IAJS 2024, Anna Oberleitner: Solutio through Mortificatio or the Tsunami which Cleans the World
March 8, 2026 at 08:58PM
IAJS 2024 – Jung and Duality

Panel Presentation: Anna Oberleitner

Title: Solutio through Mortificatio or the Tsunami which Cleans the World

Abstract:
John, a 10-year-old boy grappling with impulsive outbursts directed at his mother, begins psychotherapy and discovers sandplay as an expressive medium. In the initial sessions, chaotic battles dominate the sandbox, with no clear distinctions between good and bad forces. As time progresses, differentiation emerges—conflicts become shorter, and a city is built in the sand. However, this paradise city is repeatedly destroyed by tsunamis. John’s unconscious fear of the climate crisis manifests through the archetypal motif of the flood.
Through symbolic actions in sandplay, the chaos in John’s psyche is brought to the surface, leading to a pivotal moment where, after flooding the sandbox, a shift occurs. No longer driven by the need to act out, John is able to sit down and articulate his anxieties about the world, his future, and his inner battles. Using John’s sandplay process as a case study, this presentation will explore how symbolic expression in therapy allows dualities such as good-bad, life-death, and construction-destruction to unfold, enabling differentiation and development. The solutio through mortificatio—symbolized by the flood—becomes a necessary step for psychological integration.

Bio:
Anna Oberleitner is a fully qualified Jungian Analyst and a Social Worker with a Master’s degree. Based in Vienna, she has been practicing psychotherapy since 2020. Anna also teaches social work at the FH Campus in Vienna and currently serves as the second chairperson of the Austrian Association for Analytical Psychology (ÖGAP). Since 2020, Anna has integrated sandplay into her practice and is undergoing training with the International Society for Sandplay Therapy (ISST) to become a certified sandplay therapist.
View on YouTube