Articles on Classical Adlerian Depth Psychology

All of the articles on Classical Adlerian Depth Psychotherapy,
recently published in the Journal of Individual Psychology, may now be
accessed at no cost, directly from the web site at www.Adlerian.us.

Contents of the JIP Special Issue:
-------------------------------------
* "Classical Adlerian Depth Psychotherapy: The Congruence of a
Theory," by Erik Mansager
* "Rediscovering Adler," by Henry Stein
* "Striving for Authenticity," by Sophia de Vries
* "A Narrative Survey of Classical Adlerian Psychotherapists," by Erik
Mansager
* "Applying the Classical Adlerian Family Diagnostic Process,"by Jane
Pfefferle and Erik Mansager
* "Classical Adlerian Assessment of an Adult Child of an Alcoholic:
Queen of the Derelicts," by Dyanne Pienkowski
* "Examples and Explanations of the Socratic Method in CADP," by
Sophia de Vries and Henry Stein
* Review of Classical Adlerian Psychotherapy, Volume 1," by Dyanne
Pienkowski
* "Classical Adlerian Publications"

=======================================
Henry T. Stein, Ph.D., Director & Senior Training Analyst
Alfred Adler Institutes of San Francisco & Northwestern Washington
Distance Training in Classical Adlerian Depth Psychotherapy

John White: Toward a Phenomenology of Participation Mystique

Chapter excerpt from John White (2014). Toward a Phenomenology of Participation Mystique and a Reformulation of Jungian Philosophical Anthroplogy, Chapter 10 in Mark Winborn (Ed.). Shared Realities: Participation Mystique and Beyond. Fisher King Press, 2014.

Throughout his professional life, Carl Jung insisted that his theories were scientifically and empirically founded, based more or less exclusively on clinical observation and experience. While this claim rings largely true, we should not think of Jung as solely an inductive scientist of the psyche. For Jung offers many statements not only about what the psyche does – i.e. clinical observations – but also about what the psyche is, claims which therefore amount to speculative philosophical claims rather than empirical, scientific claims. That Jung made such claims is consistent with his research program, which included his efforts to establish analytical psychology’s superior understanding of the psyche over the views of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. But it is also this element of Jung’s thought which invites philosophical reflection on his theories and opens many of his claims to philosophical scrutiny and critique.

In the following chapter, I seek to outline Jung’s notion of participation mystique and consider it from a philosophical standpoint. My goal will be to articulate Jung’s idea of participation mystique in a way that I think better captures it philosophically than Jung is able to develop. I will begin with some discussion of problems associated with translating Jung, which in turn raise some central issues of a philosophy of human nature or “philosophical anthropology”. I will then outline features of Jung’s notion of participation mystique, including elements of his descriptions which might suggest other interpretations of the data than he assumes. Finally, I will offer a phenomenology of participation mystique, based on the philosophical anthropology that I have outlined. In the end, I hope not only to have clarified the notion of participation mystique philosophically, beyond what Jung was able to do, but also to offer a sounder understanding of human nature and human functioning than is generally available in Jung’s sometimes sketchy writings on these issues....

....The philosophical anthropology I have borrowed from Scheler suggests that the advantage of the spiritual approach to reality is that it allows differentiation and distinction, it gains objective knowledge about the constitution of the world, and it links experience to understanding, reason, and categorical types of thinking. But the psychic approach has its own strengths: imagination, energy, affective power, a sense for totalities, a synthesizing tendency, a richness of experience and life. Spiritual acts, no matter what their value, tend to literalize life and being, which is the cost of achieving its aims; psychic reality in contrast tends to images and values, to multiplicity and play. Psyche moves toward wonder rather than conceptual analysis and color rather than literalness. But psychic reality can also run amok without the cognitive understanding and volitional cultivation of its instinctive movements.

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Full sample chapter available at the Fisher King Press link.

