Contributors examine the challenges to carving out identity and question the extent to which analytical psychology meets our changing needs.
How can we make sense of ourselves within a world of change?
In Analytical Psychology in a Changing World, an international range of contributors examine some of the common pitfalls, challenges and rewards that we encounter in our efforts to carve out identities of a personal or collective nature, and question the extent to which analytical psychology as a school of thought and therapeutic approach must also adapt to meet our changing needs.
The contributors assess contemporary concerns about our sense of who we are and where we are going, some in light of recent social and natural disasters and changes to our social climates, others by revisiting existential concerns and philosophical responses to our human situation in order to assess their validity for today. How we use our urban environments and its structures to make sense of our pathologies and shortcomings; the relevance of images and the dynamic forms that underpin our experience of the world; how analytical psychology can effectively manage issues and problems of cultural, religious and existential identity - these broad themes, and others besides, are vividly illustrated by striking case-studies and unique personal insights that give real lucidity to the ideas and arguments presented.
Analytical Psychology in a Changing World will be essential reading for Jungian and post-Jungian scholars and clinicians of depth psychology, as well as sociologists, philosophers and any reader with a critical interest in the important cultural ideas of our time.
'Huskinson and Stein have crafted a solid book that demonstrates the widening span of Jungian scholarship. Each author examines a special aspect of the contemporary world, bringing his or her authentic self to the subject, thereby helping to close the gap between the spirit of this age and the spirit of the depths. Every essay is a gem in itself and is bound to stimulate the reader to look within more insightfully or to discover a way to consider outer events in a new light. When faced with grave concerns of collective magnitude, we might overlook the headlines and instead seek clues to deeper meaning in the small stories; we might consider humanity's three existential anxieties - death, failure, and meaninglessness -- and examine our own defensive strategies to manage them; we might ask how vulnerable we are to forming an identity through the idols that stimulate our senses each time we log onto a computer; or we might earmark an essay for future reference, to be read at the time of a loved one's threatened passage. These are but a few of the possible responses to the book's entirety, which is a carefully chosen collection representing the breadth of interests inspired by the work of C.G. Jung.' - Jean Kirsch, C. G. Jung Institute, San Francisco, USA.
