The Stages of Life: Midlife
Civilized life today demands concentrated, directed conscious functioning, and this entails the risk of a considerable dissociation from the unconscious – C. G. Jung In this series of articles Jungian analyst Vanessa Goodman is looking at lifelong development and how an awareness of the types can help navigate what Jung called the “stages of life.” Having […]
Extraverted Thinking in the Shadow
“Although the unconscious thinking is archaic, its reductive tendencies help to compensate the occasional fits of trying to exalt the ego into the subject.” – C.G. Jung In this article, Jungian analyst Vanessa Prins-Goodman reviews extraverted thinking in the “inferior” or “shadow” position. This article, and the ones that follow, offer glimpses of a […]
The Stages of Life: Spirituality
“There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without imperfection. To round itself off, life calls not for perfection but for completeness; and for this the “thorn in the flesh” is needed, the suffering of defects without which there is no progress and no ascent” – C.G. Jung Jungian analyst, Vanessa Goodman […]
The Stages of Life: Death and Advanced Age
We grant goal and purpose to the ascent of life, why not to the descent? The birth of a human being is pregnant with meaning, why not death? – C.G. Jung Jungian analyst, Vanessa Prins has been reviewing how type orientations relate to lifelong development. She has written about childhood, early adulthood and midlife. In […]
The Stages of Life: The Inferior Type and the Shadow
“Thus it is not to be a detachment or redemption of the inferior function, but an acknowledgement of it, a coming to terms with it, that unites the opposites on the path of nature” – C.G. Jung Jungian analyst, Vanessa Goodman has been reviewing how type orientations relate to lifelong development. In the last […]
The Stages of Life: The Inferior Type and the Soul
The inferior function is the door through which all the figures of the unconscious come into consciousness. Our conscious realm is like a room with four doors, and it is the fourth door by which the shadow, the animus or the anima, and the personification of the Self come in – M.L. von Franz Jungian analyst, […]
The Stages of Life: Work
In one man it is the capacity for thought, in another feeling, which is particularly amenable to development, and therefore impelled by cultural demands, he will concern himself in special degree with developing an aptitude to which he is already favourably disposed by nature. – C. G. Jung In this series of article, we have been […]
The Stages of Life: Communication
Wherever an impassioned, almost magical, relationship exists between the sexes, it is invariably a question of a projected soul-image. – C. G. Jung This article, by Jungian analysts Vanessa Goodman, is part of a series of articles addressing various stages of life. She is currently focusing on adulthood. In the last article, she addressed the subject […]
The Stages of Life: Marriage
Wherever an impassioned, almost magical, relationship exists between the sexes, it is invariably a question of a projected soul-image. — C. G. Jung The last two articles concerned the development of children and adolescents. In the next few articles Jungian analyst Vanessa Goodman, will look at various aspects of the adult experience, starting today with […]
The Stages of Life: Adolescence
. . . two children of the same mother may exhibit contrary attitudes at an early age, though no change in the mother’s attitude can be demonstrated. Although nothing would induce me to underrate the incalculable importance of parental influence, this familiar experience compels me to conclude that the decisive factor must be looked for […]