Carl Jung Apollo vs Superman: Jungian Analysis of Solar Archetypes From a depth-psychology perspective, the question “Is Superman a degraded or upgraded Apollo?” is really asking how the ancient solar-hero archetype appears in modern popular culture. Apollo personifies light, order, rational distance, and a godlike authority that can heal or destroy. In Jungian terms, he is one cultural
A Sad Truth: Is Evil Necessary for Ego-Self Development? Typically, we see the work of the devil as the “shadow of God.” In some social and Jungian interpretations, we see evil as a shadow of an asymmetrical God-image. Then, postulate the corrective for what the Western God-image may impose, i.e., patriarchy, etc. As if once the
To Magic or Not to Magic: Depth Psychology Grows a Pair Would it be more productive for depth psychology to approach Magic? First, there is an ambiguity I wish to clarify regarding the grouping of magical systems, such as those of Israel Regardie, and the distinction Gyimesi seeks to explain between psychoanalysis and the occult. The colloquial term "occult"
Are Myths a Purer form of Archetypal Expression than Religious Creeds? Artist: Jake Baddeley To determine if a myth is a purer expression of an archetype than a religious creed, we must first define the difference between a religious creed and an archetype. Freud tracks three criteria of the mythological gods and their use by civilizations, which followed a progression into
Is AI Fire from the Gods or an Unsinkable Ship? Artist: Jake Baddeley The contemporary surge of artificial intelligence repeats the Titanic–Promethean pattern: collective faith in technical “gigantism.” A possible hubristic inflation, which invites compensatory descent and sacrifice. Drawing on Jung’s account of unconscious compensation and individuation, a psychologically informed relation to AI would cultivate sacrificial limits and
Is Depth Psychology a Science? Jung, Freud, and the Subject–Object Dilemma Explained Artist: Jake Baddeley Science, as far as it is defined by its methodology more so than its aims, is indispensable even if objectively imperfect. Despite the inherent limitations of scientific objectivity, the psychological heuristic approach remains one of the most valuable ways to engage the subject–object dilemma, not by
Inside the Archetypal Field: Jung, Jacobi & Whitmont on What Moves Beneath the Mind Artist: Jake Baddeley Field Notes: The Essential Jung by Anthony Storr Jung makes a distinction between a “big dream” and an “ordinary dream.” Such “motifs," he says, are typically “highly impressive,” “numinous,” and “analogous or even identical to mythology.” Jung refers to these patterns as “structures,” and he then
what does it mean to live like Carl Jung Living Jung vs Being Jungian Artist: Jake Baddeley I am anecdotally reminded of my ex-girlfriend’s “Jungian” psychotherapist. My ex and I were at the gym together. I was quietly slipping her sexy compliments. She snickered and replied, “My therapist says you are my shadow.” Outwardly, I grinned, but inwardly I twisted. I thought
Who am I? The i and the not i Once upon a time, I floated weightlessly in the waters. I was the water, and water was me. As an infant-child, I was mother and mother was me, then I became the world and the world was me. What I did, and what I did not do, what I
Freud vs Adler: Memorable or Meritorious Artist: Jake Baddeley I have thought about this question before, considering whether the answer lies in their merits or more in observing social phenomena. Adler, Freud, and Jung were contemporaries in a shifting cultural landscape. A period in history teeming with national tensions, war, and a burgeoning curiosity for defining
The Royal Road: Complex as Corridors Artist: Jake Baddeley A complex is a complicated psychological function, apprehended as “the feeling-toned groups of representation in the unconscious” (p. 6). Considering its dual nature as both a developmental and environmental response to an archetypal image "projected onto an external object or person” (p. 16), and its
Magick & Jung: Possible Parallels with Depth Psychology Artist: Jake Baddeley Depth psychology is traditionally traced to Freud’s psychoanalysis and Jung’s analytical psychology. Shamdasani writes, “Through studying prehistoric, primitive, or modern societies, these disciplines attempted to surpass the limitations of individual psychology” (2003, p. 271). Yet these 'modern' roots conceal deeper, occult currents with
