Sunday, May 8, 2011

That old time religion, it's good enough for me . . . or is it?

by Mel Mathews

Perhaps that 'Old Time' religion has failed us, or at least the deeper meaning of symbols and metaphors have been lost to misinterpreted literalism and that 'old king,' religious fundamentalism. Blindly following old time beliefs and attitudes in their many forms and guises is following our forefathers right over the cliff and into a vast sea of disillusionment and meaninglessness. Will we repeat this by following along with a host of fundamentalist ideals, the endless pursuit of materialism at the expense of our ecology, and other forms of meaningless neurotic suffering, or we will be moved to willingly and consciously suffer the unknown, until these old time religious symbols become alive within and take on authentic meaning as opposed to being a useless, lifeless, hand-me-down relic?

Instead of completely running away from, or blindly following, perhaps we could begin to question these old religions and fundamentalisms, begin to confront and dialogue with these calcified God-Images, and find that lost nugget of gold - the transcendent. After all, like a reoccurring nightmare, these haunting literalized religious concepts and other 'old king' values will not go away until their embedded images are exposed and truly given their due.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Living in the Borderland by Jerome Bernstein

Living in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and the Challenge of Healing Trauma

by Jerome Bernstein

Living in the Borderland addresses the evolution of Western consciousness and describes the emergence of the 'Borderland,' a spectrum of reality that is beyond the rational yet is palpable to an increasing number of individuals. Building on Jungian theory, Jerome Bernstein argues that a greater openness to transrational reality experienced by Borderland personalities allows new possibilities for understanding and healing confounding clinical and developmental enigmas.

In three sections, this book charts the evolution of Western consciousness, examines the psychological and clinical implications and looks at how the new Borderland consciousness bridges the mind-body divide. It challenges the standard clinical model, which views normality as an absence of pathology and equates normality with the rational, and abnormality with the transrational. Jerome Bernstein describes how psychotherapy itself often contributes to the alienation of many Borderland personalities by misdiagnosing the difference between the pathological and the sacred and uses case studies to illustrate the potential such misdiagnoses have for causing serious psychic and emotional damage to the patient.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms and Concepts

Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms and Concepts (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts)by Daryl Sharp

C. G. Jung died in 1961, without ever having presented a systematic summary of his psychology. For the past thirty years his ideas have been explained, explored and amplified by thousands of others, with varying results.

Jung Lexicon takes the reader to the source. It was designed for those seeking an understanding of relevant terms and concepts as they were used by Jung himself. There are choice extracts from Jung's Collected Works, but no references to other writers.

Jung Lexicon is not a critique or a defence of Jung's thoughts, but a guide to its richness and an illustration of the broad scope and interrelationship of his interests. Informed by a close reading of Jung's major writings, Jung Lexicon contains a comprehensive overview of the basic principles of Jungian psychology. The implications and practical application of Jung's ideas are well covered by other volumes in the Inner City Books: Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts series.

Paperback: 159 pages
Publisher: Inner City Books (December 1990)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0919123489