This blog explores the principal alchemical metaphors of personal development and transformation. These ideas are based on the work of Carl Jung who during the second half of his career conducted an extensive survey of alchemy and its relationship to the psychology of the unconscious. In fact, Jung explored…
Carl Jung (Figure 1) viewed the appearance of a mandala—a circular or squared symbol of wholeness—as highly beneficial to one’s own personal development. Mandalas can appear in a person’s dreams, visions, or fantasies, and as numinous symbols they tend to chart the course of one’s own individuation process. Mandala…
“How can depth coaching really—I mean really—help me?” Not infrequently is this the first question I hear from a client. In response to this question, I tell my clients depth coaching by itself cannot help them. I add, avoiding clichés, that what really makes a difference is finding a…
The theory of a mental model was implicit in the work of the late nineteenth century American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (Figure 1). Put simply, mental models are psychological representations of real, hypothetical, or imaginary situations. Peirce suggested that reasoning itself is a process by which the individual examines…
The long path toward happiness is rarely a linear path and understandably there are a number of obstacles that can adversely impact achieving one’s goal regardless of scope and size (Fig. 1). Thinking traps often present challenges to the way we make decisions and socially interact. In fact, thinking…
Because one of the corollary aims of depth coaching is to come to terms with one’s personal myth, it is helpful to explore the work of the mythologist Joseph Campbell (Figure 1) who introduced the idea of the monomyth (hero’s journey)—the universal template that appears in literature, myth, religion…
Although C.G. Jung (Figure 1) does not go to great lengths to explain the concept of a life-line, that he introduced the concept deserves additional commentary. Jung alluded to life-lines only a few times in his Collected Works, which was limited to his essay titled “The Structure of the…
Clients frequently ask me “what is the secret to achieving happiness?” to which I respond matter-of-factly “there is no secret.” Happiness after all is a state of mind, and a state of mind is very difficult to measure. People do not achieve happiness but happiness happens to them. Happiness…
in Zurich, Switzerland, where he pioneered the word association experiment and coined the term complex. Jung collaborated with Sigmund Freud between 1906 and 1913. Theoretical differences gradually led to a professional rift between the two men, which culminated with Jung’s publication of Transformations and Symbols of the Libido in 1912….
