Jung's Practice of the Image

From 1913, C.G. Jung engaged in a process of self-experimentation, documented in the Black Books and the Red Book, that led to a re-conception of the practice and rationale of psychotherapy, through developing the procedure of "active imagination". Critically, this placed great significance on non-verbal modes of expression in psychotherapy, and plated an important role in the subsequent development of art therapies. This talk traces the development of Jung's "practice of the image", how he put it into play in his work with his patients, as well as its relation to subsequent practices in analytical psychology and sandplay therapy

Questioning the unconscious

In this piece, I outline a brief history of the development of concepts of the unconscious and then suggest ways of bringing understanding to various sides of the discussion

Young men’s views towards the barriers and facilitators of internet-based Chlamydia trachomatis screening: a qualitative study

Background: There is a growing number of Internet-based approaches that offer young people screening for sexually transmitted infections. Objective: This paper explores young men’s views towards the barriers and facilitators of implementing an Internet-based screening approach. The study sought to consider ways in which the proposed intervention would reach and engage men across ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. Methods: This qualitative study included 15 focus groups with 60 heterosexual young men (aged 16-24 years) across central Scotland, drawn across age and socioeconomic backgrounds. Focus groups began by obtaining postcode data to allocate participants to a high/low deprivation category. Focus group discussions involved exploration of men’s knowledge of chlamydia, use of technology, and views toward Internet-based screening. Men were shown sample screening invitation letters, test kits, and existing screening websites to facilitate discussions. Transcripts from audio recordings were analyzed with "Framework Analysis". Results: Men’s Internet and technology use was heterogeneous in terms of individual practices, with greater use among older men (aged 20-24 years) than teenagers and some deprivation-related differences in use. We detail three themes related to barriers to successful implementation: acceptability, confidentiality and privacy concerns, and language, style, and content. These themes identify ways Internet-based screening approaches may fail to engage some men, such as by raising anxiety and failing to convey confidentiality. Men wanted screening websites to frame screening as a serious issue, rather than using humorous images and text. Participants were encouraged to reach a consensus within their groups on their broad design and style preferences for a screening website; this led to a set of common preferences that they believed were likely to engage men across age and deprivation groups and lead to greater screening uptake. Conclusions: The Internet provides opportunities for re-evaluating how we deliver sexual health promotion and engage young men in screening. Interventions using such technology should focus on uptake by age and socioeconomic background. Young people should be engaged as coproducers of intervention materials and websites to ensure messages and content are framed appropriately within a fast-changing environment. Doing so may go some way to addressing the overall lower levels of testing and screening among men compared with women

Psychotherapy in historical perspective

This article will briefly explore some of the ways in which the past has been used as a means to talk about psychotherapy as a practice and as a profession, its impact on individuals and society, and the ethical debates at stake. It will show how, despite the multiple and competing claims about psychotherapy’s history and its meanings, historians themselves have, to a large degree, not attended to the intellectual and cultural development of many therapeutic approaches. This absence has the potential consequence of implying that therapies have emerged as value-free techniques, outside of a social, economic and political context. The relative neglect of psychotherapy, by contrast with the attention historians have paid to other professions, particularly psychiatry, has also underplayed its societal impact. This article will foreground some of the instances where psychotherapy has become an object of emerging historical interest, including the new research that forms the substance of this special issue of History of the Human Sciences

Des névroses à une nouvelle cure des âmes: C. G. Jung et la refonte du patient thérapeutique

This article aims to show how, from the First World War, CG Jung reformulated his therapeutic processes on the basis of his self-experimentation. In doing so, he transformed the aims of psychotherapy, which was no longer limited to the treatment of pathologies but aimed at increasing psychic and spiritual development, which led him to propose a new vision of humanity. The article examines a series of cases of Jung and demonstrates how he reformulated the "supply" of psychotherapy, how individuals grasped it and how it helped to shape the social role of the "therapeutic patient".// Cet article s’attache à montrer comment, à partir de la Première Guerre Mondiale, C. G. Jung reformula ses procédés thérapeutiques sur la base de son auto-expérimentation. Ce faisant, il transforma les visées de la psychothérapie, celle-ci ne se limitant plus au seul traitement des pathologies mais visant à un accroissement du développement psychique et spirituel, ce qui l’amena à proposer une vision nouvelle de l’humanité. L’article étudie une série de cas de Jung et démontre comment il reformula « l’offre » de la psychothérapie, comment des individus s’en saisirent et comment cela contribua à mettre en forme le rôle social du « patient thérapeutique »