Tag Archives: Psychology

Life After Grad School

Posted on by under Books, Grad School, Life

DSCN7346I’ve spent 70% of my adult life in college. And now……… I’m done! This is kind of a strange transitional period for me though. I barely know life without school! (Though as a teacher, I guess I won’t be too far removed from it ;) ). I’ve just finished my final graduate school paper, and in May I’ll be walking for my second MA. It’s exciting, but it’s also a big life change. This particular two-year-program I was enrolled in at Pacifica took me about four years to get through with the various ups and downs of life. And though I’ve written my last five research papers over the last couple quarters, I haven’t had any regular time on campus since the end of summer… and I’m really missing that community! The experience of Pacifica is something that’s almost difficult to put into words. The courses, the materials, the instructors, and the students really are a rare breed here. Delving into mythology and psychology and exploring so many rich areas inevitably affects the psyche and the very being a person. It’s about so much more than academia. Working with this material and going through this passage of my life has molded every aspect of my being. Makes it hard to say goodbye to the program and the people (though a big YAY for social networking keeping this commuter community connected)…. of course I’ll always be able to return for other campus events and seminars… but it will be different.

So, I’ve come to realize it’s a bittersweet celebration.

I am very excited about saying goodbye to homework though! Of course, I enjoyed the coursework and loved just about everything I read, but it did consume a lot of time that I am looking forward to having back. I’m particularly excited about reading anything I feel like! Though I realize with all the grading I always have to do, I’ll never really have all the time I like to fantasize about having with all my books, which I’ve recently re-organized. The picture to the right shows all the books from I bought during my graduate program. Once I was done making working piles out of them in my office, I got to organizing them. Amazing to see it all together.

And the pic below shows all the books I’ve bought/received in just the last 14 months. Each one was selected with the thought, “I’ll read this next!” And the pile, of course, just kept growing. Still haven’t decided what I’m actually going to read first!

DSCN7345

In addition to reading, there’s other things in life I’m eager to dig into. There are many things I’ve been interested in learning or doing over the years, and I always tell myself, “I’ll do that when I’m done with school!” This includes learning sign-language, learning to sew, and learning how to really cook more than spaghetti and quesadillas. I also want to catch up on TV shows that started when I was in grad school that I never got a chance to check out. Fringe & Castle are on the top of that list. Other projects I want to take on include taking agility classes with my pup and tagging the last decade of digital photos.

More importantly, though, what I’m really excited about is spending more time at home with my hubby, working on our various house projects, and spending more time with all of our extended family. Since I commuted to school and was out of town once a month, there were some events I wasn’t here for. And there were many others I just couldn’t make, or really enjoy, because I was so swamped with homework and research. And, of course, the biggest step and most important thing we’re now focused on is starting a family of our own.

For now, I’m going to enjoy the liminal space I’m in and embrace whatever life has to offer next. Thanks for reading. Namaste.

© myth_girl

© myth_girl

Tribute to James Hillman, Pt 2

Posted on by under Grad School, Life, Mythology, Psychology

As the Gathering to Offer Tribute and Celebrate the Life and Work of James Hillman continued on Saturday, March 3, attendees were blessed with a variety of reflections from Hillman’s colleagues. Please enjoy the excerpts below.

Pacifica Graduate Institute, Ladera Campus

Dennis Slattery quoted Hillman from a presentation he gave in 2000 at UCSB: “Notice. Listen. Appreciate. Something is always speaking.” In addition to reflecting on the fun of parties at Hillman’s house, including a reluctant tap-dance performance by Hillman, Slattery focused on the soulful side of Hillman, citing a heart-felt gift Hillman once sent him. The gift was a reflection of Hillman’s listening. He truly heard his friends and colleagues when they spoke. Slattery concluded, “Listening to another human being might be the most generous gift we can give.”

Michael Sipiora placed emphases on the importance of one’s character and made a call for our society to untie the link between old age and death. Mary Watkins reflected on the welfare of society, concluding that “Self is a self among, not a soul apart.” Her call was to an awareness of dysfunction in community. Joe Coppin discussed a beautiful image of a living fence that appeared to him in a dream. In his imagining, this is something sufficient to hold ideas but not prevent them from flirting with other ideas. He concluded that dream is the natural state of the human mind. Ed Casey discussed Nietzsche’s notion “Love Your Fate” and examined how slowing down – one of Hillman’s great traits – makes sudden insight possible. In each of these reflections, the influence of Hillman shone through.

