Shows / This Jungian Life Podcast
This Jungian Life Podcast
Join us—Lisa, Deb, and Joseph—for sometimes irreverent but potentially life-changing conversations. Every Thursday, we explore culture, relationships, and depth psychology through the lens of Carl Jung. We devote a segment of each episode to analyzing a listener’s dream.
Episodes
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Meeting Shadow on the Spiritual Path with Connie Zweig
Award-winning author, depth psychotherapist, and guide Connie Zweig shows us encountering darkness is a necessary part of our spiritual journey. In the first…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
REVIVING TOLERANCE in Cancel Culture
In a world reduced to digital exchanges and swift judgments, reviving tolerance has become vital. Toleration comes from the ancient Proto-Indo-European root…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
HEALING the RIFT: Anima Mundi in a Disenchanted World
Is every object alive? Are wind, oceans, and mountains sentient? Jung, inspired by Anima Mundi or world soul, believed so. This concept, rooted in ancient…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Hypochondria’s Havoc and the Quest for Reassurance
Illness anxiety disorder (IAD), formerly hypochondriasis, is characterized by excessive worry about a severe illness, persisting despite medical evaluations…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
OUR MORAL COMPASS: Understanding Guilt, Remorse, & Atonement
A sudden pang in the chest, a quiet voice persistently whispering at the back of our mind, we experience guilt when our actions, or deliberate lack thereof…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
BEAUTY, her BEAST, and the BLOSSOMING SELF
The tale of Beauty and the Beast is at least 4,000 years old, perhaps second in popularity only to Cinderella. It has generated many print versions, animated…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
EMBRACING THE OUTCAST: Understanding Homelessness
Homelessness, as a stark and multifaceted symbol of disconnection, extends beyond the mere absence of physical shelter, embodying a complex interlacing of…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
UGLY DUCKLING COMPLEX: the painful path of transformation
We all understand the Ugly Duckling complex because we lived it at one time or another. Hans Christian Anderson’s famous tale paints a poignant picture of a…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
SHADOWS & HIGH STAKES: understanding gambling
Understanding gambling illuminates the amalgam of desire, risk, and reward that defines our interactions with a capricious world. The lure of gambling…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
WHISKERS of WISDOM: A Jungian Analysis of ‘Puss in Boots’
Something about a cat wearing clothes has captured our imagination for over 500 years, so it’s about time we tackle a Jungian analysis of Puss in Boots…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
ARCHETYPAL IMAGES: the soul's language
Thomas Singer, M.D., Jungian Analyst and president of The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism joins us to decipher Archetypal Images and explain the…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
MEDUSA’S MANY FACES: The Evolution of a Myth
The symbolism of Medusa, one of three Gorgon sisters in Greek mythology, has fascinated artists, writers, and philosophers for centuries. Initially a monstrous…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
The DARK TRIAD: tracking wolves in our midst
Understanding the Dark Triad can help us navigate mysteriously troubled relationships in all spheres of life. Psychologists coined the term to describe a…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
SYMBOLIC MEANING of HAIR: what's your look saying?
The symbolic meaning of hair is both personal and cultural. It serves as an expressive medium through which we silently communicate. Sporting bed-head might…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
THE WHALE: a film about trauma, obesity, and the undying hope to connect.
We are born with a drive to connect meaningfully with our caregivers. When that is thwarted by fate, deprivation, or hostility, our psyche rallies, it…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
PAN: archetypal source of panic disorder
Piping through mountains and glens, the great god Pan carries the relentless procreative power of nature. He symbolizes the archaic level of psyche from which…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
CAN JUNG’S HOME WITHSTAND REPURPOSING?
It seems that an intrepid consortium of impact investors, real estate developers, and the Swiss Tourism, Farming, and Dairy Products Oversight Authority have…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
SCHADENFREUDE: Why do we enjoy seeing others fail?
