Erik Goodwyn

Though the clinical and experimental literature suggests that discussing dreams with therapy patients can be beneficial in a variety of important ways, there appears to be a gap in educational opportunities for psychiatric residents regarding this process. To address this educational need at the authors' residency program, a class in psychodynamically oriented dream analysis was implemented, and data was collected in the form of learner surveys both before and after they took the course. The survey found that the level of importance placed on dream work, the comfort level in discussing dreams with patients, and the frequency with which dreams were discussed in sessions were all increased after taking the course. Our conclusion was that these preliminary results suggest that implementing a structured course on dream analysis may help to fill the educational gap.

This paper follows the ongoing discussion with philosopher and psychoanalyst Jon Mills (2020) regarding the nature, origin, and essence of the archetype and psyche, in which my approach that incorporates key features of the philosophy of mind is being compared and contrasted with Mills’ onto-phenomenal approach. Both Mills and I come at this question from very different backgrounds, making interdisciplinary work challenging but rewarding. In this paper I will attempt to start from Mills’ foundational position to bridge the two frameworks together.

The question of whether or not archetypes are transmitted biologically or culturally is wrongly posed and has hampered progress in Jungian thought regarding archetype theory. Considerations regarding psychological development show that some contents of the human psyche are, strictly speaking, neither biologically nor culturally derived. Examples are given, and the question becomes, How does this fact affect archetype theory? The present essay examines this question in depth.

Technology, viewed more generally, is a collection of skills and methods that are used to accomplish an objective of some kind. Modernity has produced many kinds of ever-expanding new technologies, but it is also evident that technologies can be lost or fall out of use. A cross-cultural survey of ritual reveals a rather startling observation: that while developed nations often exceed other cultures in terms of material technology, they often pale by comparison in their use of ritual technology. In this essay we will see how ritual is a powerful sort of technology that developed nations have mostly allowed to drift out of regular, vigorous use, despite its numerous psychological and biological effects. This tendency has left one of the rituals we still have - psychotherapy itself - to be bereft of some of the typical tools for concretizing the symbolic in recurrent patterns around the world. Jung himself could be accused of being somewhat anti-ritual himself, enmeshed as he was in th...

Mourning is a normal, universal response to death with countless cultural elaborations worldwide. When individuals are unable to progress through normal mourning, complicated grief (CG) can be a result. Ways in which humans deal with the universal consequences of death are examined and compared to the typical modern setting found in first world nations. It is suggested that normal mourning is facilitated by various ritual acts and if these activities lack certain features (suggested by cross-cultural analysis of mourning rituals), an increased risk of CG may result. Examination of rituals furthermore suggests ways clinicians may help patients cope with loss.

The question of innateness has hounded Jungian psychology since Jung originally postulated the archetype as an a priori structure within the psyche. During his life and after his death he was continually accused of Lamarckianism and criticized for his theory that the archetypes existed as prior structures. More recently, with the advent of genetic research and the human genome project, the idea that psychological structures can be innate has come under even harsher criticism even within Jungian thought. There appears to be a growing consensus that Jung's idea of innate psychological structures was misguided, and that perhaps the archetype-as-such should be abandoned for more developmental and 'emergent' theories of the psyche. The purpose of this essay is to question this conclusion, and introduce some literature on psychological innateness that appears relevant to this discussion.

ABSTRACT Early psychologists and anthropologists worked more closely in the early 20th century than they have subsequently. However, more recent scholarship has shown that the work of Freud, and even more so Jung, is receiving renewed interest from some interpretive anthropologists. In this article, some of the challenges inherent in the comparison of the depth psychology of Freud and Jung and the anthropology of Durkheim, Lévy-Brühl, Lévi-Strauss, Geertz, and Rappaport are summarized. An underlying methodology is proposed, which accounts for the complexity of interaction between individual and culture, but neither reduces culture unnecessarily nor isolates individual and culture from the elements from which they are both derived and influenced. The conscious mind thinks as a rule without regard to ancestral preconditions and without taking into account the influence this a priori factor has on the shaping of the individual's fate. Whereas we think in periods of years, the unconscious thinks and lives in terms of millennia : : : We are still living in a wonderful new world where man thinks himself astonishingly new and " modern. " This is unmistakable proof of the youthfulness of human consciousness, which has not yet grown aware of its historical antecedents.—Jung (1959, para. 499) The relationship between anthropology and depth psychology has been a turbulent one throughout the histories of both disciplines. In particular, the thinking of Freud and Jung with anthropologists Durkheim, Lévy-Brühl, Lévi-Strauss, and others has been observed to coincide as well as collide in many ways (

