The C.G.

Jung Society of Queensland

Newsletter July - September 2008, No 56

President’s Letter

Dear Readers,
The Myths We Live By

How Sir Tristram Drank of the Love Drink - Aubrey Beardsley

G
radually, through analysis and inner work, we become conscious of the myths that shape, and perhaps
limit, our particular individual existence.

In her books Pagan Grace and Pagan Meditations, archetypal psychologist Ginette Paris explores how myths
express the complex dynamics in human life more accurately than wordy treatises can. In her stimulating and
thought-provoking new work Wisdom of the Psyche (2007), reviewed on page 10 of this newsletter, she takes
some of these myths to task for being outworn, in particular the myth of romantic love.

The conclusion I draw from the practice of the art of depth psychotherapy is that the more one has a
choice of images, myths, narratives … to live by, the richer the life. To get to that multiplicity of
possibilities, one needs to murder our identification with a lot of old, tired myths. One of the most
wearisome is our fantasy of romantic love, a script based on dependence. (p. 213)

I imagine that most people today reading that statement - that we need to murder our identification with the
myth of romantic love - will feel a sense of shock! We are so immersed in this myth. It underlies most of our
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culture, drives what we consume and shapes some of the most important choices we make in our lives. So
what is wrong with romantic love? For Ginette Paris, a feminist and a believer in the inescapability of one’s
own freedom, it is the aspect of dependence that makes romantic love an old, tired myth.

Robert A. Johnson, whose face we now know from watching the documentary “Slender Threads” over the past
two months, has analysed the myth of romantic love in the story of Tristan and Isolde in his book We. His
most recent book, Living Your Unlived Life: Coping with Unrealized Dreams and Fulfilling Your Purpose in the
Second Half of Life (2007), written with Jerry M. Ruhl, has this to say about romantic love:

It is a painful fact that a good deal of what passes for romance is actually our own unlived life reflected
back to us… The qualities that we most admire in a prospective partner are unlived potentials that are
ripe for development within ourselves. When we awaken to a new possibility in our lives, we often see
it first in another person… We project our developing potentials onto someone and suddenly we’re
consumed with him or her…. [T]his is how we grow, but if we do not become conscious of unlived life,
our projections will undermine intimate relationships… [I]n-loveness obliterates the humanity of the
beloved… Loving is a human faculty. .. Romantic affection, on the other hand, is a kind of divine
intoxication. We ask that person, without knowing it, to be the incarnation of God for us. (p. 35-38)

But this is how it is – we cannot resist the power of these longings and projections when we fall in love. It
seems that, as Johnson and Ruhl say, “This is how we grow”. Ginette Paris’ call for the “murder” of the myth
of romantic love shocks us into examining the prevalence of the myth in so much of our culture and how it
props up and seemingly justifies the unreal expectations that lovers have of each other. Yet we have to
submit to the experience of romantic love, to allow ourselves to be vulnerable, not only because we have no
choice, but also, if we know how, to awaken to our unlived life and to our potential for both genuine human
love and spiritual experience.
≈

Myth, story and archetype underpin many of our Society’s presentations. Our speaker in July, Adrian Strong,
is, to use his own words, “soaked in myth” - he studied mythology under Ginette Paris at the Pacifica
Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. Adrian’s talk explores the mythical world in indigenous
cultures, a subject that seems to arise naturally from the pattern of his life so far.

The healing power of myth and story-telling is the theme of two workshops: the Family Constellations
workshop presented by Yildiz and Satish Sethi on 7 June (arranged too late to be advertised in our last
newsletter); and the workshop to be given by story-teller Jenni Cargill-Strong in September – “Telling our
Stories, Healing Ourselves”.

In August we shall welcome back Forrest James, whose talk “Preparing the Body for Grace” will explore the
role of the body in the approach to the numinous, including, he assures me, the role of yoga. And in
September, Brigitta Beer, a long-standing member of our Society, will bring to us the fruits of her personal
journey and of her studies in Christian mysticism over the past few years in the USA.

One of our purposes, in both our lectures and in the newsletter, is to catch and reflect on ideas that are in the
air and to provoke dialogues that enliven our community. So I am pleased that several members have been
provoked by the president’s letter from the April-June 2008 issue (Re-visioning Melancholy) to contribute their
own articles. One, by Anne Dun, is published in this issue, and another, offered by Pamela Bouma, will be
ready for the next issue.
One last piece of news: we have a new web site developed by Frank Coughlan: www.jungqld.com where our
events will be advertised.