Schadenfreude, the joy in someone else’s misfortune, is a common human experience. We often feel it when someone we believe deserves it embarrasses themselves…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
The PIED PIPER & the terrible costs of rejecting shadow
The Pied Piper story holds a dark secret that has repelled and fascinated us for over 500 years. It asks, "What does it cost to banish our shadow?" At its…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
The ORPHAN: symbol of eros, pathos, and hope
The archetype of the orphan, closely related to the hero, evokes powerful feelings of abandonment, deprivation, and hope. From Harry Potter to Little Orphan…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
PASSING THE TEST: embracing the refiner’s fire
The word test originally referred to an earthenware vessel in which metals were smelted to separate ore from dross. Like ancient vessels holding the heat of…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
AWAKE TO THE WORLD: Jung’s Ethical Stance
Despite volumes written on morality and ethics, how do we determine what’s right? Values distilled over time by family, faith, and nation define and denounce…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
IRRESISTIBLE INVITATIONS: the powerful seduction of possibilities
Invitations are a subtle siren song, tapping into our primal human need to be chosen combined with our thirst for novelty, making them an irresistible force…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
APHRODITE’S SHADOW: Drowning in Beauty
When the goddess Aphrodite claims us too fully, over time, our bodies become abandoned temples of physical perfection, sexual allure, and romantic passion. Her…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Sacred Marriage: A Fusion of Instinct, Spirit, and Grit
Marriage is a mystery woven into the fabric of time. A 4,000-year-old contract etched in stone bears witness to its timeless significance. But what is the…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
The Schizophrenia Complex: How Do We Love Those in Chaos?
Guest Eve Maram, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst in Orange, CA. Her book, The Schizophrenia Complex, presents a clear-eyed and…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Bipolar Disorder: A Jungian Perspective
Imprisoned by the sea with his son Icarus, mythological craftsman Daedalus constructed wings to escape. Beeswax held feathers in place, so Daedalus told Icarus…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Inside the Mind of the Scam Artist
Conned, swindled, or bilked, about 50 million Americans were ripped off by scammers in 2020. What deadens a person to preying on another? Tricksters commit…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Best of This Jungian Life 2022
New Year is a global time of celebration and self-reflection. We let go of what’s worn out and cheer on what’s new and emergent. Here at TJL, we raised our…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
SEX and its Undeniable Power to Fascinate
Sex fascinates us. Whether we turn toward it, flushed and excited or away from it, tense and disquieted. Archetypal images of sex adorn the thresholds of…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
HOLIDAY HAUNTINGS, or Who are these people?!?!
Holiday homecomings kindle hopes of achieving a domestic ideal, though family gatherings are also likely to evoke old roles and emotions. Families open a…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
THERAPISTS on the SILVER SCREEN: fantasy or fact?
In psychoanalysis, a screen memory covers up a deeper, more emotionally charged issue. Similarly, movie and television screens both shield and open us to human…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
REVOLUTION: the way of radical renewal
We tend to think of revolution as a people’s push-back against perceived oppression—a reaction to rulership that has rejected fairness, change, and…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
MELANCHOLY: the exquisite ache of life
Melancholy evokes images of poets and artists for whom suffering and giftedness go hand in hand. Creative ability as compensation for affliction is depicted in…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
GAMES: a metaphor for life
Humans have played games since prehistoric times. Games bring us together and pit us against each other. We agree to rules, take turns, develop tolerance for…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
STAY-AT-HOME DADS: Emerging Potentials in the Father Archetype
As our bonds to historic roles loosen, fathers are finding new ways to express themselves within the family dynamic. In 2014 Pew Research Center identified two…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
SEWING: Stitching a Life Together
Humans moved from stitching animal hides to sewing cloth, from necessity to fashion, and from handwork to factory. To sew is to repair, alter, and create. If a…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Matthew Quick on Jung, heartbreak, and healing in his new novel We Are the Light.
Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook, shares himself and his new book, We Are the Light. Writer’s block led Quick to ThisJungian Life podcast…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Zombies: a call to consciousness
Zombies have recently risen from mythological depths to menace modern-day culture. Zombies image the horror of vulnerability to dehumanized existence. They…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
The Problem with Problems: solve or avoid?
Problems can pester, persist and plague. They range from short-lived to chronic, bothersome to heart-wrenching, resolvable to unalterable. Problems cause what…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
OCD: The Distress of Repression
Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts; compulsions are unwarranted, involuntary behaviors. Though different, they often go together, for compulsions pose…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
The Inferior Function: Opening to the Interior
There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in. LEONARD COHEN Jung’s system of typology—our characteristic way of orienting to the world—led to…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Theory of Enchantment: Chloe Valdary
Could the antidote to racism be enchantment? Chloe Valdary thinks so. Theory of Enchantment is a radical approach to anti-racism rooted in understanding that…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
THE QUEEN: Archetype & Individual
Queen Elizabeth II is mourned around the world. The world saw stages of life live in and through her: from maiden to mate, mother to matriarch, elder to aged…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
ROAD TRIP: outer journey, inner mission
The open road beckons: bigger, better, boundless. To see and to seek is a mythological theme with an American stamp, from wagon trains to memoirs and movies…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
HATRED: a way to hide our secrets
Hatred is a universal human emotion related to distancing and destroying. Hatred is anger, disgust, judgment, and contempt cemented into implacable permanence…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Donald Kalsched: Trauma & the Informed Heart
Dr. Donald Kalsched, Jungian analyst, teacher, and author, discusses his acclaimed work on childhood trauma; (see www.donaldkalsched.com for upcoming…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
COMPARTMENTALIZATION: Coping with Contradiction
Compartmentalization is like a home electrical panel that separates power into different zones. It allows us to separate the charge carried by ideas, feelings…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
HERMES: Divine Trickster
Karl Kerenyi collaborated with Jung in demonstrating the psychological meaning of Greek mythology. Kerenyi found in Hermes a representation of “a third way of…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Archetype of the Wave: image of energy and motion
Images of earth’s perpetual restlessness waves gently rock us, lift us up for an exhilarating ride – or inundate us in the terrifying phenomenon of a tsunami…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
The Way of Kabbalah: ancient map of the psyche
Kabbalah is an ancient Jewish mystical tradition that has captured the imaginations of people from widely diverse backgrounds, including Jung himself. Three…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Imp of the Perverse: struggling with our fiendish shadow
A fiendish inner spirit can prompt behavior that defies self-interest and even common sense. In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, the protagonist acts on his diabolical…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Hansel and Gretel: Overcoming Trauma
Fairy tales are fierce narratives of human shadow and its transformation. Hansel and Gretel depicts raw childhood trauma: parents abandon their children in the…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
DAIMON: Demon or Destiny?
The daimon, a guiding spirit of individual destiny, was discussed by ancient Greek philosophers and still surfaces in books and movies like The Golden Compass…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Can We Consider Abortion?
The word consider derives from Latin considerare, “to look at closely, observe.” Con means “with, together,” and sidus refers to “heavenly body, star…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Archetypal Aspects of School
Schools have existed across cultures and throughout time; the knowledge they transmit leads us out of childhood, shapes our values and world view, and grooms…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Dream Incubation with Machiel Klerk
Guest Machiel Klerk has worked with dreams and healing traditions worldwide; his new book is Dream Guidance: Connection to the Soul through Dream Incubation…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
DEATH: A Jungian Perspective
Awareness of death can help us create an intentional life—one that serves the movement of soul toward wholeness. Jung realized that although we experience…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
Hans Christian Andersen: Persona & Personhood
While many of Hans Christian Andersen’s 19th-century stories have moralizing motifs, their universality and depth places them among ageless fairy tales…
- This Jungian Life Podcast
POISON: Toxic or Transformative?
Pharmakon, the ancient Greek word for drug, can mean both “remedy” and “poison.” There is a close connection between poison and cure. Poison is stealthy, and…