This essay is concerned with phenomena that comes within the domain of psychology. We will emphasize areas of psychology that are healthy. Hence it will be argued that for many people words (and content orientated systems) are inadequate for expressing life – yet unfortunately – they have been the dominant force since the scientific revolution. We will therefore articulate a post-Jungian perspective on the psyche that maintains Jung's emphasis on psychic energy but dispenses with archetype and archetypal altogether. We will argue that music, in particular, is an effective way of expressing psychic energy. It should also be noted that when we refer to music therapy we are not so much meaning the analytic setting. We are referring to a beyond the consulting room therapy. Hence we are enabling those who are neurotically conflicted or mild to moderate anxiety sufferers or who are psychologically in-secure. If this smacks of self-help then it is argued that the psychology being outlined here is the result of intense engagement with established Jungian psychology and is therefore not the essay equivalent of a popular psychology book. Moreover, music cannot be everything. Our basic (or general) psychology is as follows… people are whacky, kinky.
[...] Remember that the claim in this essay is that we are always trying to express psychic energy within us, assuming that we are not neurotically repressing it, and that we need to do this consistent with social culture for health. Likewise ordinary lay-people often overcompensate for anxiety and insecurity by fastening onto hardened dogmatic certainties. This is (as said) bad psychology. We see it in fanatics (Hitler is the admittedly obvious example but there are many Hitler types) The healthy person doesn't literalize in such a way. [...]
[...] Samuels explains that for Jung, there is a tendency in human beings to “construct and create an image of the mother with the various faculties that maternal fertility goddesses have [ e.g ] that she can create life and nurture you and protect you and on the other hand, she can kill you off [hence become she-demon. [ ] Underneath these maternal goddesses [ ] that either nurture you or destroy you, there's something else. There's something that causes these images and those motifs to happen in the first place. [...]
[...] As a result, it becomes sensible to not over-rate psychoanalysis which is to a large extent, infected by science directed logical (always rational) thinking has worked for physics, biology and chemistry but definitely not for psychology. Creative people are often (by accident) the most effective psychologists. Hence musicians are consistent with what we are saying here. They don't interpret. Many psychoanalysts do interpret. Psychoanalysts are entangled in the culture of material science and therefore they over-interpret psychic energy due to an excessive focus on content and they dogmatize as a result. We can expand a little here. [...]
[...] [ ] This change of intensity differentiates in a general way the thinking of the normal individual (fiction as expedient), of the neurotic (attempt to realize the fiction), and of the psychotic ( reification of the fiction: dogmatization)”.8 The question of Jungian psychology and engagement with social culture is a very difficult one to answer. Most obviously some Jungians are creative and intelligent and they teach, work as psychotherapists and so on. Many Jungians are introverts. The same psychological advice that we psychologists give to others totally applies to ourselves as well. [...]
[...] This is more individual and is privatized. One needs to find their place in the social creative culture. They aren't just born into it as one may have been born into Catholicism in the past. And from within this culture they need to express their psyche through embracing a creative pursuit. It cannot be said enough that this is difficult for the repressed individual. It could be argued that music has been neglected by the present day Jungian world because Jung neglected it himself. [...]
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