The Guild of Pastoral Psychology
Trust in the Self and Hope: how Jungian Psychology helps us cope in times of existential threat and destruction
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“The self effectively compensates chaotic conditions no matter by what name it is known.” Carl Jung (CW 11, para 444).
Whether we are in the midst of a personal upheaval or facing times of crisis collectively, this citation by Carl Gustav Jung offers us help and comfort and a depth-psychological perspectives with which to envisage future development. This dynamic and creative force – the archetypal self – is alive and active in all of us, under all circumstances, and especially when we are faced with existential insecurity. We can recognize this force in our dreams and in those of our patients; in daytime visions, in synchronicities, and in creative expression. The unconscious is offering us a light in the midst of darkness. And hope is not just wishful thinking for a better outcome than we fear, but expresses the same trust: that from a source outside ourselves, outside our ego, an unforeseen, even unforeseeable development may come.
The talk will be illustrated with images and examples from recent clinical work, and there is an invitation to participants to share their personal experiences in the discussion.
