"It's Alive!"
History's rhymes, soul-signs, & some depth-psychology (that isn't)
Greetings, this week of very different headlines, stories and events across the widest swath of news-scape.
Each news item had elements pointing to psychological and unconscious/soul themes familiar and often discussed in newShrink.
Beyond that nothing seemed to connect or animate them.
Then through actions, storytelling or creations a few people, some real and others characters of fiction, did. Unanticipated and welcome, they illustrate and bring life to ways the unconscious psyche makes itself known and ways we can pay attention to it.
Starting with title themes…
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Alive!
“It’s Alive!” is likely most recognizable as Victor’s shouted exclamation in the 1931 movie version of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. (The full book-title here might be a fitting one for another day’s look in these modern times.)
The book cover pictured at top-center above is an early preview of political-historian Heather Cox Richardson’s new book that won’t be for sale until fall.
Victor’s exclamation here is used to introduce a great, new-to-me dimension I’ve found this week that’s different from what a lot of us count on nearly daily from the esteemed and prolific Richardson. Of late she seems to be channeling her inner depth-psychologist — a delight for newShrink, of course. (I love that friend and reader Linda Bird, also a therapist, spotted and flagged this to me, too.)
On her Facebook page, not in her usual daily Letters from an American newsletter, she details what for her was an unusual research- and writing process for this upcoming book. She brings her usual exquisite clarity to otherwise sounding more like a Jungian or other depth psychologist than Jung himself or many scholars and therapists in the field today.
HCR describes how she’d written the manuscript’s first draft in usual fashion, around the edges of the enormous volume of her other daily writing. Plus, as she put it, there was other distracting stuff that long-delayed her beginning the second draft… things like “a wedding in there.”
Here she describes so vividly what depth psychologists mean with Jung’s term the autonomy of the unconscious psyche or soul. This simply means it is real, “alive”. It has its own energies not dependent on, or necessarily consistent with, anything our conscious ego-self wants or plans to do (or avoid). Here’s how HCR put it:
When I did turn back to it [the book manuscript'], I discovered something curious: It was almost as if the chapters had been chatting together while I ignored them, and they demanded an entire reworking. That reworking meant I rewrote close to 80% of the manuscript, and developed a much different thesis than I had set out to write two years ago. It was rather as if I had seen things more clearly out of the corner of my eye than if I had been looking directly at it. The manuscript turned into a voyage of discovery for me, and it ended up feeling very much like I didn’t have a lot of control over it.
Here in Richardson we might well be reading the Jungian psychologist and professor with whom I was fortunate to study: Dr. Robert Romanyshyn, author of The Wounded Researcher: Research With Soul in Mind. This approach expands the process of one’s research and writing to consider and engage with what’s coming from the unconscious or soul.
It can mean paying attention to our dreams, synchronistic experiences, chance encounters. Especially as we mature, often it becomes working outside the comfort zones of our most highly developed functions. (An example is when a career-long, facts-and-logic-loving journalist is moved to write a novel, even perhaps an imaginal love story.) Most of all the impetus is what comes-alive, in and from the material itself.
Another excellent resource for those interested in engaging the psyche intentionally in the process of reporting, research and writing is The Art of Inquiry. It’s co-written by my former Pacifica professor, friend and reader Dr. Elizabeth Nelson and another favorite with whom I studied, Dr. Joe Coppin.
I value, read and rely on Richardson’s previous works and her Letters many days of most weeks. But I look forward to this book due out in the fall with new and different anticipation.
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Rhymes
Here’s a brief Notebook assortment of headlines and stories, some reflecting hope and progress while others…. don’t. Among most pervasively repetitive themes — or as the saying goes, history’s rhymes, if not full repeats:
impacts and effects of denying, stifling or ignoring the unconscious shadow at both collective and individual level; and
as frequently discussed in newShrink, how psychological masculinity and femininity both are toxic and unsustainable to the extent they are relegated, denied or subverted to remain unconscious.
Among some more progressive developments,
Liberals take over Wisconsin Supreme Court — with major implications for abortion (Politico)
Janet Protasiewicz prevailed in the high-stakes race.
Liberals win Wisconsin Supreme Court seat with major implications for abortion (NPR
Also this week, Washington state’s legislature became the nation’s 10th to pass a law banning assult weapons, echoing previously passed national measures that had bipartisan support back in the ‘90s… (Until they didn’t, and the ban lapsed with exponential growth in sales and ownership of the weapons ever since.)