Cathepsins L and B are lysosomal cysteine proteinases whose activities and cellular location are altered in many types of cancers and cancer cell lines. Cathepsins L and B play an unspecified role in cancer invasion and metastasis. The purpose of our study was to determine whether cathepsins L and B are important for the ability of two prostate cancer cell lines, PC3 and DU 145, to invade the basement membrane-like preparation, Matrigel. Exposure of PC3 and DU145 to the irreversible cysteine proteinase inhibitor, E64, decreases the invasive ability of DU145, but not PC3. PC3 and DU145 were treated with the phorbol ester analogue, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), a known tumor promoter that activates protein kinase C and contributes to the metastatic phenotype. PMA increased secreted cathepsin L+B activity and the invasive ability of PC3 and DU145; co-exposure to E64 and PMA decreased both cathepsin L+B activity and invasion. We conclude that DU145 requires cathepsin L+B activity more than PC3 for the invasion of the Matrigel. When the amount of secreted cathepsin L+B activity is increased by PMA treatment, however, PC3 becomes dependent on cathepsin L+B for invasion. Our study demonstrates that modulation of the amount of secreted cathepsin L+B activity influences the invasive phenotype of PC3 and DU145.

Throughout his career, Jung felt the psyche had 'ancestral layers' that contained elements of an individual's species history, and clinical experience has shown that this idea can be an aid to psychological healing and emotional well-being. Thus, some later thinkers have attempted to link such theoretical constructs to the genome, as Jung had little knowledge of genetics in his day. But in the early 2000s, genome studies suggested that the genome might contain too little content to be capable of encoding symbolic information. This opinion gave rise to an oft-repeated 'impoverished genome' argument, i.e. that the genome could not provide a significant contribution to the collective unconscious, prompting theorists to propose other sources for it, or to argue that it doesn't exist. Today, however, developments in evolutionary neurogenetics calls the impoverished genome argument into question for a number of independent reasons. These developments re-open the idea that the genome may be worth reconsidering as the biological substrate for the collective unconscious.

Goodwyn's paper is written to support Jung's view that archetypes are innate organizing structures in the collective human psyche, based on an implicit assumption that there is a ground plan or blueprint of the human psyche inherited in our genes and that this blueprint contains the ...

At the most basic level, archetypes represented Jung’s attempt to explain the phenomenon of recurrent myths and folktale motifs (Jung 1956, 1959, para. 99). But the archetype remains controversial as an explanation of recurrent motifs, as the existence of recurrent motifs does not prove that archetypes exist. Thus, the challenge for contemporary archetype theory is not merely to demonstrate that recurrent motifs exist, since that is not disputed, but to demonstrate that archetypes exist and cause recurrent motifs. The present paper proposes a new model which is unlike others in that it postulates how the archetype creates resonant motifs. This model necessarily clarifies and adapts some of Jung’s seminal ideas on archetype in order to provide a working framework grounded in contemporary practice and methodologies. For the first time, a model of archetype is proposed that can be validated on empirical, rather than theoretical grounds. This is achieved by linking the archetype to the ...

The question of innateness has hounded Jungian psychology since Jung originally postulated the archetype as an a priori structure within the psyche. During his life and after his death he was continually accused of Lamarckianism and criticized for his theory that the archetypes existed as prior structures. More recently, with the advent of genetic research and the human genome project, the idea that psychological structures can be innate has come under even harsher criticism even within Jungian thought. There appears to be a growing consensus that Jung's idea of innate psychological structures was misguided, and that perhaps the archetype-as-such should be abandoned for more developmental and 'emergent' theories of the psyche. The purpose of this essay is to question this conclusion, and introduce some literature on psychological innateness that appears relevant to this discussion.