Glen Slater focused on the collective unconscious, which Hillman defined as unconsciousness of our collective history. Slater described that Hillman befriended ideas and would sit with them until they revealed their deeper characteristics. Hillman’s capacity for listening was reflected upon again and again, making clear his generosity and attention to detail in both his personal relationships and in his work. In conclusion, Slater explained that our ideas, like our complexes, often have us more than we have them. It appears Hillman had a better grip on his ideas than many of us manage. His patience with his ideas permitted him to present great depth in his books and presentations in a way that resonates for the intellect and the soul.

Robert Romanyshyn discussed places of language in the land of the soul. Quoting Keats’ notion of the world as the vale of soul-making, Romanyshyn declared that the consciousness of nature is in each of us through our collective unconscious. He directed that we can hold onto our epiphanies of words by letting them go. Important places to be are in the gap, on the bridge, at the threshold, at the edge of the abyss. He warned us that the best way to kill the soul is to bastardize logos.

Ginette Paris opened to the audience in a deeply personal way by sharing her experience at the loss of Hillman, her close friend and colleague. And in respect of her and her experience, I do not feel comfortable in restating it here. I mention it only to say that I was moved by her discussion, her openness, and her soulfulness. As she continued with her reflection, Paris indicated that during his sickness, Hillman stated, “I am dying, but I could not be more engaged in living.” Through personal experience and intimate understanding of Hillman, she powerfully depicted the vibrancy and energy he always maintained. She pointed us to the image of the tree, reminding that the soul sends roots down as much as it sends branches upward. Paris reflected further that the art of dying permits us each to have our own way. And it is through our own unique Rise and Fall that we get the variety of life, which was, according to Hillman, the “cosmic lesson of life.”

As the speakers participated in a brief roundtable discussion, Slater emphasized that our culture tends to ask for the separation of good and bad before asking if something is beautiful or ugly. He shared an antidote he had heard Hillman present. In short, if a kid drops the wrapper to his candy, the father shouldn’t talk about littering and the importance of picking up trash. Instead, he should tell the kid that if he doesn’t put the wrapper with the other wrappers, it will be lonely without its friends. Engage the imagination, the beauty, the soul!
Romanyshyn reflected again on “the connective tissue between ideas and taking time,” emphasizing that “words have roots in the suffering of the soul.”
Finally, Paris shared Hillman’s fantasy – and really love – of work. She said his image for working was a farmer. I envision honor, hard work, patience. Paris mentioned cleaning and creating.

Rumi: “It’s easier to be angry than to think.”

Continue to Pt 3

Photos © Myth Girl

Reading

Posted on by under Books, Grad School, Mythology, Psychology

Just about all my books for the fall quarter at Pacifica have arrived in the mail! (Yay for used books and Amazon!!) Lots of goodies in here. I am taking three courses: Alchemy & the Hermetic Tradition, Greek & Roman Myth II, and African and African Diaspora Traditions. There’s also an Integrative Studies Process course that all second years attend basically for six hours out of the semester. It’s a credit/no-credit deal. I picked up the two recommended texts for that, as I think they will be very fruitful! (Booth’s The Craft of Research and Coppin & Nelson’s The Art of Inquiry: A Depth Psychological Perspective).

And here’s my lil’ “to-do” list for the first class session on September 12. Time to get crackin’!

Alchemy

  • The Alchemy Reader, pages 1-247
  • The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, pages 3-55

Greek & Roman

  • “Oedipus at Colonus” in The Three Theban Plays
  • “Bacchae” in Three Plays of Euripides
  • “The Frogs” in Four Plays by Aristophanes
  • Plato: The Symposium
  • Aristotle’s Poetics

African Traditions

  • “African Religions” (Grillo) article in DCR
  • Conversations with Ogotemmeli, pages xi-xvii, 1-61, 130-147, 148-161, 162-185
  • “Art & Religion in Africa” (Hackett) in DCR, pages 34-44, 119-26
  • The Trickster in West Africa, pages 1-24, 111-222

Wisdom of the Psyche

Posted on by under Books, Grad School, Psychology

I made sooo many notes!

Wisdom of the Psyche by Ginette Paris

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This week, I had a beautiful spiritual, intellectual love affair with Ginette Paris’ Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience. The book is a requirement for a summer course I am taking with Dr. Paris in a couple weeks. I really knew nothing about the text or her when I sat down with it. The preface took me by surprise: this was not just another academic venture. This book comes from her absolute being, written in the aftermath of surviving a fall that caused her brain to hemorrhage. This is a profound exploration of the human psyche, ardently written and informed by her academic career. I heartily recommend it to anyone interested at all in the human condition, mind, and spirit.