Francois Martin-Vallas: The Transferential Chimera and Neuroscience

Chapter excerpt from Francois Martin-Vallas  (2014). The Transferential Chimera and Neuroscience, Chapter 9 in Mark Winborn (Ed.). Shared Realities: Participation Mystique and Beyond. Fisher King Press, 2014.

In this chapter, I will examine the question of the participation mystique in neuroscientific terms. Recent developments in neuroscience now enable us to start creating links between our clinical practice, especially the analysis of the transference, as Jung conceptualized it in The Psychology of the Transference and my concept of the transferential chimera.

In Greek mythology, the chimera is a composite beast, born of Echidna and Typhon, as was her sister, the Sphinx. With a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a snake’s tail, she is a devastating monster who spews out flames and devours any humans who fall in her path. In science, specifically in biology, the chimera is an entity or piece of tissue made up of two cell populations of distinct genotypes, arising from two distinct zygotes: thus within one individual here is the coexistence of cells with alien DNA baggage. In everyday language, be it in English or French, the word chimera denotes an illusion impossible to attain in reality. Finally, in the field of psychoanalysis, Michel de M’Uzan uses the word “chimera” to denote the inter-space of the transference as an autonomous dynamic born of the analytical encounter. It is in this last sense that I propose to use it in the field of analytical psychology, to emphasize the autonomous dynamics of the transference, as well as the fact the it emerges from the encounter of the analyst with the analysand as a new psychic reality. That is also why, in this text, I talk about it as a neo-reality or a neo-system. These points are developed in my 2006 and 2008 papers.

Jung’s original intuition about the analysis of the transference was to highlight the deep role the analyst plays in the treatment process. It was probably his misadventures with Sabina Spielrein which gave rise to his painful awareness of this, as witnessed in his correspondence with Sabina and with Freud. It caused him to ask Freud to include a period of personal analysis in psychoanalytic training, which was granted. At the root of the affair was obviously his realization that the transference not only unfolds in the patient but also in the analyst; hence, his use of the notion of participation mystique, a term coined by Lévy-Bruhl.

My argument for the concept of a transferential chimera was motivated by the perceived need to add a further dimension to Jung’s approach. It seems to me that the phenomenon of the transference is not only largely unconscious, but it is moreover, independent in part, both of the analysand and his analyst. It appears from my clinical experience, that the encounter between the analyst and the analysand may in fact be the basis of an emergent psychical neo-reality, with its own logic, its own evolution and its own way of functioning relatively independently of the two protagonists involved in the treatment. Put another way, if participation mystique is an essential part of the transference as Jung predicated, then it is likely to be the source of an emergent psychical dynamic which will have a considerable bearing on the direction that the relationship between the analyst and analysand might take.

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Full sample chapter available at the Fisher King Press link.

Journal of Analytical Psychology 60th Anniversary Conference/Celebration

The Journal of Analytical Psychology

XIIIth International Conference: 60th Anniversary Event (in conjuction with the SAP)

‘Reflections on Jungian Clinical Practice: From Then till Now’ (1955-2015)

13, 14, 15 March 2015: Arundel House, London WC2

To mark this 60th anniversary we will be holding a weekend event in London (Friday teatime to Sunday lunchtime). Our theme highlights the Journal’s abiding hallmark – its clinical orientation – and accordingly each speaker will draw for inspiration on a specific paper, originally published in the Journal, which still informs their current thinking and practice.

Don Kalsched – the most widely read and regarded of contemporary clinical Jungian authors – pays tribute to Michael Fordham’s ‘Defences of the Self’, perhaps the most influential of Journal papers. Murray Stein speaks from a Rosemary Gordon paper and our consultant editor, Warren Colman, considers the future direction of analytical psychology. We also have plenary contributions from Jan Wiener, Angela Connolly, Elizabeth Urban and Brian Feldman, in addition to the usual conference workshops, which include a critical discussion of the Editors' role from Andrew Samuels.