I look forward to seeing you and your friends at our array of stimulating events over the next quarter.

Anne Di Lauro
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Upcoming events at the Jung Society

July 2008

Living Mythically or Death by Myth?

A presentation by Adrian Strong

Thursday 3 July 2008, 7:30 – 9:30 pm

St Mary’s Parish House, Cn Merviale and Peel Sts,
South Brisbane
Members and concession $5; Non-members $10

Can we learn from indigenous mythic traditions to live beyond

the literal? With all our unconscious cultural baggage there is
always the danger of fantasy projection – some myths can kill.

F
or the most part, the majority of us live in a literal ego world - the world of one – where we dwell on the
individual (I) and individual (my) stuff. Psychology introduces us to the world of two – relationships
between binary oppositions - life and death, male and female, good and evil, ego and self, etc.
Engaging in the mythic world releases the third – the charm, that which keeps the world alive through
imagination. Psychology can mediate between the mythic and the literal – deepening the literal but reducing
the mythic through analytical explanation – but then we come to Jung who is, one might say, soaked in
myth...* Reading his works can be an infuriatingly obscure process to a mind accustomed to lucid definitive
concepts because Jung seems reluctant to provide closure of meaning (although many Jungians have tried to
attach fixed meanings to his concepts from which are derived those literalistic tests and labels which are so
nice and easy for the ego to grasp!). Perhaps the psychology he was working towards engaged at a deeper
mythic level where imagination displaces meaning - and indeed, growing out of Jung’s work we have the new
field of archetypal psychology which sees myth as the language of the psyche.

Some indigenous traditions around the world are still in touch with a living mythology. So they provide much
for us to learn, but more often than not, in the literal fixation of our culture, we project that which we have
repressed within the culture outward upon others - and through such mythic projection we can literally kill.

In the 1980s I spent a couple of years living in the Kalahari with people who call themselves Ju/’hoansi (truthful
or upright people) – but who are known to outsiders as Bushmen. This was a wonderful fulfilment of a boyhood
dream. I had been fascinated by the Bushman culture through extensive reading of the late Jungian writer Sir
Laurens Van der Post who had conjured up images of a magical Bushman world in non-fiction works such as
The Lost World of the Kalahari and Heart of the Hunter. Through getting to know and love Ju/’hoansi as
persons rather than as archetypes, I came to understand the dangers of mythic projection and how the works
of Van der Post, and films such as The Gods Must be Crazy can foster such fantasies. And yet I also began
to learn something of the mythic or spiritual ways of the Ju/wasi. My adopted ‘kin’ father, /Gunda was an
“owner of medicine” who would enter into what Ju’hoansi called the “half-death” to engage in battle with spirits
for purposes of healing. In November last year, I returned to the Kalahari to meet up with old friends and
make a film about what had happened to them since I had lived with them 20 years ago. I asked /Gunda about
the role of dreams and about N/um – the healing energy which is at the focus of the medicine dance – and
about his role as a N/um Kxao - an owner of N/um. (Continued next page)
 4

Living Mythically or Death by Myth? Continued from p. 3

In my talk I will show some extracts of films involving trance dance healing of the Ju/’hoansi and if there is
time, some trance dance activities from other cultures to explore the importance of the mythic world in
indigenous cultures and see how we might engage more mythically in our own lives. I will also be discussing
the archaic hunter archetype and suggesting how its long suppression has led to external projection with dire
consequences for the receivers of our romantic fantasies about a lost paradise where archaic hunters seem to
float across a Pleistocene dreamscape of yellow grass and acacia trees. Yet awakening from such fantasies
can lead us to turn inward and re-imagine our own bottomless well of the past which reflects archetypal
beginnings – and that part of us which also resides in extremis – on the creative margins of our inner world.

With regard to a more local focus, I will also be drawing on some of my current field work which involves
filming oral histories with Elders in an indigenous community in Arnhem Land where I have been learning
about myths and rituals of the Guinwinggu people.

• The image of being “soaked in myth” came to me

in a vivid dream I had just after I had read the
email from Anne asking me to write something
about my talk. I was running through an ancient
forest in the pouring rain in a smock type garment
which was somehow keeping me remarkably dry
and in which I was not at all uncomfortable. There
was a group of people following in a car, and we
took a sharp left turn. I came to a deserted temple
inside which was a large swimming pool – yet the
waters were not clear and I had a hunch that there
were crocs hiding in the depths. I also knew that
the waters were sacred to the indigenous people
of the area. I was reluctant to plunge in, but waded
in a short way – feeling the waters of life on my
limbs.