Paris has a wonderful way of combining the academic with the personal, even including other voices in her text by discussing former patients and providing personal writing samples on both her personal experiences and theirs. She really lets the reader in, allowing a transformative reading experience. At the core of the text, she is, of course, examining psyche. She also provides numerous accessible definitions for depth psychology. And, within that, here’s just some of the potent ideas she discusses: racism, homosexuality, feminism, consumerist culture, archetypes, storytelling, parenting, pain, family, conflict, education, language, soul, redemption, religion, history, globalization, love, soma, relationships, identity, adulthood, anxiety, fear, and depression.

I just finished the book a little while ago, and my head is just buzzing with a million thoughts. I can’t wait to start delving into them more, especially when I get to attend her lectures!

View all my reviews

An Afternoon with the Shadow

Posted on by under Books, Grad School, Psychology

A Little Book on the Human ShadowA Little Book on the Human Shadow by Robert Bly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a fabulous resource for my Jungian Psychology research paper on the shadow. It explores various components of the shadow in a very accessible manner. Bly offers essentially what I would call a great dialogue on the shadow, interspersed with his poetry. One chapter is even an interview between Bly and his editor Booth. I really feel like I just sat down with these two men and listened to a beautiful conversation about this complex idea. I call it complex primarily because the shadow maintains such a negative connotation, but it is not necessarily always that way. As Booth stated, “it is not something destructive in its very essence” (60).

In the first part, Bly discusses “Problems in the Ark,” and really shares the most poetry here, giving us images of the polarization of lightness and darkness. In second part, “The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us,” Bly dissects the human shadow. Essentially, we are born as a full 360 ball of energy. But we slowly start putting things away in our “bag” to receive positive attention from our parents; what they don’t like gets buried in our bag. We carry on in this manner through high school, now putting the things our peers don’t like in our bag. By our early 20’s, Bly says we only have a sliver of that original ball. Then after a decade or so, we’re ready to dig into our bag and pull it all back out. While all this is going on, we also start projecting (another thing which is not always inherently bad). Then we’re carrying out things we’ve buried in relationships with parents, children, spouses, friends. If our projection is strong enough, the other person is ultimately forced into wearing that mask. It’s a complicated business! And my mind is stuck right now in the thought of the many images and ideas we live with consciously and subconsciously. I’m back to thinking first about perception, and how our reality is what we experience. Throw in that that at the same time we are receiving projections and giving projects, and the self is becoming an even more complicated thing for me to wrap my mind around.

In the third part, Bly discusses “Five Stages in Exiling, Hunting, and Retrieving the Shadow.” First we project, but then something starts to rattle and there’s a disconnect. In the third stage we seek to repair the rattle, and what I see going on is justification, a way of working with the disconnect that is incomplete. In the fourth stage, we come to feel diminished. However many ways we’ve projected ourselves, given away a part of ourselves, those are all ways we now feel diminished. The most interesting commentary here is that Bly said when you share this feeling of diminishment with a friend, the last thing that friend should do is try to cheer you up. I guess this really spoke to me, because I’m always trying to bring everyone sunshine (a nick-name I’ve earned by many). Finally, in the fifth stage, we retrieve that very thing we originally threw out or projected. And then we eat it. We can do this by giving the thing language, or perhaps first with working with it through images or art. And why should we do this? Because “every bit of energy that we don’t actively engage with language or art of floating somewhere in the air . . . No one should make you feel guilty for not keeping a journal, or creating art, but such activity helps the whole world” (bold mine) (43). Here’s the thing about these stages: they can be going on all at once, and they continually reoccur. Also, as Bly really discussed in the second part, the shadow isn’t just personal; there is also a communal shadow and a national shadow, which means we also must deal with the communal projections and the national projections.

In part four, we have the great interview with Booth and Bly. The first key note is that hatred is something that can help us get at our shadows. Who or what is it that really gets us riled up? What is it that you are despising? It’s something in yourself you have buried. Booth questions Bly about the “negative connotations and associations with evil” that are present in the shadow, where Bly explains that evil is separate, but the dark imagery of the shadow can get confused with it. Yet, in fact, “a person who absorbs the shadow becomes not dark, but light and playful” (54). Ultimately, “The shadow energies seem to be a part of the human psyche, a part of its 30-degree nature, and the shadow energies becomes destructive only when they are ignored” (59).

