Digital Jung
Living a Symbolic Life in a Technological Age. Our digital age presents unique challenges for the practice of the inner life. What can the insights of Jungian Psychology offer for dealing with these challenges? In this series, we explore Carl Jung's idea of "the symbolic life" through the lenses of depth psychology, mythology, fairy tales, poetry, religion, and more. We focus on three core questions: 1. What is the symbolic life? 2. Why do we need a symbolic life? and 3. How can we cultivate and live a symbolic life? This is a companion podcast to the book 'Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life' by Jungian analyst Jason E. Smith.
Digital Jung
Wandering Off the Path
•
Jason E. Smith
•
Season 1
•
Episode 24
In this episode:
We take a deep dive into the experience of depression and explore how a grasp of symbolic material can enrich our understanding of this difficult and all-too-human experience.
Let's make this a conversation:
Do you have a comment or question about this episode, or about something you would like me to address in a future episode? Please contact me on Facebook (facebook.com/jungiananalyst) or Twitter (@Jason_E_Smith).
For more on living a symbolic life:
Please check out my book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life, available from Chiron Publications.
Sources for quotes and more:
- "Hidden in the neurosis is a bit of still undeveloped personality, a precious fragment of the psyche lacking which a person is condemned to resignation, bitterness, and everything else that is hostile to life." ~ C.G. Jung in The State of Psychotherapy Today in 'Collected Works, vol. 10.'
- Episode 23: Approaching the Unconscious
- “The individual, who hitherto has been caught in his personal entanglements, is then confronted with a problem which no longer represents solely his personal conflict but gives expression to a conflict that it has been incumbent on man to suffer and solve from time immemorial." ~ Jolande Jacobi in 'Complex/Archetype/Symbol.'
- Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Mark Musa.
- Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.
- The I Ching, Richard Wilhelm translation.
- “This awful, grinding, banal life in which [everything] is ‘nothing but.’” ~ C.G. Jung in The Symbolic Life from 'Collected Works, vol. 18.'
- Religion mitigates feelings of depression by providing a sense of meaning, study suggests
- “If, however, we are also able to conceive of depression from the framework of the religious function of the psyche..." ~ 'Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life.'
- The Quest for the Holy Grail, translated by Pauline Matarasso.
- Lost by David Wagoner
- Shoemaker and the Elves, from 'Grimm's Fairy Tales.'
- Episode 21: Dreams and the Sacred
- A Man Lost By a River by Michael Blumenthal.
Music:
"Dreaming Days," "Slow Vibing," and "The Return" by Ketsa are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0