Adrian Strong is currently undertaking doctoral research at Griffith University in the field of ethnographic film,
with particular reference to the representation of indigenous people. Adrian grew up in the UK, where he
studied Science and Philosophy before moving to Africa in 1984. There he had many work incarnations
ranging from farming to development work to business. It was in the late 1980s that Adrian lived and worked
in the Kalahari with the Ju/’hoansi and also developed an interest in film-making. In 1997 Adrian moved from
Namibia to California for additional post-graduate studies, gaining a Masters in Mythological Studies and
Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has been living in Australia since 2000, where he has
also worn many hats, but is at his happiest teaching, researching and film-making.
 5
August 2008

Preparing the Body for Grace:

Jung and the Somatic Dimensions of Religious Experience
A presentation by Forrest James

Thursday 7 August, 2008,

St. Mary’s House, Cn Merivale and Peel Sts, South Brisbane
Members and concession: $5; non-members $10

J
ung is singular among the early depth psychologists in recognising the importance of religious or
numinous experience as central to psychological growth. However, in his focus on the spontaneous
nature of numinous experience, Jung diminishes the significance of an active approach to religious
experience as a result of his critique of ritual. It is argued that this is a significant omission, particularly in
Western Culture, as religious ritual and practice are important insofar as they include an experience of the
body, which provides the ground and container for the symbolic dimensions of religious experience. Jung’s
own methods of facilitating psychological growth through dream analysis and active imagination are forms of
symbolic and imaginal practice. This is congruent with the key place of symbols in Jung’s work as he
understands that “it is in them that the union of the conscious and unconscious is consummated” (CW9 p289).
Although Jung proposed a spectrum model of psychic reality that encompasses the somatic through to the
imaginal, the somatic dimension is not fully reflected in his approach to the numinous. This paper suggest that
intentional somatic practices, that explicitly includes the psyche-soma interaction, are an important adjunct to
any symbolic dialogue with emerging unconscious processes, and may facilitate both the experience and
containment of the numinosum.

Forrest James M. An. Psych, B. App. Sci., Ad. Dip G.T. is a

psychotherapist, supervisor and organisational consultant. He gained
his Masters in Analytical Psychology from the University of Western
Sydney.
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September 2008

The Dark Night of the Soul

A presentation by Dr Brigitta Beer

Thursday 4 September 2008, 7:30 – 9:30 pm

St Mary’s Parish House, Cn Merviale and Peel Sts, South Brisbane
Members and concession $5; Non-members $10

T
he term “dark night of the soul” was first used by St. John of the Cross, a Christian mystic who lived in
16th century Spain, to describe his journey to the other side. When, after pain and suffering and
psychological darkness, he surrenders his life to God, he has a mystical experience.

One dies and is born again and for this moment attains unity with the divine. One experiences no thing ness
as Meister Eckhart says and experiences the love of God. This is a journey inwards where one surrenders his
or her ‘self’ to a higher ‘Self’. One experiences eternal life and love. One becomes a mystic. It is an experience
and journey beyond words. One tastes and savours God and is touched by divine love and
interconnectedness of all. One sees beauty even in the broken and yearns to return to this state. There is no
more fear of dying. One has found God, experienced universal love, one has experienced eternal life. Rumi, a
Sufi mystic said:

“I see and know all times and worlds

As one, one, always one.”

All mystics have experienced a “Dark Night of the Soul”. Research shows that Jung also went through a “Dark
Night of the Soul”.

Brigitta Beer, D. Min. is an Interfaith Minister, Psychotherapist and Spiritual Teacher. Brigitta has researched
her own “Dark Night of the Soul” and its transformational outcome. It is published in book form as “Mystics
Yesterday and Today”.
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September Workshop

Telling our Stories, Healing our Hurts

A Saturday workshop with Jenni Cargill-Strong

When: Saturday 20 September, 2008, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm

Where: Rosicrucian Centre, 157 Norman St., Norman Park
Cost: Members $60; Non-members $75; Concession $50
Morning and afternoon tea / coffee provided. Please bring lunch to share

M
yths offer us metaphors for the powerful archetypal forces at play in our ordinary lives. We sometimes
forget that our own lives have all the elements of a powerful myth: joy, suffering, triumph, failure, birth,
death, love and loss.

