The person inside...
There is a story about how Michaelangelo created his iconic sculpture of David. According to the story he chipped away all of the stone that was not David until David appeared. Search Google using the “ inside every fat woman” and you will see thousands of instances of that phrase. The diet industry and much of healthcare fervently believe and promote the belief that everyone is meant to be slender, that fat is concealing who we truly are. Consider this image* widely used to promote and encourage weight lossIt makes me cringe seeing her chipping away at her own body in this way. The image on the sculptor’s web...
Source: Jung At Heart - March 18, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Redecorating
As you can see if you have been following me I am paying with different looks here, looking for that just right design that is not too cluttered, not too spare. So as I work my way through this Goldilocks phase, please bear with me. And feel free to give me your opinion in the comments. (Source: Jung At Heart)
Source: Jung At Heart - March 13, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
April the giraffe and I
Everywhere I look I have been seeing links to and comments about April the giraffe and thelive cam feed on her. April is pregnant and the birth of her calf is imminent. Or so it has seemed for days. Today the zoo says "“All in due time and without a rush. She continues to be in great physical and mental condition.” April and I have something in common. No, I am not about to have a baby, but my long-awaited book is now truly on the way. It is at the printer now and my publisher tells me they expect to receive the first copies around March 24.I started work on this book waaaay back in 2010. I went through 12 complete ve...
Source: Jung At Heart - March 9, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Immortality Project
Back when New Age ideas began to float about there also appeared a book by Ernest Becker,The Denial of Death. How are these two things connected, you might ask? From the start it appeared to me that a lot of New Age ideas were at their core an effort to deny death. As if eating the right foods, meditating the right way, thinking the right thoughts, going to enough workshops would enable a person to avoid life ’s inevitable end - death. And this project has continued with vigor in the years since.It is February. Check out the covers for magazines aimed at women — Family Circle, Women’s Day, Redbook. Most years the Feb...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 14, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Jungian thought for the day
“You meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it.” ― Carl Gustav Jung (Source: Jung At Heart)
Source: Jung At Heart - February 13, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Blizzard
This is mid-coast Maine this morningFit for neither man nor beast. (Source: Jung At Heart)
Source: Jung At Heart - February 13, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Anniversary
FaceBook, in its infinite wisdom, reminded me yesterday that it was the 10th anniversary of the beginning of this blog. I must admit I am a bit impressed. Looking back this morning, I found the very first post and it seems quite appropriate to the times we are navigating today. From February 6, 2007:"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. JungJung understood that suffering is a part of life, that it has mean...
Source: Jung At Heart - February 6, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Hope
I have other things I want to write about tomorrow and next week — looking at the story of Lady Ragnall and Sir Gawain, trauma, at the impact of fat shaming, but today there is this. I have been sitting here for several hours already, glued to watching coverage of the Women’s Marches. I just read that there are 20,000 marching on Congress St. in Portland, M aine. And 10,000 demonstrating in Augusta, Maine. That 6 buses went to Washington just from the mid-coast of Maine, an area of small towns. So many in our small state are showing up in our cities and in our towns to express resistance and support for women and dis...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 21, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
The circus won ’t be coming to town
This morning I awoke to the news thatRingling Brothers is shutting down the circus. When I was a child in the 50 ’s I used to watch Super Circus. I loved the handsome ringmaster and Mary Hartline — I even had a Mary Hartline doll.. And one of the first movies I remember seeing was The Greatest Show on Earth, a movie set in the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus. I saw small circuses performing in tents when we lived in Germany. And one year when my children were very young, we took them to see the Ringling Brothers Circus, which proved to be too big, to busy and with too much to look at for them or for me to ...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 15, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Are you ready for a journey?
“I thought I found an answer when I was older, meditation, yoga, channeling. A way of making use of a talent, a gift. And now it's back worse than ever. No, not worse than ever, but it feels like that because I've been OK so long. It's like unfinished business has come back to haunt me.” “The gate that opens and closes can't close.”“Two years ago I began medication and it helped, not completely, but relief. Then the sleeplessness started and my doctor suggested I speak with you.” “Are you ready for a therapy journey?” Michael Eigen, Under the Totem: In Search of a...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 12, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
This is what cold looks like
This morning it was -6F when I got up. And the water in the harbor was about 40F. The result? Arctic sea smoke. Some mornings when this happens, we get great billows of it and the trees become covered in hoar frost — one of the beauties of winter. (Source: Jung At Heart)
Source: Jung At Heart - January 9, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Oh Oprah...
It ’s January when we can count on being bombarded with exhortations to start this diet NOW. It’s as predictable as sunrise. News stories on which diet is best. Features on how to make “healthy” versions of foods otherwise deemed “bad”. And this January everywhere you look, there is Oprah touting her most recent weight loss on Weight Watchers, a company in which she is a major investor. This time it is 42 pounds and she tells us in the ads about how she can eat the foods she loves. About being her own best self.But anyone who has paid attention knows that Oprah, and indeed every chronic dieter, has been here ...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 5, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Age of anxiety
The election and its outcome seems to have thrust many into an age of anxiety. In my work I hear again and again fears about what lies ahead — fears about insurance and safety, a re-emergence of fears about nuclear war. Anger. Feelings of helplessness. It’s important to give voice to the fears and even more important not to become frozen in them.An acquaintance of mine, Jules Netherland, has begun posting on Facebook concrete actions any of us can take to deal with the feelings of fear and helplessness. In the days ahead I will share some of them with you. And I hope perhaps in the comments you might offer your own ide...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 3, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
And we begin another year
Here we are at 2017. In a couple of months this blog will be 10 years old. I have been a very irregular poster this past year but I do plan to change that this year.First, my book is on its way. It will come out in March, though I do not have an exact date yet. I will be posting about it when I know more. It can be preordered now from the publisher, Karnac Books or from Amazon. The title isThe Fat Lady Sings:A Psychological Exploration of the Cultural Fat Complex and Its Effects. It ’s an interesting process, this movement from accepted manuscript to actual book, rather like a pregnancy. A lot of waiting, then asking...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
How do you mend a broken heart?
I am by nature a pretty optimistic person. I am like the kid in the old joke who sees the shed with all the mature in it and says that with all this shit, there must be a pony in here somewhere. I am a bit of an idealist and have never soured on the world. And then November 8 happened.I cast my first vote in 1968. I would have voted for Bobby Kennedy had he lived and gained the nomination. And though it was not popular among people I knew, I voted for Humphrey because I had met him and in reading about him and listening to him, he seemed like me to be optimistic and to embrace the kinds of values I embraced. When I cast ...
Source: Jung At Heart - November 29, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
