What is a Jungian analyst dreaming when myth comes to mind? Thirdness as an aspect of the anima media natura

Listening analytically is not listening just to what is said but listening to what is just below the surface waiting to be said. This paper looks at Jung's insight into a ‘third thing’ being created intra‐psychically and within the analytic encounter. Ogden's concept of an ‘analytic third’ is used to describe the clinical aspects of this thirdness. This paper explores: how the state of thirdness is created and accessed through use of reverie and associative dreaming; how the material emerging from it is used in a from or about manner; and the eventual fate of the third in a successful analysis by a reexamination of plates four and ten of the Rosarium. The focus is particularly on the awareness and possible meanings of mythological motifs appearing in the mind of the analyst while in session. Thirdness can be viewed as the interpersonal aspect of the anima media natura and functions in a way that informs us of permeability in and between individuals, while the operation of the anima mundi means that there is always an inseparability of the individual with the world.     

Structural Aspects of Synchronistic Moments in Psychotherapy—Findings of an Empirical Study of Synchronicities in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis1

Synchronicity describes a meaningful coincidence of events, which is familiar to us from treatments of our patients, but unfortunately has not yet been empirically substantiated. Adding to previous findings that point out beneficial aspects of synchronicity (Marlo, 2022; Lagutina, 2021; Connolly, 2015), in this paper I will show through a series of five synchronistic moments which happened in the context of therapy and analysis and which have been documented empirically, how synchronicities occur and can be used therapeutically. In my research I found several situational factors that can be considered structural aspects of synchronistic moments. Furthermore, I will show that synchronistic phenomena can have a positive influence if certain relational and transference-countertransference referential aspects are considered by the therapist and analyst. The concept of synchronicity brings the possibility of a further therapeutical instrument for the patient-analyst-dyad.     

Archetypes and the ‘Impoverished Genome’ argument: updates from evolutionary genetics

Throughout his career, Jung felt the psyche had ‘ancestral layers’ that contained elements of an individual’s species history, and clinical experience has shown that this idea can be an aid to psychological healing and emotional well-being. Thus, some later thinkers have attempted to link such theoretical constructs to the genome, as Jung had little knowledge of genetics in his day. But in the early 2000s, genome studies suggested that the genome might contain too little content to be capable of encoding symbolic information. This opinion gave rise to an oft-repeated ‘impoverished genome’ argument, i.e. that the genome could not provide a significant contribution to the collective unconscious, prompting theorists to propose other sources for it, or to argue that it doesn’t exist. Today, however, developments in evolutionary neurogenetics calls the impoverished genome argument into question for a number of independent reasons. These developments re-open the idea that the genome may be worth reconsidering as the biological substrate for the collective unconscious.     

The other between fear and desire – countertransference fantasy as a bridge between me and the other

This paper attempts to show how unrepresented rupture/injury of primary expectations of the early relationship is reactivated in the analytic process. This becomes perceptible especially as unconscious fear and a specific defence described as ‘living behind a glass-wall’. The author, however, postulates the existence of an inherent dialogical-dyadic principle in the psyche, which she calls archetypal hope, and shows how this principle may become active in the analytical space. These aspects of analytical treatments are sketched with two vignettes, in which unconscious processes of exchange cause the analyst to experience unrepresented states. The author describes how the analyst is gradually able to experience and understand this, and how this understanding finally – without first becoming explicit – becomes effective in the analytical space. Special attention is given to the analytic attitude. A readiness to accept and move into regression and a receptivity to attune to the early sensory experience of the analysand is regarded as essential. Through this the analyst gains access to the inner space of the analysand and, through bodily experience and pre-symbolic processes, the unrepresented may thus become figurable. The reverie and countertransference fantasies are understood as a bridge: they connect the analytic pair. However, the reverie also creates the transition between that which was not – the absent representation – and that which wants to emerge. It thus bridges the personal unconscious (implicit expectation) and the archetypal (the archetypal hope). Through this, the space of hope may become a space of possibility, and help bridge the chasm between the experienced and the hoped-for.     

Another serious misunderstanding: Jung,Giegerich and a premature requiem

Barreto's paper, ‘Requiem for analytical psychology’ utilized Jung's dreams and visions to argue for the obsolescence of Jungian psychology. Its thesis rested upon the theoretical assumptions of Giegerich's psychology as a Discipline of Interiority, which he and Giegerich claim are themselves based in Jung's psychology. Here I argue that that claim is misplaced because it depends upon a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of Jung's psychological project. I shall further argue that Giegerich's arguments for a Jungian basis to his psychology rely upon misreadings and decontextualisations of Jung's original texts. Finally, I shall attempt to draw attention to the weaknesses and contradictions involved in Barreto's interpretations of Jung's dreams and visions.     

Conservation learning and the differential impact of visual information available during and after modeling

In order to investigate the nature of the processes that promote the observational learning of conservation, nonconservers were allowed or not visual access to the conservation stimuli while an adult model verbalized the conservation rule. In addition, after each demonstration the subjects were submitted to one of four conditions. The first three conditions involved a short pause during which the observers respectively kept seeing the stimuli, had to visualize them mentally, and had to visualize mentally some irrelevant stimuli; no interruption occurred in the fourth condition. As predicted, the withdrawal of visual information at the time of rule exemplification was accompanied with lower learning scores. However, equivalent acquisition was found with respect to each of the conditions in which the subjects were invited to examine specific stimuli after rule modeling. Altogether these data were discussed in terms of the greater and lesser extent to which the conditions permitted the children, during the observational training, to practice covertly the modeled solution.     

Hiding in plain sight: Jung,astrology, and the psychology of the unconscious

Astrology was a lifelong interest for C.G. Jung and an important aid in his formulation of psyche and psychic process. Archetypally configured, astrology provided Jung an objective means to a fuller understanding of the analysand's true nature and unique individuation journey. Jung credits astrology with helping to unlock the mystery of alchemy and in so doing providing the symbol language necessary for deciphering the historically remote cosmology of Gnosticism. Astrology also aided Jung's work on synchronicity. Despite astrology's worth to Jung's development of analytical psychology, its fundamental role in guiding his discoveries is all but absent from historical notice. The astrological natal chart seems rarely used clinically, and many clinicians seem unaware of its value as a dynamic diagram of the personality and the potentialities within which nature and nurture foster and/or discourage for individual growth and development over the lifespan. This paper charts Jung's interest in astrology and suggests why his great regard for it and other paranormal or occult practices remains largely neglected and unknown.