Jenni developed the workshop 'Telling Our Stories, Healing Our

Hurts' after co-ordinating and participating in Bridget Brandon's
weekend retreat 'Writing the Story of Your Life' in 2007.

"Before Bridget's course," said Jenni, "I hadn't thought I had enough
interesting material from my life to make compelling story. I had been such a
good girl- I never did anything very wicked or rebellious or adventurous.
However Bridget’s provocations connected me with several powerful
experiences in my life which others found compelling when I retold them.
One story that surfaced strongly and rather unexpectedly was about the
mulberry tree I loved to play in as a child. One holiday, while we were away,
our neighbour ringbarked it. "For me, writing and then retelling that story
was immensely healing. It gave me the opportunity to reassess stuff that
had been locked away in my heart since early childhood, and look at it again
from an adult perspective. Whenever I tell that story now, young and old
connect with it deeply, which has inspired me to create other personal and
family stories especially for my children. "
The Healing Tree

In 'Telling Our Stories, Healing Our Hurts' Jenni will playfully lead participants through fun exercises to mine
their own family stories and anecdotes and then retell them.

Jenni has been telling stories professionally for fourteen years. Jenni trained at the Drama Action Centre full- time from
1990 to 1991 in Sydney, where the training had a pschychodramatic basis. As well as specialising in storytelling, she
studied mime, voice, Le Jur, mask, dance, rhythm, movement, clowning and improvisation. She has taught for the
Sydney Opera House Bennelong Program, has performed and taught at Woodford Folk Festival since 1993, The Byron
Bay Writers Festival 2004 and The Whole Woman Festival 2007 and 2008. She told stories from Perth to Hobart to
Auckland for eight years, released two CD’s of stories and songs and then founded The Story Tree Company. Her first
CD "Wonder Tales of Earth and Sea" received an award from the National Library of Australia in 1999 and her more
recent CD "The Mermaid's Shoes" has just won 'Honours' in the 2008 US 'Storytelling World Awards' in the 'Recorded
Stories' category!
Jenni’s trainers at the Drama Action Centre used a very hands-on approach and Jenni teaches in a similar way, but has
adapted the exercises for those without a background in drama. She uses simple, fun games, group work and pair work.
Her aim is to make storytelling in its many applications accessible and fun to the wider community.

To book your place in this workshop, please use the inserted booking form

For information, please phone Anne on 3511 0167.

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Reflections on Happiness

T
his article originated during a conversation that Anne Di Lauro and I had, earlier this year. We were
discussing my intention to attend the Annual Conference on Happiness and Its Causes for a second
time. Realizing my interest in 'happiness', Anne encouraged me to respond to her article set out in the
April - June newsletter; Re-visioning Melancholy: Weaving Threads. It is our hope that my reflections here will
encourage further debate on these fascinating topics.

Rather than presenting a critique of Eric Wilson's book I will utilise ideas raised in Anne's article as backdrop to
my learning from the Conference. I anticipate this approach will reveal more about the very complex
phenomenon of happiness and at the same time, respond to a couple of very pertinent points raised by Anne
in her article, including Eric Wilson's view of happiness, his concern about the American obsession with
happiness and his apparent belief that when the wider population focuses on or overemphasises happiness, it
is an indicator of society's efforts to eradicate melancholia.

Firstly it will be helpful to give some background information on the Conference and what it is about the event
that has me returning each year. This event, held in Sydney, has now run for three consecutive years and is
an initiative of the Vajrayana Institute, a centre for Buddhist study and practice. This Conference gathers
together presenters of very high calibre - leading minds across a number of areas including psychiatry,
psychology, philosophy, charitable institutions and the spiritual domain. While my interest in attending the
event is both professional and personal, it is the Buddhist connection that is my prime motivator. Last year,
with His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the Special Guest speaker, I considered 'happiness' would be guaranteed
and it was an easy decision to attend. This year, while many in the list of local and internationally renowned
speakers attracted my interest, there were a few who stood out - Tenzin Palmo, a Buddhist nun and author,
and B. Alan Wallace, scholar, prolific author and former Buddhist monk were among these. And then Mathieu
Ricard - who could resist a presentation by the man referred to by scientists as "the happiest man in the
world"? Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk with a scientific background, involved with a research program
on neuroplasticity and the effects of meditation training.