And at writing time two Republican women joined the S.C. legislature’s only three other women to block passage of a 6-week near-total ban on all abortions regardless of circumstances — one that exceeded the far more moderate restrictions supported by healthy majorities of even conservatives in the state.
But in other state-legislative news came the silencing of Montana’s sole trans legislator as disciplinary action, as with Black Tennessee representatives a few weeks ago, for speaking up against anti-trans measures cruelly punitive of her constituents.
And then there’s the Monday bombshell-ouster of Tucker Carlson at Fox Channel. There’s beyond-plenty of browsable coverage for updates, so only a couple of recommended items are cited here. Speculation on this one won’t end soon.
Obvious factors are the one-two punch of Carlson-revelations with the network’s recent record 3/4-billion dollar settled libel lawsuit that’s just the first of others. Plus there are already nasty, anti-women details, with unknown others still to surface, in the looming sex-discrimination/sexually hostile workplace lawsuit against Carlson.
So there’s Carlson. There’s the wide array of red-state legislatures passing reproductive and gender restrictions that far exceed the will of even their most conservative Republican constituencies. Then, there’s the former President seeking 2024 re-election, meanwhile under indictment awating trial on sex-related criminal charges in one venue, and in another this week on trial in civil court for rape.
In any normal election cycle — as if such a thing existed — it would be obvious that Republicans would face a big electoral woman-problem. (For what it’s worth, they probably should. Inexplicably, they still may not here.)
Tucker Carlson, a source of repeated controversies, is out at Fox News. (NYT)
Tucker Carlson’s Downfall (NYT).
The World According to Tucker Carlson (The New Yorker)
Who Is E. Jean Carroll, the Writer Accusing Donald Trump of Rape? (NYT)
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Now a slight variation on history’s rhymes…
Echoes
At this week’s anniversary of of his 2020 campaign launch, President Joe Biden again themed his bid for election in 2024 around completing the battle for the soul of America. Since taking office in 2021 Biden’s soul theme has paralleled and informed the newShrink depth-psychology mission of tracking and engaging with our collective unconscious soul, one news story at a time.
It’s early yet, with much being pontificated about the President’s age and pros and cons of a repeat-match against the current still-most-likely opponent, the also-elderly Trump. For now I’ll note mainly that those who ignore or underestimate the power of pure joy Joe Biden exudes as a retail politician may want to look more closely. This is the guy who ran his successful 2020 campaign largely without his most formidable gifts of human connection, from porch and basement in a mask.
I’ve chuckled of late in noticing how especially around the chin in profile, our President is looking a lot like the UK’s soon-to-be-officially crowned King Charles. So far in campaign season, Biden doesn’t seem to be getting Botox, the earlier observable cosmetic nips and tucks around the chin and eyes, and hyper-whitened teeth that seem the norm if not essential for politicking these days regardless of gender.
On this I’m admittedly and not surprisingly influenced by Jung’s views described in Stages of Life, Volume 8 of his Collected Works. Among them, that each stage of maturing, individuating life has its meaning and purpose from the standpoint of the soul. And to attempt living by the scripts and demands of a different, earlier stage is to stifle our growth and live alienated from the deepest, most authentic part of us, the Self.
From this viewpoint, I’m noticing the President’s relaxed, no-artifice confidence in carrying his age. He’s an elder with vast experience and wisdom to share from it. Like all human societies, ours needs elders. To have elders, some of us have to be willing to be one. I am glad our society still has this one.
Some stories here, that don’t require much comment. (This first photo-series is a treasure worth browsing):
The Long Career Arc of Joe Biden (a story in photos by Maggie Astor of The New York Times.)
Biden announces reelection bid, saying battle for nation's soul isn't complete (CNN Video and text)
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“American Pie”
Still with Biden, we catch his human-to-human instincts in one of my favorite news-moments of the past few weeks. This one is illustrated with the Don McLean song and album cover at top left above. The classic 1971 song was a tribute to ‘50s rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and “The Big Bopper” J. P. Richardson. The song’s day the music died was February 3, 1959, when all three along with pilot Roger Peterson were killed when their plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa.
First here’s NPR’s audio story, the first one I caught.
Thursday on All Things Considered with Mary Louise Kelly. (Ever since, I try to envision Donald Trump, any other Republican in office at any level today — or most Democrats besides Barack Obama, who could or would plan and create this moment. Much less do so with such obvious delight.)