Treating combat deployed soldiers is becoming more prevalent and needed in psychiatry. Modern combat produces unique psychological challenges, including those without criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This article will attempt to share the primary author's experience with psychotherapy in a combat zone, along with understanding the general themes of dreams the author encountered while being deployed. Toward that end, the primary author [RW] discusses his personal experiences in Iraq working with soldiers whom he saw and treated while in theatre, with a particular focus on the dreams they reported. The co-authors [EG and MI] afterward collaborated with the primary author to formulate and provide insight into the dreams from a Jungian perspective.

Mourning is a normal, universal response to death with countless cultural elaborations worldwide.  When individuals are unable to progress through normal mourning, Complicated Grief (CG) can be a result.  Ways in which humans deal with the universal consequences of death are examined and compared to the typical modern setting found in first world nations.  It is suggested that normal mourning is facilitated by various ritual acts and if these activities lack certain features (suggested by cross-cultural analysis of mourning rituals), an increased risk of CG may result.  Examination of rituals furthermore suggests ways clinicians may help patients cope with loss.

Early psychologists and anthropologists worked more closely in the early 20th century than they have subsequently. However, more recent scholarship has shown that the work of Freud, and even more so Jung, is receiving renewed interest from some interpretive anthropologists. In this article, some of the challenges inherent in the comparison of the depth psychology of Freud and Jung and the anthropology of Durkheim, Lévy-Brühl, Lévi-Strauss, Geertz, and Rappaport are summarized. An underlying methodology is proposed, which accounts for the complexity of interaction between individual and culture, but neither reduces culture unnecessarily nor isolates individual and culture from the elements from which they are both derived and influenced. The conscious mind thinks as a rule without regard to ancestral preconditions and without taking into account the influence this a priori factor has on the shaping of the individual's fate. Whereas we think in periods of years, the unconscious thinks and lives in terms of millennia : : : We are still living in a wonderful new world where man thinks himself astonishingly new and "modern." This is unmistakable proof of the youthfulness of human consciousness, which has not yet grown aware of its historical antecedents.-Jung (1959, para. 499) The relationship between anthropology and depth psychology has been a turbulent one throughout the histories of both disciplines. In particular, the thinking of Freud and Jung with anthropologists Durkheim, Lévy-Brühl, Lévi-Strauss, and others has been observed to coincide as well as collide in many ways (Gras

When a patient reports a dream or undirected fantasy in psychotherapy, classical Jungian technique includes, among other things, comparing this material to that of cross-cultural symbolism (CCS). The validity of this aspect of the method hinges on what we think the origin of CCS is. If we believe that the lion's share of such content comes from specific universal tendencies of the individual psyche, then it is reasonable to look to CCS as a source of clinical interpretive information. If not, however, the method loses credibility. An examination of this comparison reveals that some discussions about archetypes have been plagued by a false dichotomy of biology vs. emergence. Addressing this problem helps to organize various theories about archetypes that compare CCS into a more productive dialogue.

Though the clinical and experimental literature suggests that discussing dreams with therapy patients can be beneficial in a variety of important ways, there appears to be a gap in educational opportunities for psychiatric residents regarding this process. To address this educational need at the au-thors' residency program, a class in psychodynamically oriented dream analysis was implemented, and data was collected in the form of learner surveys both before and after they took the course. The survey found that the level of importance placed on dream work, the comfort level in discussing dreams with patients, and the frequency with which dreams were discussed in sessions were all increased after taking the course. Our conclusion was that these preliminary results suggest that implementing a structured course on dream analysis may help to fill the educational gap.

