Ch-ch-ch-changes
In addition to the new look for Jung At Heart, it is now also mobile-friendly. So those of you who like to read on your phone will now be able to more easily read it.Please let me know what you think in the Comments. (Source: Jung At Heart)
Source: Jung At Heart - January 15, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Aging: Does “Old” Mean No Longer Fully Alive?
As one born at the beginning of the Baby Boom, I am used to having the preoccupations of my generation becoming fodder for media preoccupations with us, much as the Millennials are experiencing now. And now that we are in or approaching later life, this focus on us emerges again.70 million of us Baby Boomers are facing what it means to be in later life. And many of us begin to fret about how old is old? Am I old? What does it mean to be old? How is it that so many of us recoil from knowing ourselves as old?One researcher, Serge Scherbov, says in a recentNYTimes article for Americans, it ’s roughly 70 to 71 for men and...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 14, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Psychotherapy: When not doing is doing it best
It ’s hard to sit with someone who is crying or angry or yearning or silent for long periods and not want to do something to make them feel better, to break the tension in the room. But most of the time if that desire to do something is acted upon, the outcome is not what we hope. For me, this is a l esson I have had to learn again and again.I have been thinking about this a lot lately. What comes to me is the image of an infant in the throes of colic. You try everything to make them stop because that cry is distressing, because it makes you feel impotent and frustrated and even angry. Rock the baby. Pat the baby. Sing. ...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 14, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Fridays are for reflection
Back in the early 80s, Jungian analyst Jane Wheelwright wrote about the tasks of late life —To live fully as we age, we must meet and acknowledge if not master at least seven specific tasks. These tasks are more evident, more urgent and perhaps more possible in the autumn of life. But it must be remembered that these tasks of aging are also tasks of living, for old age is not separate from life. Old age is rather, the time for finding one ’s essence. This is material for life and we will work with these tasks until our last breath.I will take one of these seven tasks on each of 7 Fridays starting next week. I hope ...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 11, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
What is your bear?
Bear In Mind by John MartinA bear is chasing me through a meadowand I ’m running as fast as I can buthe ’s gaining on me—it seemshe ’s always gaining on me.I ’m running and running but alsothinking I should justturn around and say,“Stop it! Stop chasing me. We bothknow you aren ’t going to catch me.All you can ever do is chase me. So,think about it —why bother?”The bear does stop,and he sits on his haunches and thinks,or seems to think. And thenthe bear says to me,“I have to chase you, you knowthat. Or you should. And, sure,we both know I ’ll never catch you.So, why not give us both a break andjust s...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 10, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Surrender
A couple of years ago I readThe Last Asylum, by Barbara Thomas. It ’s one of those books that has stayed with me and leads me to think more deeply about the things she writes about — madness, analysis, healing. Today I am thinking about surrender.Thomas came to analysis wanting her analyst to take care of her, much as she wanted and got friends to take care of her. She wanted him to give her answers, to tell her what to do to feel better. It took a number of years for her to come to the place of accepting that he could not and would not tell her what to do or give her answers or take care of her. What he could do was h...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 8, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
I promised I ’d post on things other than aging...
10 HONEST THOUGHTS ON BEING LOVED BY A SKINNY BOY ~ Rachel Wiley1.I say, ‘I am fat.’He says ‘No, you are beautiful.’I wonder why I cannot be both.He kisses me hard.2.My college theater professor once told methat despite my talent,I would never be cast as a romantic lead.We do plays that involve singing animalsand children with the ability to fly,but apparently no onehas enough willing suspension of disbeliefto go with anyone loving a fat girl.I daydream regularlyabout f.ing my boyfriend vigorously on his front lawn.3.On the mornings I do not feel pretty,while he is still asleep,I sit on the floor and check the po...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 5, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
In the Third Act
Almost 12 years ago I taught a course I called Conversations in the Third Act at the local branch of the University of Maine ’s life-long learning center. If life is a drama in three acts, then all of us over 50 are in the third act and dealing with a whole new set of issues, questions, and challenges.In the secret hour of life's midday the parabola is reversed, death is born. The second half of life does not signify ascent, unfolding, increase, exuberance, but death, since the end is its goal. The negation of life's fulfillment is synonymous with the refusal to accept its ending. Both mean not wanting to live, and not w...
Source: Jung At Heart - January 4, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Pointing to the end
I love the extravagance of the amaryllis - that phallic flower stalk that then bursts into big beautiful flowers. One year, I photographed an especially lovely red one through all the stages of its bloom period, from the just beginning to opento the full deep red of the open flowerto the poignant fading of the once glorious flower.The bright red has faded to this muted purple, the petals curling, the prominent veins. In its own way, this fading flower is every bit as beautiful as the brilliant red flower it was before.Tonight, as we say goodbye to 2018 and look ahead to 2019, even as we look back over this year and yea...
Source: Jung At Heart - December 31, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Looking to the New Year
In my dipping in and out of Jung ’sThe Red Book,which has been decorating the coffee table in my office since I got it almost 10 years ago (it isn ’t exactly light reading, either in content or size) I recently ran across this passage. It seems appropriate for this time of year as we prepare to say goodbye to the old year and prepare to enter a new year. And no, I am not advocating making New Year’s resolutions, at least not the usual kind . This resolution is about looking inward and not outside when we consider what lies ahead, what we want in our lives, what to do with this life we have.The tension of the future i...
Source: Jung At Heart - December 27, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Do you...
Do you like the new streamlined look? Let me know. (Source: Jung At Heart)
Source: Jung At Heart - December 26, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Merry Christmas from Jung At Heart
Belfast, Maine -- December 24, 2018 (Source: Jung At Heart)
Source: Jung At Heart - December 25, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
To be a little less cryptic about what ’s coming
I started this blog 12 years ago come January. I started using this blogging application at the same time. And all of us have gotten older and a bit creakier. So some changes are indeed in order.First, I plan to keep Jung At Heart going. But the focus will broaden a bit to include my thoughts about growing older, about finding purpose in later life, and what it is like to cope with all of that. I will certainly continue to write about psychotherapy and dreams and all the things I have been writing about these last 12 years. Though I have had a long period of silence this year, I realize I have more I want to say and want...
Source: Jung At Heart - December 23, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Stay tuned — changes coming
:::sweeping away cobwebs::: Jung At Heart is still alive and coming out of dormancy. I’ll be making a bunch of changes between now and the first of the year. Same name, new look and new posts. So keep checking in — changes are a-coming. (Source: Jung At Heart)
Source: Jung At Heart - December 22, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
From my window
It ’s kind of dreary here today. Chilly. Raining off and on. Weary of winter as I am, I am glad the snow has melted and it is rain, not snow falling. Down at the bottom of the hill, the remainder of the mountain of snow left there by the plows to keep sledding kids from running into the street is now a heap of dirty snow and ice and road dirt. No signs of green yet — that is at least 2 or 3 weeks away. This is mud season — the time between winter and spring. The time of pot holes and dirty snow piles and mud everywhere. Out of the Bay this morning I hear loons. The view from my window today as I get ready to do my t...
Source: Jung At Heart - April 14, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
