Psybernet > Ideas > Depth Psychology
I use the word psychology in a way that is in almost the opposite to the way it is used in academic or clinical psychology. I use it in a way that is respectful of the roots of the word, and in a way that is linked to the tradition of depth psychology of Jung and Archetypal Psychology. Let me quote from Thomas Moore Care of the Soul.
" You can see already that care of the soul is quite different in scope from most modern notions of psychology and psychotherapy. It isn't about, curing, fixing, changing, adjusting or making healthy, and it isn't about some idea of perfection, or even improvement. It does not look to the future for an ideal, trouble free existence. Rather it remains patiently in the present, close to life as it presents day to day, and yet, at the same time mindful of religion and spirituality."
page xv in the HarperPerennial edition, 1992
Mindful . . . aware, seeing into the patterns of life, valuing experience, with loving attention, captures the sense of psyche that underpins my work in this Psybernet project.
The picture off the cover of the book. It says it all. . .
It is by Edouard Vuillard, Woman Sewing Before a garden Window. 1895
There is another tradition of psychology that I draw on. The work of J.L. Moreno. Here my definition of psyche as used in this tradition.
The psyche is the web of relationships in the here and now. The relationship is the flow of feeling projected into 'space' (Moreno calls this tele, it can be positive, negative or neutral.) This is an interactive phenomena. The relationships are with entities real and imagined.
You can see how this gives a whole new meaning to the term: tele-computing !
The psyche or the soul does not exist apart from our everyday lives. Is is a way of seeing. A way of seeing with the imagination, the eternal patterns in the ordinary.
Discussion on these definitions can take place in the Psybernet Mailing list, Psyber-L, if you are a subscriber to the list you can comment there. Or you may wish to subscribe.
Created February 1995, Updated: Sat Apr 27 10:30:21 NZST 2002
