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The Flight to and From Addiction

• Classroom Question?

• So what is the craving behind addiction?

The Process of IndividuationFrom Latin “individuus” – “undivided,” “whole”

A process of psychological differentiation, having for its goal the development of the individual personality

Not to overcome one’s personal psychology and become perfect, but to become familiar with it

Increasing awareness of one’s unique psychological reality, including personal strengths and limitations, and at the same time a deeper appreciation of humanity in general

When we are on the path, we are at the goal

The Self The Center of the Psyche

The “Central Archetype”

Like the Sun in the Center of the Solar System

Archetype of order, organization, and unification

Unites the personality

Responsible for fulfilling the blueprint of life

At birth – all is the Self

Connecting bridge to “The Unity”

Goal is psychological wholeness and completeness

Transpersonal, transcends the ego

Jung’s Landscape

Psyche refers to the totality of all psychological processes. It “embraces all thought, feeling, and behavior, both conscious and unconscious. It functions as a guide which regulates and adapts the individual to his social and physical environment.”

ego

Self

C

C

C C

C

C

consciousnessPersonal

unconscious

Ego-Self Axis

C=ComplexA=Archetype

Jung's Model of the Psyche

Adapted from Stevens, 1990, pg. 29

A

A

A A

A

Acollectiveunconscious

Is Their Meaning in Addiction?

• Call that is challenging my being?

• Creative connection?

• Similar experience of being enslaved by the energy behind creativity?

– Are they both drawn to the dark regions of the soul?

7

Addiction a Counterfeit Quest for Wholeness?

“The night darkens the spirit, but only to illuminate it”

•Leonard states – “here was my hope”

•Confrontation with meaning of our existence

•Purposeful journey? 8

Etymological Roots: Addiction

• ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: adjective addict [bound or devoted (to someone)

• From Latin addict- ‘assigned,’ from the verb addicere = to say

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Addicts Experience Possession • Give ourselves over to almost anything

Food Sex Shopping TV Gambling Relationships EBAY Facebook Money Power Identity (our minds)

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Possession

Dracula Syndrome

• Giving ourselves over

• Possessed

If there is going to be transformation – the individual has to admit that they allowed themselves to be taken over

Individual chooses to take the first drink – maybe too many first drinks and we become bound by a demon lover who takes over our soul

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Demon Lover / Dark Passenger

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Let’s Talk About Denial

• We can’t see ourselves

• We need a crack in the ego

• Is the crack a voluntary act

or is it … Grace

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What Characterizes Addiction?

• Addiction brings me to face the void

• Brought me before death

• Fear, anger, and anxiety

• It’s about wanting order, perfection, and control but being unable able to get it

• Power struggle with reality – we deny “what is”

• Can bring us to awakening 15

Creativity and Addiction

• Create ORIGIN late Middle English – 1150 CE (in the sense [form out of nothing,] used of a divine or supernatural being)

• From Latin creat- ‘produced,’ from the verb creare.

The use of imagination or original ideas

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Leonard’s Essence of the Matter

• Creativity and addiction?

But to choose to be taken by the creative call – was this not the challenge of creativity? Was this not my urge to drink the “spirits” of the alcohol ultimately a desire for the higher spirit of the creative?

The Creative Daimon

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Creative Daimon• In ancient Greek belief: a divinity or supernatural

being of a nature between gods and humans.

• An inner or attendant spirit or inspiring force.

• Socrates said it was an inner voice that guided him

• Rilke once said that he did not want to undergo psychoanalysis because it might remove his “devils” and he might also lose his angels

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Clip Immersion

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Daimon: Angels and Demons

• According to Jung the energy of the psyche, is by its nature daimonic – it is a force that carries destructive capacities and capacities for self-discovery

• Jung said: “If evil were to be utterly destroyed, everything daimonic, including God himself would suffer a grievous loss”

• Thus we have to take the creative fire or the desire behind our addictions and make a turn toward wholeness

• Addiction is a “dysdaimonic act” of giving oneself over 20

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Battle for Control in the Psyche

• The creative [she/he] must negotiate the poles between succumbing to the creative genius (being possessed) and then believing they are the genius

• While the addict tries to escape the tension of existence – must live through the tension of existence. Often the addict becomes an object via their addiction

Song Conclusion...

• Constant Craving K.D. Lang.

Even Through the darkest

phase

Be it thick or thin

Alw

ays someone m

arches

brave

Here beneath m

y skin

Constant craving

Has alw

ays been

Maybe a great m

agnet

pulls

All souls tow

ards truth

Or m

aybe it is life itself

That feeds wisdom

To its youth

Constant craving

Has alw

ays been

Craving

Ah ha

Constant craving

Has alw

ays been

Constant craving

Has alw

ays been

Constant craving

Has alw

ays been

Craving

Ah ha

Constant C

raving

Has alw

ays been

Has alw

ays been

Has alw

ays been

Has alw

ays been

Has alw

ays been

Has alw

ays been