In the fifth and final part, Bly discusses “Wallace Stevens and Dr. Jekyll,” claiming that “[a]ll literature, both of the primitive and the modern peoples, can be thought of as creations by the ‘dark side’ to enable it to rise up from the earth and join the sunlit consciousness again” (63). Bly discusses the shadow-side of Dr. Jekyll, and how we see stories where the shadow side rises and ultimately fails. The discussion also examines a handful of modern poems, and here’s the one I found the most significant (by Wallace Stevens):

Twenty men crossing a bridge,
Into a village,
Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges,
Into twenty villages,
Or one man
Crossing a single bridge into a village.

Comes back to what I was thinking about perception and the unique experiences we all have, no matter how many are sharing that experience with us.

Bly leaves us with this reflection:

“If the shadow’s gifts are not acted upon, it evidently retreats and returns to the earth. It gives the writer or person ten or fifteen years to change his life, in response to the amazing visions the shadow has brought him – that change may involve only a deepening of the interior marriage of male and female within the man or woman – but if that does not happen, the shadow goes back down, abandoning him, and the last state of that man is evidently worse than the first” (80-81).

And this is just a touch of the ideas offered in this small text. I will mention one more small idea that spoke to me personally:

“Our culture teaches us from early infancy to split and polarize dark and light . . . some admire the left-thinking, poorly-lit side, and that group one can associate with the mother, if one wants to, and mythologically with the Great Moth. Most artists, poets, and musicians belong to the second group and love intuition, music, the feminine, owl and the ocean. The right-thinking group loves action, commerce and Empire” (10).

I never really gave this much thought before, but I’m clearly a left-thinker. I hadn’t really considered myself an artist, but I suppose being a writer places me in the category. My jaw just dropped though when I first read this passage and it defined me so well! I always follow my intuition. One of my favorite things on this planet is live music. I’m definitely in touch with my feminine side. I even collect figures of owls. And, most importantly, to me at least, is the ocean. The wonderful, beautiful, deep, endless ocean with all its creatures and magnificent power. As far back as I can remember, I have always loved sitting in the sand gazing at the waves. I’ve never cared to go to the beach during the summer because it’s filled with people, clutter and noise. But cool winter nights? The ocean exists by itself, and it always fills me with serenity.

View all my reviews

Spring 2011

Posted on by under Grad School

This week I attended my third and final session for the spring quarter at Pacifica. It’s been a good way to ease back into things as I only had two courses this quarter instead of the usual three. (However, philosophy has kicked my butt enough that it feels like it’s taken up the time of two classes!).  And, now, two and a half years after I started the program, I’m getting close to finishing my first year of PhD work! It feels really good. I knew I had to take the leave of absence when I did, just as I knew I really needed to return when I did. I’ve been welcomed back with open arms by old and new friends. I really cannot ever emphasize how blessed I feel for this entire experience.

The course work for this session was daunting for my Philosophy class yet great for my Jungian Psych class. I’m just going to brain dump my thoughts about the week now.  ;)

On Monday night, I met my Philosophy teacher at the hotel bar. (Yes, we stay at a hotel for our school, and sometimes I’m taken aback when I see a family in swim suits or something. I forget some people are there for vacation! ;) ). My Philosophy professor is absolutely brilliant. I honestly told her that night that when she’s lecturing, I’m right there with her and it all makes sense. But then I go home and read new material and I’m lost again. I think she appreciated my honesty, and she was glad it at least makes sense in the classroom for me.  I seriously could see this class absolutely flattening me if I had any other teacher. Ultimately, she has convinced me I have enough of a thread to go on to start my Philosophy paper. There was one idea in our second session that really stuck out to me: Kant places thinking above all else. He’s really putting humans at the top of the totem pole, and everything else below it. So what about nature? Won’t this eventually bite us in the ass? We aren’t the biggest thing out there. So, of course, this train of though led me to pop culture… and images from The Happening kept playing in my brain. So, my mission right now is to re-read Kant, re-watch The Happening, and then probably re-read Kant again and see how it all gels together.

On Tuesday we had our Philosophy lecture.  Have I told you these classes are usually about season hours a day? Our instructors really amaze me. The longest I’ve ever taught in one block for one class is four hours. Seven hours could be painful. Fortunately, I’ve yet to have a teacher that makes me feel like scratching my eyes out.  Something as challenging for me though as Philosophy is really intense brain power for seven hours! Because of my fast typing skills, I can take notes nearly verbatim. This is a great advantage because I will hit spells where things stop sinking in, but then I can review them later in my notes. On Tuesday we explored a lot of Derrida. Fortunately, when we got to his “Plato’s Pharmacy” from Dissemination I was actually able to keep up. I had read in a review that Dissemination is perhaps one of his easiest-to-read texts. And we had read The Phaedrus, which he analyzes, at the beginning of the semester, so I already had a grasp on Plato. It was actually really interesting.