The Washington Post video here captures a bit of Biden plus enough of the South Korean President’s rendition of the song to show how well and joyously he does it.
Here’s the news story from The New York Times, with a short excerpt of the video.
Korean Dressing, Irish Poetry and ‘American Pie’: A State Dinner of Harmony (NYT)
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Right on the heels of this NPR piece came an interview story. I soon discovered that wonder and what seems to be its cousin, awe are suddenly trending among mental health professionals and mainstream media covering their field.
Rx: Regular Doses of Wonder
This has piqued my interest, for the felt-experiences of both are significant from the depth perspectives of the unconscious soul as well. The phenomenon of wonder from Jungian depth points of view was in fact the brilliant PhD dissertation-topic of my closest Pacifica program classmate, friend (and newShrink reader).
Below are two interview stories from recent days and weeks that bring interesting, valid information and points. Much of it’s relevant, useful and applicable for the day-to-day well-being of many of us across wide swaths of age and population demographics. That’s especially valuable given the current U.S. mental-health crisis.
Both the audio/radio and visual/TV and art-museum examples here illustrate, via awkwardness with terminology and concepts, how difficult it is for even highly articulate, well-educated professionals to find contemporary language or logic to capture something as universally human as wonder or awe.
Here is where a depth- or Jungian perspective can be helpful. That very elusive indescribabability is one of the defining ways that the unconscious soul or psyche makes its presence known.
For depth psychologists, where there is wonder or awe there is also a tendency toward a wholeness of response. That simply means we are touched and affected not just by seeing, hearing or intellectually learning facts and concepts but also are affected at other levels. Perhaps we’re spiritually inspired or intuitively imagine possibilities; moved to tears and laughter; or we have a wide range of possible physical reactions to the psyche’s intense emotion known as affect.
Neither of these two news examples quite captures the magnitude of that.
MENTAL HEALTH: Weekly dose of wonder: The glorious sounds of chickens (NPR)
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Americans need to feel more wonder in their lives. This is what scientists who study emotions are realizing - that more wonder can help our mental health and sense of well-being. So with this in mind, we at ALL THINGS CONSIDERED are launching a new series called Weekly Dose of Wonder. Each week we will bring you a short story somehow related to wonder. The story might trigger this emotion in you, or it may give you an idea for how to go find it in your own life. And for our very first inaugural installment, I am joined by NPR health correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff.
Here’s another recent take on the topic…
Awe, Wonder and a Healthier, Happier Life (CNN)
Dr. Dacher Keltner, author of book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. He is co-founder and director of the U.C. Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, research institute on social- and emotional well-being.
In some parallels with Jung and other depth (soul-engaged or psychodynamic) psychologists, here’s Keltner:
As a species, we are very interdependent. But the central challenge to healthy social networks, which is vital to our health, is unbridled self-interest. The power of awe is that it motivates us to see beyond our own desires. It quiets the voice of the self…Experience of the small self is one of the defining characteristics of awe.
Jungians such as Edward Edinger explain this as relativization or relaxation of the conscious ego-self necessary for adult individuation toward psychological maturity. Keltner again:
[T]he awe-inspiring happens "when we violate expectations, when things are out of place or turned upside down." In contrast to beauty, awe is overwhelming and mysterious.
That sounds a lot like the numinous, the term coined more than 100 years ago by German theologian Rudolph Otto and developed in recent years by Jungian Dr. Lionel Corbett’s work with the archetypal religious function of the psyche.
In getting at the felt-experience of wonder or awe the story looks at human responses to created art work as well as nature and story. Surprisingly for me, while interesting the artwork depicted in the CNN story just doesn’t move me to wonder or awe.
This wonder topic has instead drawn me back to still-another of Heather Cox Richardson‘s varied offerings. She seems to have been having a very soul-engaged — It’s Alive! — kind of week!
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“The past is not that far away.”
(Letters from an American April 22, 2023, heathercoxrichardson.substack.com)
In last Saturday’s letter, as one of her occasional nights-off in lieu of a full post Richardson shared a photo from longtime partner and still-newlywed husband, Maine lobsterman-photographer Buddy Poland.
