The Voice of Psyche: The Migration of Forgotten Contents & the Ravages of Denial; A Clinical Approach
“Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel
― Abraham Joshua Heschel
So much of life involves memories. Those wonderful times when we are safe in the world within the security of our family. So too, there is the piercing of the veil between sanctuary and peril, where terrifying memories comes rushing towards us, flooding us with a pain that longs to be forgotten. Like the intricate beauty of a bird’s nest, crafted over eons of memory now made manifest in this haven for their young, here too are threats. But nature has its own ways, as when an intruder violates such sacred times and places. From predator to prey, from benevolent to horrific memories, each is a necessary part of the rhythms of life of life, each calling for its own time and demanding that its needs are sated. It is here at such moments of intersection, that the irruptive force of memory meets the iron clad grip of denial. And herein begins a central task of our clinical work, as we painstakingly work to help our patients realize how they have created these illusionary bastions of safety, so as to now look into the face of the ineffable where both the wonderful and terrifying memories live side by side within our soul.
It was the pioneers in psychology who taught us to look behind the veil of consciousness to understand something of the workings and language of the Psyche. Especially today in a world of so much personal and global crisis, we need to follow in the footsteps of our clinical grandparents to carry this sense of wonder and acumen into the consulting room. It is critical for us to deepen our understanding of Psyche’s motivations inherent in these patterns and relationships that bring so much pain, while also understanding that while defense mechanisms are innate and archetypal, ultimately, they not only fail but pull us back into the lion’s den of endless terrors. It is time to see how Psyche imbues the actual client-therapist relationship with a sense of grace by allowing the therapeutic dyad to serve as the canvas upon which to tell the story of the presence and meaning of archetypal processes in our clients’ lives.
Through a series of presentations and live supervision of participants’ cases, we will work closely with these personal and archetypal dynamics to see the presence of the numinous in this work, and perhaps begin to see and feel why the sages and dreamers understood the spiritual nature of this work. Please join us on the Island of Elba, located in the Tuscan Archipelago and one of Italy’s most beautiful islands for our Clinical Seminars.
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Number of hours credit
16
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