Depth psychology

Historically, depth psychology (from the German termTiefenpsychologie), was coined by Eugen Bleuler to re-fer to psychoanalytic approaches to therapy and researchthat take the unconscious into account.[1] The term wasrapidly accepted in the year of its proposal (1914) bySigmund Freud, to cover a topographical view of themind in terms of different psychic systems.[2]

Depth psychology has since come to refer to the ongo-ing development of theories and therapies pioneered byPierre Janet, William James, and Carl Jung as well asFreud, which explore the relationship between the con-scious and the unconscious (thus including both psycho-analysis and Jungian psychology).[3]

1 Summary of primary elements

Depth psychology states that psyche is a process that ispartly conscious and partly unconscious and partly semi-conscious. In practice, depth psychology seeks to exploreunderlying motives as an approach to various mental dis-orders, with the belief that the uncovering of these mo-tives is intrinsically healing. It seeks the deep layers un-derlying behavioral and cognitive processes. The initialwork and development of the theories and therapies bySigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Otto Rankhave resulted in three main perspectives on depth psy-chology in modern times:

• Psychoanalytic: Melanie Klein and Donald Winni-cott (among others); Object relations theory; Neo-Freudianism

• Adlerian: Adler’s Individual psychology

• Jungian: Jung’s Analytical psychology; James Hill-man’s Archetypal psychology

2 Jungian views

• The unconscious contains repressed experiences andother personal-level issues in its “upper” layers and“transpersonal” (e.g. collective, non-I, archetypal)forces in its depths. The semi-conscious containsor is, an aware pattern of personality, including ev-erything in a spectrum from individual vanity to thepersonality of the workplace.

• Archetypes are primordial elements of the Collec-tive Unconscious in the psychology of Carl GustavJung. Archetypes form the unchanging context fromwhich the contents of cyclic and sequent changesderive their meanings. Duration is the secret ofaction.[4]

• The psyche spontaneously generates mythico-religious symbolism or themes, and is thereforespiritual or metaphysical, as well as instinctive, innature. An implication of this is that the choice ofwhether to be a spiritual person may be beyond theindividual, whether and how we apply it, includingto nonspiritual aspirations.

• All minds, all lives, are ultimately embedded insome sort of myth-making in the form of themes orpatterns. Mythology is therefore not a series of oldexplanations for natural events, but rather the rich-ness and wonder of humanity played out in a sym-bolical, thematic, and patterned storytelling.

3 Criticism

• Fredric Jameson considers postmodernism to re-ject depth models such as Freud’s, in favor of a setof multiple surfaces consisting of intertextual dis-courses and practices.[5]

• Esotericism criticises depth psychologies (includ-ing the Jungian) for reducing the numinal tothe inward alone, and for excessive reliance onthe experiential.[6] This position has also beenchallenged.[7]

4 See also

• Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism

• Complex

• Individual psychology

• Post-Freudianism

• Psychoanalysis

• Psychotherapy

• Triune brain

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2 7 EXTERNAL LINKS

5 References[1] Henri Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious

(1970) p. 562

[2] Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 175-6

[3] Chalquist, Craig. “What Is Depth Psychology?". ter-rapsych.com. Re-engaging the Soul of Place (Spring Jour-nal Books, 2007). Retrieved 2013-02-19.

[4] Dr. Fredricks, Randi. “Depth Psychology”. Theoreti-cal Approaches: Depth Psychology. Dr. Randi FredricksPh.D., LMFT. Retrieved 2013-02-19.

[5] M. Hardt/K. Weeks eds., The Jameson Reader (2000) p.198

[6] Eileen Barker, Of Gods and Men (1983) p. 173-5

[7] Brown, R.S. (2014). Evolving Attitudes. InternationalJournal of Jungian Studies, 6.3, 243-253.

6 Further reading

Ken Wilbur Integral Psychology (2000)

7 External links• Depth Psychology List: Find or List depth psychol-ogy oriented therapists, coaches, and practitionersof various types

• The C.G. Jung Page

• JungNet The Writings of C. G. Jung

• Depth Psychology Alliance: Online Community forexploring Depth Psychology topics, news, discus-sion, events

• Depth Insights: Media for Depth Psychology includ-ing podcasts and the semi-annual scholarly e-Zine,Depth Insights

• The Institute for Cultural Change

• Pacifica Graduate Institute

• Sonoma State University M.A. program in DepthPsychology

• Institute of Transpersonal Psychology

• Integral Science

• Depth Psychology Explained

• What is depth psychology?

• Center for Depth Psychology. Newport Beach, CA.USA

• What is Jungian Psychotherapy?

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