Wilson's anti-happiness perspective and his cry for us to "throw off the shackles of positivity and relish the
blues" may have some merit. However I would suggest that his definition of happiness is narrow and
unfortunately does not serve his argument well. Equally, I consider his view of people to be somewhat
patronising. For example, the happiness that Wilson refers to seems to be either hedonic pleasure
(constructed by the American culture; a culture which is underpinned by economics and therefore the capitalist
system) or joy; an emotional response to enjoyable experiences. This "happiness industry" he describes
apparently hooks people, turns them into victims of habit who then become happy through buying and
acquiring 'stuff'. According to Wilson as people are further locked into this "industry" they not only pursue the
apparent gains of this restricted version of happiness relentlessly, achieving very little, but their behaviour
continues to feed the system. Certainly, it can be said people in the western world have turned shopping into
an 'art form' but I wonder are we really powerless victims of this 'machine' and is the happiness we pursue so
simplistic?

Speakers at the Happiness Conference contest that happiness is much more than hedonistic pursuit.
Although acknowledging that we pursue pleasure, joy and good experiences - very much a 'norm' of human
behaviour - the reality is that the emotional 'highs' we gain from these pursuits are short-lived and cause us
much suffering. The view for most is that long lasting happiness can be found by improving our overall well-
being and pursuing a more meaningful life. The following examples, drawn from various presenters, give a
very different view of happiness than that of a simple emotion:-

His Holiness the Dalai Lama states, "The very purpose of our life is to seek happiness" and whether we
follow a religious path or not "we are all seeking something better in life". "From the very core of our
being, we simply desire contentment" and "the greater we care for the happiness of others, the greater our
own sense of well-being becomes".
 9

Matthieu Ricard considers happiness to be a skill we can develop. Much of his presentation focussed on
ways of training our mind through meditation.

Tal Ben-Shahar and Dr Martin Seligman, both from the field of Positive Psychology, discussed current
research into the science of happiness. Concerned with overall well being and optimal human functioning
they presented tools and ideas for better ways of living.

Tenzin Palmo believes we can achieve happiness through cultivating positive emotions and that
happiness can be found by meditating on compassion, patience, kindness and equanimity and integrating
these into our daily lives. She encourages us to explore different techniques that assist us to stay calm
and centred.

B. Alan Wallace's happiness is "deeper than an emotion… entails a sense of well-being meaning and
fulfilment." Based in the Buddhist belief system, this "genuine happiness…emerges from the subjective
qualities one brings to life". Attention plays a key role here, and Wallace offers contemplative techniques
for cultivating genuine happiness in our lives.

It is clear from these examples that introspection and deep reflection are components of happiness as well as
features of melancholy. Nostalgia, sadness and other emotional states that are equated with melancholia and
held up by Wilson to be essential parts of our life are as fleeting as the emotions we experience with joy or
pleasure. Therefore within these more complex definitions and explorations of happiness, presented above,
can we not consider that, rather than being eradicated, 'melancholy' can co-exist with 'happiness' within our
psyche?

To consider that happiness is as simple as experiencing a pleasant emotion, and to suggest that happiness
has now been appropriated by the economists who have not only us but also our creative impulses 'under their
spell' seems to be missing the point. No matter how you define it, or what approach/perspective people have
towards it, when you explore the phenomenon with any person you will most certainly find that they believe
happiness is about finding meaning in life and that it very often involves 'going within' and uncovering the
spiritual dimensions of ourselves - our inner nature. Is this an experience that we would deny ourselves and
others by limiting our view of happiness? I suspect not.

Yes, I do apply what I have learned at the conferences to my daily life. My life is definitely becoming more
meaningful. But I recognise I have much more to learn; I have already signed up for next year's Conference!

Anne Dun

References:

HH The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D. The Art of Happiness. A handbook for living. Sydney: Hodder Headline
Group, 1999.

2nd International Conference on Happiness & Its Causes. Conference Proceedings. . 14 - 15 June 2007.

3rd Annual Conference on Happiness & Its Causes. Conference Proceedings. Ashfield: Vajrayana Institute. 8 - 9 May
2008.

Michie, David. Buddhism for Busy People. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2004.

Ricard, Matthieu. Happiness. A guide to developing life's most important skill. London: Atlantic Books, 2006.
 10

Book Review

Ginette Paris: Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience. London and
New York, Routledge, 2007.

