Core Intellectual Pursuits: Psychology

If we accept Jung’s model of the collective unconscious, we are naturally and irrevocably connected to each other, to all of creation, in a way that transcends time and space. In its timeless nature, the collective unconscious is a remembrance of things past as they anticipate the future.

A polyvagal perspective shifts the discussion away from stress as some outside force and focuses on our nervous system’s response to it. Just as our concept of “safety” is all about how safe our nervous systems and bodies feel (and not an impartial measure of actual threat), what matters for the polyvagal concept of “stress” is how our individual

Insecure attachment is evident in babies (and adults) who, physically, may seem to thrive. Insecurely attached people may marry, have friends, hold jobs, laugh and tell jokes, and, sometimes, even become psychotherapists. The impact of attachment status and attachment dynamics can be very substantial, but it is very largely in the subtleties of

One of the goals of somatic therapy is to help individuals expand their window of tolerance, develop a greater capacity to regulate their nervous system, and stay grounded and present in the face of stress and challenge.

Myths, fairy tales, and archetypal stories give us a sense of cohesion because we recognize the patterns, even unconsciously, as bone-deeply familiar. Stories serve to remind us that whatever difficulties we might be experiencing have been encountered many times before. We are not alone; we are connected to an ancestral storehouse of experience,

Signs of hypoarousal include slow, shallow breathing, feeling heavy or fatigued, numbness or disconnection from the body and emotions, difficulty focusing, feelings of hopelessness, lack of motivation, and difficulty connecting with others.

Carl Jung, Archetypes

• The Collective Unconscious – Jung postulated that beneath our personal unconscious lies a deeper shared stratum of the psyche. Its unity of inner architecture contributes to the preponderance of shared mythological forms across cultures. It is our shared inheritance of collective memory and the home for seemingly timeless