Details of the full programme, with profiles of the individual presenters and abstracts of the papers they will speak from, are available on our website www.japjungianconferences.com.

In the spirit of an anniversary celebration our chosen venue offers catering of high quality (the Friday evening reception and Saturday lunch are all included in the conference fee). We will be getting things underway with a tea party and a slice of Journal 60th birthday cake to greet you on arrival at registration. 

We anticipate this gathering of both established Journal followers, and those interested in exploring what the Journal has to offer, will be a memorable one-off event. Early booking (please see form on website) to secure a place and take advantage of the discounted ‘early bird’ rates is strongly recommended.

And as an optional extra we are also holding a Musical Soirée – lieder, jazz, blues & sea-shanties! – at Burgh House, Hampstead, on the Saturday evening.

To view the conference programme click here and to view the Musical Soiree  on the Saturday night of the conference (14th March) click here.

 

For full conference details and to register click here (www.japjungianconferences.com).

If you have further queries, please contact the Managing Editor, Jane Turney, at journal.jap@btconnect.com.

Art and Psyche in Sicily: Layers and Liminality - September 2-6, 2015

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Please join us for a four-day conference to be held in the beautiful ancient Sicilian town of Siracusa. Sicily, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, is a crossroads between worlds and cultures where layers of civilizations, from Greek and Roman to Arab and Norman, contact and overlap one another at every turn. The city of Siracusa is a place where Plato stayed for a time and Freud visited in 1910. The stunning landscape, art, architecture, archeology, and colorful history will reveal itself as the conference unfolds. We trust that layers of psyche will also emerge through our interaction with the environment, the presentations, and the experience of a community made up of people who are passionate about art and depth psychology.

Home base for the conference will be a hotel located in Siracusa’s historic center with close proximity to archeological sites, museums, charming shops and restaurants. Selected plenaries will be held in the Paolo Orsi Archeological Museum, followed by a tour for participants, and in the nearby stunning Greek Theatre, followed by a visit to the Neapolis Archeological Area. And, as last time, we will offer a dream-over, this time in an ancient site. A half-day trip to another stellar archeological site outside the town will also be included. We encourage submissions from artists and therapists of all persuasions and anyone with an interest in depth psychology. We are looking for creative proposals that may range from ancient to contemporary subjects and from experiential workshops to formal papers. Our hope is that the overarching theme of layers and liminality will offer flexibility and open space for imaginative expression of mind, body and soul. Possible themes for exploration could include:

*The symbolic relevance of Sicily as a crossroads and container for multiple cultures and civilizations
*The importance of the transcendent function as a connecting principle between art and psyche
*Space and time “in between”
*The emergence of new life from ancient ruins
*The co-existence of art and psyche in a shared liminal space
*Artist/analyst as archeologist
*The relevance of myth for art and psyche
*Island as image and metaphor
*Mapping as physical artistic process and psychological experience

Allow your imagination to respond freely to the place, time and overarching theme of layers and liminality. Please send us your proposal of 500 words along with a brief autobiography and audiovisual needs by January 1, 2015. Let us know if you are interested in presenting a paper, a workshop or a brief “spark” of an idea that would last for 20 minutes followed by discussion. By request following our last conference, we will be sure to save time for audience response and interaction, so as to encourage the emergence of community spirit. Artists are encouraged to send slides of their work or website address.

We look forward to seeing those of you who have attended previous Art and Psyche conferences in San Francisco (2008) and New York (2012) and we welcome new presenters and participants. The continuation of an exciting dialogue between art and psychology embedded in a fascinating environment is the aim of this new conference. Please join us.


Proposals can be sent to artandpsyche.sicily@gmail.com by January 1, 2015.

Acceptances will be sent by March 15, 2015.

With all best wishes,
The Art and Psyche Working Group
Linda Carter, Diane Fremont, Melinda Haas, Ami Ronnberg, Ellen Scott, Caterina Vezzoli, Lino Ancona, Francesca Picone