T
here is both more and less to this title than meets the eye. First the
“less”: this book says very little about neuroscience. But it does say
a great deal about possible future directions of depth psychology.
This is both a personal story and a manifesto, written by psychologist,
writer and teacher Ginette Paris after her descent into a deep hole – an
empty swimming pool into which she fell injuring her head – and her
return to the upper world with the aid of neuroscience and “the Great
Mother’s milk of compassion”. Her encounter with death taught her, she
says, more about the psyche than had many years of analysis.

Her voice is the same voice as the one we hear in her books “Pagan
Grace” and “Pagan Meditations”. She is the same original, provocative,
bold, poetic, insightful and incisive writer whom we know from her writings
on myths in everyday life. But this book is more personal and courageous
as it takes a trenchant look at attitudes and issues in the practice of
psychotherapy enlivened by case material and accounts from the author’s
own life.

Firmly rooted in Depth Psychology and Archetypal Psychology, which she teaches at Pacifica Graduate
Institute at Santa Barbara, California, she pays tribute to those who have shaped her thinking - Freud and the
post-Freudians and Jung and the post-Jungians, particularly James Hillman and his work towards the
renaissance of psychology through the imaginal. And, like Hillman, her approach is lively and polemical as she
pulls apart modern psychotherapeutic dogma, putting into question all of the myths about therapy that
therapists of any persuasion might hold dear. Psychological wisdom is to be found in these theories but “what
is dead are approaches that ask for an intellectual, rigid belief in a given theory about the psyche… including
the ones I prefer or profess.”

She begins by engaging with current models of psychotherapy - the medical model (the promise of healing),
the economic model (multiplying one’s psychological investments), the judicial model (negotiation of one’s
psychic territory, e.g. jockeying for the role of victim), and the religious model (the hope of redemption). None
of these models, she concludes, addresses the passionate, irrational, Dionysian aspect of psychological life. It
is Depth psychology that teaches us to dance with the psyche.

She sees the practice of depth psychology as a celebration of psychological life.

[T]he goal of therapy is to heighten the capacity to love. Analysis is a long conversation about love. It
starts with love of ourselves, which is essential to the love of others … The future of depth psychology
is concerned [with raising] the fever of imagination, to amplify the loving connection that binds us to
the world.

Of the rejected models, the one that comes closest to the bone, I imagine for many of us, is the myth of
therapy as redemption, analysis as the redemptive quest masquerading as individuation, “the belief that
analysing the unconscious will lead to a clean, pure, healthy psyche and that one will evolve into a luminous,
loving, dignified, pacified soul.” While the spiritual need is real, so is the danger of inflation from attributing a
quasi-divinity to the “Self”. For her, Jung’s notion of Self as an ideal centre, a dream of totality, was literally
 11
turned on its head in the aftermath of her accident. Her consciousness was changed by her experience of a
loss of a centre. She learned, she says, to live out of liminal spaces rather than aspiring to live from a notional
centre.

Many notions in psychotherapy are examined. Some are brought into the fold (for example, in discussing the
prejudices that supporters of CBT and supporters of depth psychology have towards each other, she slashes
through the knot of mutual prejudice with the observation that both involve the learning of a new and
sophisticated language); others are put to the sword (for example, the notion in developmental psychology of
the centrality of the child which, she says, creates self-proclaimed victims and perverts “the natural sense of
compassion of most humans - one of the most essential qualities for a community.”

As for the wisdom of the psyche, this, she says, is ultimately the goal of analysis and it involves becoming
aware of the myth that shapes us. “Analysis is not so much a cure as an education, like learning a new
language, a philosophical adventure in self-discovery, an art of living more lucidly and intensely.” “Life’s
ordeals offer an opportunity to penetrate the outer shell of our persona and to plunge deep into the core of our
being, the place where our own psychological intelligence is waiting our arrival.”

Her ideas are informed by feminism and by Existentialism, particularly Sartre’s “We are condemned to
freedom”. “[T]o develop psychological wisdom we must learn, early on, that even the most loving relationship
cannot spare us the solitude of human destiny.” She presents a fierce and passionate feminist deconstruction
of the myth of the Mother, inspired by Sartre. “A revisioning of the maternal myths implies a revolution in
values, manners, education, esthetic sensitivity, city planning, welfare programs. Both mother and father
archetypes are in need of a new deal.”