With the photo she shares a personal childhood memory of one of her mother’s favorite framed photographs:
The painting was not great art, but it was made of the blues and browns and greens I have always loved, and the water and mountains spoke to me. Mother always told me the picture was painted by a friend of her father’s — he died when I was a baby — and it was an image of one of their favorite fishing spots, though she had no idea where it was.
The now-long-faded painting has hung in various of HCR’s locations, so it’s now long-familiar to partner-Buddy as well. She describes a striking moment on a recent hike the two took at Acadia National Park:
At the end of Jordan Pond we said almost at the same time, ‘It’s that painting.’ [The Jordan Pond picture is below.]
This further invited and opened her reflection on “the inverse of that observation:”
For my grandfather’s nameless and long-gone fishing buddy, who certainly never knew that the painting he made for his friend would continue to speak to someone a hundred years later…
“… the future wasn’t that far away either.”
To me this is how soul-engaged-and-It’s Alive sounds and feels.
And the storied-picture (at top center below) is a pretty good take on how it looks.
The rest of this illustration and today’s post are a bit of a tease and set-up for writing about the Ted Lasso show’s anticipated series finale just after Memorial Day. The well-done and entertaining character-driven show is also profoundly “psychological” along both newShrink themes of mental-health and the sense of depth/engagement with the unconscious-soul.
“Sign, sign (everywhere a sign…)”
(1971 Song Signs by Canadian rocker Les Emerson’s Five Man Electrical Band. Covered in the U.S. in 1990 by Tesla, the rock band not Elon Musk’s auto company.)
Remaining photos here point to two recent Ted Lasso episodes: Signs, which builds toward the next week’s Sunflowers. Avoiding spoilers, character Rebecca receives a few synchronistic ‘signs” — grudgingly at best, from her annoying mother’s psychic. Among these are the pictured green matchbook from Ola’s, also a recurring phrase “shite in nining armor” and some logically puzzling personal predictions.
The Van Gogh painting above at left depicts the pivotal Lasso night in Amsterdam episode that finds Ted in an evening visit to the museum. (For more: Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam: Celebrating 50th Anniversary this Year.)
The bottom-center photo of the Van Gogh art-book painting is one for the “in my dotage I may be aging backwards” file. The 3-inch-thick, very dusty tome, copyright 1939, must be one of my late educator-grandmother’s volumes in the family forever. What’s odd is now recalling that this book, opened to this painting just this way, was displayed in all of my young first single-adult homes: Apartment, house, condo. I can’t now imagine why, or how this worked decor-wise! Untouched on a bookshelf for decades until Lasso brought it to mind, the book fell open and remained naturally on the page. Of course it did!
Original and longtime readers may recall newShrink focus when the show was new: 8.6.21 Tapas Fare Week: Ted’s Lasso. The finale happens to coincide with newShrink’s second anniversary Memorial Day week, and I’ll be revisiting it in an edition a bit later sometime in June.
call to readers:
In the meantime, whether or not you’re a fan of the show I’d love to hear from you: Any thoughts you have about the show itself, and whether you watch or not any of your own experiences with some of its themes. Among many possible examples might be synchronicities, what the show calls signs; other ways the unconscious psyche has entered the picture and plotline of your life; and twists your own path forward has taken in revealing itself.
Big thanks to friend, reader, longtime journalist — and a thinking Lasso fan — Barbara Barnett for spoiler-cautious sharing of her astute take on the recent Sunflowers episode. It’s a fine example of praise-for-all-the-right reasons, with her usual wit and writing chops. I hope she’ll be sending more and look forward to thinking and discussing.
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Summarizing today’s reflections I’m reminded again of last fall’s 10.30.22 edition, Spellbound: Signs, Ghosts, News in the Season of Uncanny Spirits. The “In Sync” section explores a Wall Street Journal article and related books on meaningful coincidence or synchronicity, and how it differs from mere happenstance.
From a depth psychology perspective, without that wholeness of response signaling the presence and engagement with the unconscious shadow, the pysche or soul:
Paintings and pictures can be pretty, even beautiful and perhaps interestingly textured, conceived and constructed;
A page of text well-written, factually accurate, correctly typed;
A coincidence just a coincidence — in Freud’s words sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
But soul-alive, -well and -kicking is bigger-and-beyond — a very special:
Fishing-spot photo moment;
Green matchbook;
Shite in nining armor; or
Vase of immortal sunflowers…
It is something else. Entirely.
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And, that is all I have! Talk to you next week.
🦋💙 tish
… it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
— William Stafford, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other”
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