The Snake in the Clinic: Psychotherapy's Role in Medicine and Healing

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This book offers an alternative to the usual view of psychotherapy s role in relation to medicine by proposing that psychotherapy is less an adjunct to mainstream medicine than it is co-partner in the process of deep healing.

The chosen emblem of Western scientific medicine is the rod and serpent of the Greek god Asklepios. Its symbolism represents the importance of raising to consciousness those dark chthonic energies that are essential to 'deep' and lasting health. The Snake in the Clinic offers a critical re-evaluation of the role of psychotherapy in medicine. It questions the value of quantifiable evidence-based practice; pointing out that the primary aim of this approach is to reduce symptoms rather than to 'heal' or 'make whole'. Instead the author proposes that illness is an unavoidable aspect of the human condition.

Psychotherapy's fundamental role is to discover and work with the energy that underlies and sustains pathology in order to allow it to find a more direct and conscious expression. It argues that illness is more than a personal concern and that it is embedded in the social and environmental context in which it occurs. Worked with in this way illness can have a deeply healing or 'wholing' effect both for the individual and for the society of which he or she is a part. Drawing on psychological theory, scientific research, mythology, Buddhist and Eastern ideas, shamanism and case work, it aims to put our understanding of the work of psychotherapy into a broader global and historic context. It aims to show how this broader vision relates to everyday practice with the individuals who come to psychotherapy.

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Medea: Myth and Unconscious Fantasy

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This book takes Euripides' tragedy of Medea as its starting point. Our unconscious fantasies can be embedded in age-old myths, and many modern works about Medea reflect our ever-present interest in such myths. The Danish film director T.H. Dreyer had plans to produce a film about the story of Medea, while his countryman Lars von Trier did in fact make his own version of Medea, based on Dreyer's previous work on the theme.

In this remarkable new book the 'Medea fantasy' is introduced as an unconscious determinant of psychogenic sterility, a fantasy that may form an unrecognized and dissociated part of the self-representation which can lead women to believe that their lovers (like Jason in the original myth) will deceive and abandon them, and that this anxiety might cause them to react violently towards their children. For such women it is imperative to forgo any creative femininity. The carefully written chapters study the so called 'dark continent' - hidden or unknown areas of womanhood, that are often felt to be difficult to approach, understand, or conceptualise.

The areas covered in the book include pregnancy, abortion, maternal ambivalence, loving and hating the baby, shame, ideals and idealisation of motherhood, as well as such issues as sister fantasy, sisterly and lesbian love, the problems between mother and daughter, and female destructiveness, as reflected in fairy-tales. The book also examines a particular type of female masochism that has a strong influence on the life of couples, often destroying the possibility of genuine mutuality between spouses. This masochistic element can be manifested in the way the woman abandons her own world and possibilities of creativity, in order to immerse herself in her partner's world. Lastly, it studies what factors might lead to happy and satisfactory relationships, and what factors may lead to failure in establishing such lasting and mutually beneficial relationships in life.

Mythology, Madness, and Laughter: Subjectivity in German Idealism

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Mythology, Madness and Laughter: Subjectivity in German Idealism explores some long neglected but crucial themes in German idealism. Markus Gabriel, one of the most exciting young voices in contemporary philosophy, and Slavoj Žižek, the celebrated contemporary philosopher and cultural critic, show how these themes impact on the problematic relations between being and appearance, reflection and the absolute, insight and ideology, contingency and necessity, subjectivity, truth, habit and freedom.

Engaging with three central figures of the German idealist movement, Hegel, Schelling, and Fichte, Gabriel, and Žižek, who here shows himself to be one of the most erudite and important scholars of German idealism, ask how is it possible for Being to appear in reflection without falling back into traditional metaphysics. By applying idealistic theories of reflection and concrete subjectivity, including the problem of madness and everydayness in Hegel, this hugely important book aims to reinvigorate a philosophy of finitude and contingency, topics at the forefront of contemporary European philosophy.

Myths of Mighty Women: Their Application in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

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Women whose mothers were not called upon to achieve in a man's world have a difficult time seeing themselves as powerful enough to do that. Identifying with mighty women of the past and of the present culture can help them to permit themselves to achieve more than their mothers did. This book provides several such myths from ancient and modern cultures, from both Western and Eastern traditions, each of which is a standard for a particular aspect of female power and all of which can provide that power for women now. Among the aspects of women's power are Super Girl, Warrior Woman, Evil Temptress, Protective Mother and Provider.

This book is useful for therapists to read themselves and/or to give to their patients when they suffer from fantasies of the bad mother who does not want to be surpassed or the weak mother who cannot protect, or the therapist who wants to keep the woman patient in a weak and needy position. This book, in other words, is meant to empower patients by helping therapists to understand how and why the patients need the image of a strong, nurturant woman so that they themselves can become strong nurturing women.

The Science of Mythology: Essays on the Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis

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When Carl Jung and Carl Kerenyi got together to collaborate on this book, their aim was to elevate the study of mythology to a science. Kerenyi wrote on two of the most ubiquitous myths, the Divine Child and The Maiden, supporting the core 'stories' with both an introduction and a conclusion. Jung then provided a psychological analysis of both myths. He defined myth as a story about heroes interacting with the gods. Having long studied dreams and the subconscious, Jung identified certain dream patterns common to everyone. These 'archetypes' have developed through the centuries, and enable modern people to react to situations in much the same way as our ancestors. From nuclear annihilation to AIDS and Ebola, we continue to engage the gods in battle. Science of Mythology provides an account of the meaning and the purpose of mythic themes that is linked to modern life: the heroic battles between good and evil of yore are still played out, reflected in contemporary fears.

See also C.G. Jung's most famous and influential books