In applying for a
university psychology position in 2002 I had to describe a vision
for psychology which I'm including here.
A
Vision for Psychology
Dennis
L. Merritt, Ph.D
Psychology is positioned to usher in a holistic approach
to the study of the human psyche, our relationship to the environment
and a truly interdisciplinary educational system.
As Jung pointed out, all we know and experience comes out
of the psyche and all our systems, including science, have archetypal
roots. I am interested in making a Jungian contribution to the
development of paradigms that can be appreciated and utilized
within the academic community, paradigms that offer several perspectives
on the mind/body connection, humans and nature, science and the
arts. In the famous 1957 BBC interview of Carl Jung, Jung proclaimed,
“We need more psychology, the human psyche must be studied!
Humans are the source of all coming evil.” Jung, the first psychiatrist to speak
of biophilia, believed that a person not connected to the land
was neurotic.
Carl
Sagan and other prominent scientists united with church leaders
to proclaim that unless we develop a sense of the sacred in the
land, all will be lost. James Hillman in his books The Thought
of the Heart and the Soul of the World
and We’ve had 100 years of Psychotherapy and the World is Getting
Worse challenges psychologists
to ask themselves if they are part of the problem or part of the
solution vis-a-vis our relationship with the environment.
Does our philosophical base and psychological theories and practice
encompass a regard for the most basic reality --the accelerating
rate of destruction of the very fabric of life’s existence? The
main issue I address in my teaching, writing and practice is how
Jungian theory and practice can provide a model for the 21st century
for understanding the human psyche in relation to nature and establishing
a truly interdisciplinary educational system that cultivates and
develops our connection to the land.
Environmentalism, Native American spirituality, feminism,
the men’s movement, body/mind connections, holistic health practices--all
are related from an archetypal perspective. As a result of the
developments in science and the psychological and psychoanalytic
communities over the past two decades, we can begin to envision
a new synthesis, a new world view to replace what was ruptured
when alchemy split into science versus religion in the 17th century.
We are on the threshold of this new synthesis aided by such developments
as psychoneuroimmunology, object relations theory in psychoanalytic
practice, body therapies, meditative techniques in the health
sciences, Hillmanian emphasis on the image (related to deconstructionism),
phenomenology, the emerging field of ecopsychology, etc.
Jung’s theory of psychological “structures” and processes
was heavily influenced by his studies of comparative mythology
and religion and a psycho-spiritual understanding of alchemy.
Concepts such as the shadow, the soul archetype (anima and animus)
and the Self offer a framework from which to examine human nature,
as well as the arts and religion. A Jungian construct of what
Klein and Winnicott called the "depressive stage" in
infant development not only can relate archetypal theory and Greek
mythology to psychoanalytic object relations theory, but also
support the idea of the psychoid dimension of the archetypes and
further our connection to the environment. Jung’s concepts of
the paradoxical nature of the psyche, the psychoid dimension of
archetypes and the importance of the creative element in the psyche
are beginning to be fully appreciated in the scientific and psychological
communities. Relativity, quantum mechanics, chaos and string theories
and the discoveries about the nature of matter revealed by the
tunneling scanning electron microscope can be seen as supporting
a Jungian model of the psyche and the natural world. Research
in infant and brain development and human inheritance of sophisticated
mental linguistic ability in many ways support the concept of
inherited psychic organs--the archetypes. Through my work I hope
to clarify these concepts and make a Jungian contribution to evolving
paradigms being explored by new and traditional areas of psychology.
e-mail: DLMerritt@cal.berkeley.edu
Telephone:
(608) 255-9330 ext. 5
Fax: (608) 255-7810
Website: www.DennisMerrittJungianAnalyst.com
|