The book is also a re-visioning of the practice of depth psychology as she offers a vision for its future
throughout the book. In particular she urges us to “drop the medical pretence”. The stress placed by Freud and
Jung on the medical / scientific basis of their work was necessary in the beginning but it no longer serves.
Depth psychology as a theory, she asserts, “is a deep thinking about the life of the psyche and, as such,
belongs to the arts and the humanities.” As a practice it belongs to mythology – a narrative evoking the
complexities of human life. “The task of depth psychology is to [elevate from shame] the imprisoned,
oppressed, hungry, cold and lonely psyches. Without artistic transmutation it is impossible to have a change of
myth.”

This book provides stimulating ideas for both therapists and patients. As therapists, we could do worse than to
apprentice ourselves to some of her insights on the practice of depth psychology, and to be inspired by her
ideas on anxiety, fear and depression in the final chapter.

In a work that is such a profusion of insights, bold assertions and arguments, there will surely be some
assertions and stances that readers will question; and this will evoke – call out – readers’ own insights and
arguments. Readers are thus impelled to make the effort to examine their own givens, to see if their own
myths are outworn; or to try to understand exactly what the writer means with assertions such as “A richness
of imagination is the best cure against despair” or “Most neurotic behaviours are more like an unfortunate
addiction to a joyless life” or “[we need] to murder our identification with a lot of old, tired myths [such as] our
fantasy of romantic love”.

Ginette Paris emerged from her descent with a new myth, the Spring-time thawing of her heart that had been
frozen in childhood for lack of warm mothering.

In writing this book, she has combined the compassion of the Mother archetype, the rigour of the Father
archetype and her new-found sense of the absurdity of life to produce a Dionysian dance of new, stimulating
and thought-provoking ideas.

Anne Di Lauro
 12

About the C.G. Jung Society of Queensland

The C.G. Jung Society of Queensland is committed to furthering awareness of and reflection upon the writings of the
Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). The Society promotes an understanding of Jung’s work through the
exploration of its psychological and spiritual applications to the individual journey and interpersonal relationships, and by
considering the ways in which Jung’s writings and ideas can contribute to the healing of modern society.

The Society does this through offering monthly presentations, occasional workshops and small groups, all of which are
open to both members and non-members. Monthly presentations are normally held at 7:30 pm on the first Thursday of
each month, from February to December, at St Mary’s Church Hall, corner of Merivale and Peel Streets, South Brisbane.
The venue is within walking distance of the Cultural Centre bus station and South Brisbane train station. Off-street
parking is available in the churchyard.

Established in 1982, the Society is a non-profit and non-professional association. The Society’s events are attended by
people of all ages and all walks of life.

Members of the C.G. Jung Society of Queensland are entitled to:

● reduced admission fee to monthly presentations and workshops

● use of our library of Jungian books
● our quarterly newsletter
● New service: advertising of members’ workshops, if deemed appropriate by the editor,
to the Society’s membership by e-mail

Annual membership fee (Jan-Dec 2008): $35 ($25 concession/student/pension; $50 couples/family; $12 newsletter
only)

C.G. Jung Society of Queensland - Committee for 2008

President Anne Di Lauro 3511 0167 dilauro@ozemail.com.au

Membership Secretary Frank Coughlan 3356 1127 frankcoughlan@fastmail.com.au
Committee Secretary Monica Sharwood 3847 3077 monicasharwood@optusnet.com.au
Treasurer Brendan McMahon 0402 583 701 klarex@powerup.com.au
Librarian Marie Sinclair 3371 1285 mbs03@bigpond.net.au
Newsletter editor Anne Di Lauro 3511 0167 dilauro@ozemail.com.au
Committee member Michele Clear 3379 5049 mmclear@bigpond.com
Committee member Anna Conaty 3876 0996 ajconaty@hotmail.com
Committee member Stuart Douglas stuart.douglas@bigpond.com
Committee member Helen Royle helencroyle@hotmail.com

C.G. Jung Society of Queensland, 74 Camp St., Toowong, Q 4066. Tel: 3371 1285
www.jungqld.com
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I wish to attend Jenni Cargill’s workshop “Telling our Stories, Healing our Hurts” to be held on 20
September 2008. I enclose a cheque / money order for (please circle appropriate amount):

… $60 (Member), …$75 (Non-member); …$50 (Concession)

Name: …………………………………………………………………………………………………

Address: …………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

E-mail: …………………………………………………………………………………………………

Telephone: H. ………………………………….. W …………………………………………………….

Please return to C.G. Jung Society of Qld, 74 Camp St., Toowong, Q 4066

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