Wednesday was my Jungian Psychology class.  We continued an in-depth exploration of Jungian concepts, focusing greatly on the archetype of the self. We also had to view the original The Day the Earth Stood Still which contained an archetype so many of us were surprised to have not picked up on: the Christ figure! A being comes to the Earth, looks like man, walks among men, has an important message, is killed and resurrected. Klattu even takes on the name Carpenter! Now I want to rewatch the film and play with those ideas. That’s what’s really so crazy about these classes: every five minutes will be packed with something you could spend years exploring and playing with! So you grab the best of your ideas and run with ‘em, hoping to at least get a paper topic out of it for the class, and, if you’re lucky, something applicable to your dissertation. For this class, I was drawn immediately to the concept of the Shadow, which always makes me think of one book in particular: Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. I haven’t read the book in quite a while, so I’ll be re-reading that this week and delving into all the implications and ramifications of Ged’s shadow. I’m excited about this work!

In the meantime, I’m just a week away from my summer semester of teaching ending. Whew. I absolutely adore my job and wouldn’t want any other job in the world, but when the break comes around, it’s always welcomed.

Ego & Archetype

Posted on by under Books, Grad School

Ego and ArchetypeEgo and Archetype by Edward F. Edinger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a rich reading! Edinger really breaks down individuation and integrates powerful support direct from various texts of Jung. What stands out to me is Edinger’s examination at what the individual faces in dreams, the shadow, and through symbols/archetypes. Through the use of examples of patient’s dreams, he both shows us the richness of the psyche and how to begin to understand the images it brings to us. I read this for my class on Jungian psychology. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this field!
“To be aware of individuality is to realize that one has all that one needs. It also means that one needs all that one has, namely, that every psychic content and happening is meaningful” (168).

View all my reviews

The Essential Jung

Posted on by under Books, Grad School

The Essential JungThe Essential Jung by C.G. Jung

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was assigned reading for my Jungian Psychology class. We split the large book into three sections, one for each class session. I’ve enjoyed this reading the most since it’s actually Jung’s writing, and not writing about Jung (though those materials are valuable as well). I like this collection because it includes material from throughout Jung’s career and is carefully selected and highlighted by Anthony Storr. It’s really a walk-through of all of Jung’s concepts (archetypes, Self, shadow, etc) as well as an over-view of his early-late works. Storr’s commentary makes the material even more accessible and places Jung’s writing in context. I do enjoy Jung’s writing style as well. I do find his work very accessible. Since I’ve been reading this 400 page book for the last two months though, I find I’ve already “forgotten” the start of the book. Glad to have all my highlights and notes to flip through!

View all my reviews

Reading

Posted on by under Books, Grad School, Life, Writing

For the first time since I got over my flu, I had the chance to sit and read all day. And not papers written by students, but a real live book!!  ;)   I’m catching up on assigned readings for my graduate program. Today I dug into Edinger’s Ego & Archetype. I’m not done yet, but I managed to devour one hundred pages today. I really enjoy psychology and am loving reading about Jung again. I realized when I’m reading though that I’m really multi-tasking the information I consume. Any time I read a text for school, I have four constant and equally important goals:

1). I read to understand the text itself and apply that to the course work.
2). Taking it one step further, I’m digging for ideas to include in my final research paper for the course. (I am lucky with my Jung class that I’ve known my research topic from the start: the role of the shadow figure in Ursula LeGuin’s Wizard of Earth Sea).
3). I’m also always keeping my eye out for anything related to the hero myth or Greek myth as research for my book. (This does happen a lot, since a lot of ideas in myth tend to, at some point, circle back to Greek mythology. I found some tasty tidbits today).
4). And I’m also always keeping my eye out for anything that could possibly contribute to my potential future dissertation topic, which at this point roughly is going to be an exploration of the representation of chronic pain in mythology and what that provides for chronic pain patients.

All this leads to a lot of notes, highlights, and post-it-note tabs. My books definitely look well worn by the time they’ve had a once-over from me. I really enjoy that tactile experience though. Many people in my life have converted to digital readers, and some can’t understand what I’m talking about! I need to touch the book, feel the book, crack the book, and, most importantly, write all over it! No offense to the Kindles, Nooks, and iPads, but this just cannot be done electronically. I will always adore the physical experience with books. I love the smell of new books and old books; I love the markings; I even love the way the edges of the pages turn yellow first. It’s all part of digging into the book, transforming your mind, and meeting with this other world in the print form!

How do you read?