysical approach to analysing character, the actor's own self and to ways of bridging the two in the process of transformation. The author captures the salient features of a method of work which informs aspects of Western acting practice. b. the light thrown by the system on the idea of theatre character. The author puts forward the idea of a character 'independent' of both actor and text. c. the applications of the system in training and professional practice, based on interviews with a number of prominent British actors and directors. - Volume II consists of a detailed, annotated description of the system. It is based on a free transcript of recordings of Yat Malmgren's teaching and amounts to a 'manual' for those interested in studying and/or teaching the system. The volume is illustrated throughout. Appendices include original materials derived from Laban's last years of work, published here for the first time