Gems
A friend and I have begin reading together my favorite recent Jungian book, The Mystery of Analytical Work by Barbara Stevens Sullivan. This is at least my third time through this book and still I find new gems to savor and reflect on. From this morning's reading:
Clinical training may tell us what the therapeutic relationship should be like, but in practice the transference relationship develops between two people who are both present and fully participating, even when they are trying to withhold themselves or to block each other out. We can never leave our depths at home. They always muddy the...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 24, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
My little corner of the world
Therapeutic space is an important issue not much written about but which reflects certain basic attitudes about therapy. I have written about it before and continue to reflect on the space as an element of the container in which therapy occurs.
I choose to have my office in my home. This is a philosophical choice based on my understandings about therapy. Both of the analysts I have worked with have had their offices in their homes, so it is something I am used to. And to the extent that most of us model our way of practicing on those therapists we admire, they are a part of my choice. But more than that, I see this ch...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 22, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Danger: Diagnosis Ahead
Last Sunday the NY Times published a sad and all too common story about overprescription of Adderall, a story that is equally applicable to any of a number of psychiatric medications. If you haven't yet read "Drowned in a Stream of Prescriptions", I urge you to do so.
I have written here many times about what I see as the shortcomings of the diagnostic system we use in mental health. It would be nice to imagine that there were some scientific way to determine diagnosis, but there is none. Absent biological or chemical tests to establish diagnoses, we fall back on consensus reality and struggle with the unevenness of s...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 11, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Untitled
Last Sunday the NY Times published a sad and all too common story about overprescription of Adderall, a story that is equally applicable to any of a number of psychiatric medications. If you haven't yet read "Drowned in a Stream of Prescriptions", I urge you to do so.
I have written here many times about what I see as the shortcomings of the diagnostic system we use in mental health. It would be nice to imagine that there were some scientific way to determine diagnosis, but there is none. Absent biological or chemical tests to establish diagnoses, we fall back on consensus reality and struggle with the unevenness of s...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 11, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
It lived up to the hype
I have to say that the Blizzard of 2013 lived up to the hype. All night long Friday into late afternoon Saturday the wind howled and y=the snow fell and when it was over we were left with something on the order of 24" of fluffy snow and huge drifts. We are dug out now and all is well. Here is a look at the last couple of days.
Saturday morning --
And then Sunday, the return of the sun (Source: Jung At Heart)
Source: Jung At Heart - February 11, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Nemo
If you have any contact with the media at all you know that we are getting ready for a blizzard here in Maine -- and the rest of New England.
I kind of like that the Weather Channel is naming our winter storms now but this one seems like something more than a cute orange fish.
Here are a couple of shots from earlier today --
Out my living room window -
And looking toward Main St in Belfast
I'll post more as we go along. The real storm hasn't s...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 8, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Remember...
when the book, Listening to Prozac came out back in 1993? Remember the notion that it could make people better versions of themselves? I was deeply skeptical then and I confess to feeling a bit of schadenfreude over the current state of affairs in psychopharmacology.
This week David Healy posted a wonderful piece on the 25th anniversary of Prozac. He concludes:
Twenty-five years ago, no one could have imagined that the bulk of the treatment literature would be ghostwritten, that negative trials could be portrayed as glowingly positive studies of a drug, that controlled trials could have be...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 7, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Happy Birthday!
We just passed an anniversary -- on February 2, Jung At Heart turned 6. Here is the first post I made 6 years ago --
I recently ran across this powerful quote from Jung on therapy:"The principle aim of psychotherapy is not to transport one to an impossible state of happiness, but to help (the client) acquire steadfastness and patience in the face of suffering. " -C.G. JungHow very different this view of therapy is from the current preoccupation with happiness and positive psychology! Jung understood that suffering is a part of life, that it has meaning and that to live fully is to know that suffe...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 5, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
More About Books
What was the last book that made you cry?I don't remember. Lately the books I read are not the kind that would make me cry.
The last book that made you laugh?Imust be brain dead this morning because none comes to mind right now.
The last book that made you furious?The Overweight Patient: A psychological Approach to Understanding and Working With Obesity. I hated this book. The author, who is a Transactional analyst, comes across as smug and know-it-all. It is a blame-the-patient book.
What’s the best love story you’ve ever read?Like Water for Chocolate. Are there any psychotherapists that you think ar...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 4, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
About Books
This idea comes from a friend who borrowed from the NY Times Book Review feature of a Q&A with an author. Now I have yet to publish a book, but I have hopes and I do read a lot …
What book is on your night stand now?Truthfully I no longer keep books on my nightstand as I no longer read in bed. But next to me I have a pile of books waiting to be read or in varying stages of being read:
Gail Staub Returning to My Mother's House
Maria Semple Where'd You Go, Bernadette
And there are all the books on my Kindle app. The ones I am spending most time with right now are:
Abigail Saguy What's Wrong Wit...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 31, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Untitled
This idea comes from a friend who borrowed from the NY Times Book Review feature of a Q&A with an author. Now I have yet to publish a book, but I have hopes and I do read a lot …
What book is on your night stand now?Truthfully I no longer keep books on my nightstand as I no longer read in bed. But next to me I have a pile of books waiting to be read or in varying stages of being read:
Gail Staub Returning to My Mother's House
Maria Semple Where'd You Go, Bernadette
And there are all the books on my Kindle app. The ones I am spending most time with right now are:
Abigail Saguy What's Wrong Wit...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 31, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
After the pause...
That was a long good night, wasn't it?
Life has moved along in the usual way here on the coast of Maine. We are just ending a period of fierce cold, with daytime wind chills in the range of -20F, so a lot of at least the last week has been lived indoors, not that I am a big outdoor winter sports person anyway. I have been working, reading, knitting, watching movies and doing some work on my maybe-someday book.
Along the way I ran across this little item --
Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, and a team of bariatricians are applying for a device they call AspireAssist. From the website,
...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 26, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
