Brian Collinson

Journeying Toward Wholeness

Entries Tagged as 'Psychology'

Consciousness, Unconscious Mind and Neuroscience

January 14th, 2011 · 5 Comments · brain science, cognitive science, consciousness, depth psychology, Jungian, neuroscience, Psychology and Suburban Life, Self, The Self, unconscious

I thought that I would do a brief blog post on a couple of quotations that relate to the whole mushrooming area of the science of consciousness and the unconscious mind, as it is being approached within the rapidly expanding new fields of neuroscience and cognitive science.

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What Do You Think About Therapy?

September 27th, 2010 · No Comments · Carl Jung, depth psychology, Identity, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, Mississauga, Oakville, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, therapy

What is your attitude towards doing therapy?  Is it something that you would ever consider?  Is it something only for severely damaged people, or “sick” people?  Or is it something that may be of importance for ordinary, everyday people?  In recent years, many peoples’ attitudes have changed — a lot! There was a time, not [...]

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Persisting Imprints of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

September 16th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, psychological crisis, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, stress, Trauma

There has been a considerable amount of valuable recent research on changes to the brains of Americans as the result of 9/11, as a recent article on the Discovery website reports.  The article relies on the research of Judith Richman and colleagues published in 2008 in the American Journal of Public Health , which concluded, among [...]

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Jungian Psychology, Caregiving and the Self

August 31st, 2010 · No Comments · aging, Jungian psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy, Self

Studies like Supporting Informal Caregivers – The Heart of Home Care and Caring for Seniors With Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Forms of Dementia show us an important aspect of a social reality that impacts our society, and in Jungian terms, has a huge impact on the individuation processes of very large numbers of individuals.

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Escaping the Grip of Regret, Part 3: Through Phoenix Gate

August 11th, 2010 · 4 Comments · complexes, depression, depth psychology, guilt, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, regret, Shadow, soul, therapy, unconscious, unlived life, wholeness

Hopefully I have succeeded in making one very central thing clear: regret is not some peripheral thing in our lives that is going to be cleared away by simply improving our thinking. It strikes deeper. It is much more fundamental. How then are we to deal with the presence of regret in our lives? To answer this question in our own personal way, we have to meet this question for ourselves head on.

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Escaping the Grip of Regret, Part 2: The Power of Regret

July 29th, 2010 · 2 Comments · complexes, compulsion, decision, depression, depth psychology, guilt, Hope, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, life passages, midlife, Psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, regret, soul, The Self, therapy, unconscious, wholeness

In my last posting, I tried to open up the whole subject of regret, and the powerful and sometimes crippling place that it can occupy in our lives, and how we can be held in slavery to regret of all the choices we could have made differently, or courses of events that could have turned out differently.  In this posting, I’d [...]

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Anxiety Behind the Mask, Part III: Heart Trouble

July 11th, 2010 · No Comments · Carl Jung, collective consciousness, collective unconscious, Current Affairs, depth psychology, Identity, Individuation, inner life, Jungian psychology, Lifestyle, Meaning, persona, popular culture, Psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, soul, symbolism, unconscious, wholeness

  Anxiety Behind the Mask, Part III, Heart Trouble …I asked him why he thought the whites were all mad.  “They say that they think with their heads,” he replied. “Why of course.  What do you think with?” I asked him in surprise. “We think here,” he said, indicating his heart. [Italics mine] Conversation between Ochway [...]

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Anxiety Behind the Mask, Part 1

June 22nd, 2010 · 2 Comments · Film, Identity, Individuation, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, mythology, persona, popular culture, Psychology, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, soul, unlived life, wholeness

When I was 9 or 10 years old, I was an insatiable Iron Man fan.  I used to race to the local drug store every day to see if a new issue of my hero’s adventures had hit the stands yet.  I still admire Stan Lee and those who developed the Iron Man character: he [...]

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The Symbolic Power of Home, Part 2: Where is Home?

June 10th, 2010 · 5 Comments · Carl Jung, depth psychology, Halton Region, Home, inner life, Jungian analysis, Jungian psychology, Meaning, Mississauga, Oakville, Peel Region, Psychology and Suburban Life, Relationships, The Self, therapy, wholeness

In the first part of this series, I wrote about how the experience of connection to a specific place that is home can be powerful and profound. However, there are also many people for whom there is no connection to a sense of home.  And, for any of us, there can be many times–perhaps long periods–when [...]

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Anxiety, Stress and Decisions

May 11th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Anxiety, decision, Individuation, midlife, Mississauga, Oakville, Psychology and Suburban Life, Psychotherapy, soul, unconscious, wholeness

A great deal of stress and anxiety in peoples’ lives is associated with making major decisions that deeply effect personal life.  Very often, people come into therapy because they are hung on the horns of a major dilemma, with a decision to be made between two or more possible decisions or paths to take. As [...]

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