The Collective Problem: Death of Symbol & “Loss of Soul” Artist: Jake Baddeley "The structuring of our minds makes us experience existence in the dualistic form of the world of ‘outer’ objects, which we are able to organize, and of ‘inner’ impulses, which we find hard to master" (Whitmont, 1969, p. 29). This dualism reflects an essential problem
Breaking the Spell: How Two Women Invented the Love Addiction & Codependency Epidemic Opportunists in the Right Place at the Right Time? The concepts of codependence and love addiction emerged in the 1980s as popular, oversimplified pop-psychology explanations for dysfunctional relationship patterns, thanks in large part to two figures, Melody Beattie and Pia Mellody. In this blog post I will explore the
Exposing the Love Addiction and Codependency Fraud Artwork by Jake Baddeley This entry is inspired by events I witnessed, experienced, and detailed in my upcoming book, Unlearning Love: Reclaiming Desire from Diagnosis. *If a predatory treatment center has victimized you or someone you know, please follow this link for more information: National Association for Addiction Treatment Provider
Jung’s Map of the Psyche I tend to get too far ahead of myself. My mind is miles down the road swirling with concepts I hope to introduce in the years ahead. This blog is intended to be a growing repository and doesn’t necessarily correlate to where I am personally in my journey or
Formalae Participation Mystique Artwork: Jake Baddeley I have gotten all I have ever wanted. Magic is real. I loved a girl. Joy arrives on the sunrise of every sorrow. Sadness from loss is the reward for loving a pet. Theater and impulse is the thirsty eternal child. The desert reveals the oasis and
What Are the Seven Hermetic Principles and How Can They Unlock Deeper Self-Awareness? Artwork by Jake Baddeley The teachings of Hermeticism—rooted in ancient Egypt and Greece and linked to the enigmatic figure of Hermes Trismegistus—claim to hold a master key to the unlocking the prima principium of reality or does it? Contained in a compact yet profound text, The Kybalion, lists
Syzygy Sexualis: We Have It All Wrong Artwork: Jake Baddeley In the material world, opposites exist in a dynamic dance that is essential to creation, transformation, and the highest order of life. The tension between night and day, masculine and feminine, chaos and order is not meant to result in the dissolution of these polarities into sameness,
Own Your Darkness: Integration vs. Repression Artwork: Jake Baddeley “First and foremost, you don’t do it alone—you need a person to see it.” Nathan Schwartz-Salant, Ph.D. The Darkness Concealed The sun rises, the lights turn on, and the day’s ritual begins again. The conscious mind is awake—or so it seems.
Women & Desire: The Trap of Wanting to be Wanted Artwork: Jake Baddeley Selfless Desire: The Purest Form I once tasted the rarest form of desire. I let go of all projections, illusions, hopes, disappointments, and reasons for resentment. I accepted her as she was and as she would become—brutal and beautiful, artful and distasteful, order and chaos. A
Self: The Journey to Wholeness in a Fragmented World Artwork: Jake Baddeley A Shattered Mirror: The Modern Crisis of Meaning In the age of hyper-connectivity, normalized superficiality, lust for love and endless distraction, the search for purpose has become a journey riddled with paradox and yet, paradox is the name of the game in Dualityville. Our world is
How Feminism Has Become Anti-Feminine Artwork: Jake Baddeley Has Feminism Become What It Sought to Destroy? Carl Jung's concept of enantiodromia—the process by which something turns into its opposite—is a fitting lens through which to view modern feminism. What began as a movement seeking equality and empowerment has, in many instances,
Modern Man & Peter Pan: The Lost Boys. Artist: Jake Baddeley From my experience, until a man is willing to accept and integrate his shadow he will forever be lost in Neverland. "Peter Pan," penned by J.M. Barrie, is often cherished as a whimsical children's tale, yet it harbors deep psychological undertones that