Throughout his career, Jung felt the psyche had "ancestral layers" that contained elements of an individual's species history, and clinical experience has shown that this idea can be an aid to psychological healing and emotional well-being. Thus, some latter thinkers have attempted to link such theoretical constructs to the genome, as Jung had little knowledge of genetics in his day. But in the early 2000s, genome studies suggested that the genome might contain too little content to be capable of encoding symbolic information. This opinion gave rise to an oft-repeated "impoverished genome" argument, i.e., that the genome could not provide a significant contribution to the collective unconscious, prompting theorists to propose other sources for it, or to argue that it doesn't exist. Today, however, developments in evolutionary neurogenetics calls the impoverished genome argument into question for a number of independent reasons. These developments reopen the idea that the genome may be worth reconsidering as the biological substrate for the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious: a type of ancestral memory Just as the body has an anatomical prehistory of millions of years, so also does the psychic system. And just as the human body today represents in each of its parts the result of this evolution, and everywhere still shows traces of its earlier stages-so the same may be said of the psyche…The psyche of the child [is] equipped with all specifically human instincts, as well as with the a priori foundations of the higher functions. (Jung 1961: 348) To the end of his life Jung continued to propose the collective unconscious as containing a kind of "ancestral memory" consisting of inherited instincts, intuitions, and experience-organizing structures (archetypes) that shape our psychic life: Just as the human body represents a whole museum of organs, with a long evolutionary history behind them, so we should expect the mind to be organized in a similar way …. This immensely old psyche forms the basis of our mind, just as the structure of our body is erected upon a generally mammalian anatomy. (Jung CW 18, para 522) With these and many other statements like it, Jung proposed a model of the psyche that practically begged to be informed by evolutionary, neural, and genomic sciences. These sciences, however, had not developed enough to fully address the broad, impressionistic statements Jung made up to his death in 1961. That situation, now almost sixty years later, is changing, and we are in a better position to assess them. Why bother integrating analytical psychology with other sciences? Does analytical psychology need evolutionary neurogenetics? Not necessarily: the scopes of evolutionary genetics and neuroscience are far narrower than Jungian theory, which is an organizing framework for understanding life, art, spirituality, history, psychopathology, and many other things. Thus, regardless of what these other disciplines say, it may be that the psyche behaves as if Jung's theory were true, making it at least clinically useful. But even then, we can pose the question: is it perhaps more than functionally but literally true? Is the collective unconscious also detected in unrelated sciences (even if unrecognized), and therefore is it even more than a potentially useful clinical construct? Moreover, can other disciplines inform and refine Jungian theory? Possibly: but of course integration is not reduction. Analytical psychology is a holistic enterprise, and whatever genetics or neuroscience tells us about these parts of the psyche, it will be up to us to assess-with our clinical acumen and knowledge-how they all

The question of whether or not archetypes are transmitted biologically or culturally is wrongly posed and has hampered progress in Jungian thought regarding archetype theory.  Considerations regarding psychological development show that some contents of the human psyche are, strictly speaking, neither biologically nor culturally derived.  Examples are given, and the question becomes, How does this fact affect archetype theory?  The present essay examines this question in depth.

During the course of the 2018 IAAP conference, a criticism of Jung's idea of the archetype as inherited predisposition was raised that involved examining a number of dreams and visions and assessing them through developments in genetics and neuroscience. From this comparison it was argued that archetypes cannot be inherited and could more reasonably be argued to derive from early experiences. In this essay, the author responds by showing how this conclusion is flawed due to being based on reductive errors. An alternative, non-reductive but inherited and biological position on the archetype is defended.

Technology, viewed more generally, is a collection of skills and methods that are used to accomplish an objective of some kind. Modernity has produced many kinds of ever-expanding new technologies, but it is also evident that technologies can be lost or fall out of use. A cross-cultural survey of ritual reveals a rather startling observation: that while developed nations often exceed other cultures in terms of material technology, they often pale by comparison in their use of ritual technology. In this essay we will see how ritual is a powerful sort of technology that developed nations have mostly allowed to drift out of regular, vigorous use, despite its numerous psychological and biological effects. This tendency has left one of the rituals we still have-psychotherapy itself-to be bereft of some of the typical tools for concretizing the symbolic in recurrent patterns around the world. Jung himself could be accused of being somewhat anti-ritual himself, enmeshed as he was in the post-Protestant, post-Enlightenment cultural environment that defines the West in many ways 1. But these under-utilized elements of ritual technology may be a natural fit for Jungian therapy due to its use of symbols.

At the most basic level, archetypes represented Jung’s attempt to explain the phenomenon of recurrent myths and folktale motifs (CW 5; CW 9i, para 99).  But the archetype remains controversial as an explanation of recurrent motifs, as the existence of recurrent motifs does not prove that archetypes exist.  Thus, the challenge for contemporary archetype theory is not merely to demonstrate that recurrent motifs exist, since that is not disputed, but to demonstrate that archetypes exist and cause recurrent motifs.  The present paper proposes a new model which is unlike others in that it postulates how the archetype creates resonant motifs.  This model necessarily clarifies and adapts some of Jung’s seminal ideas on archetype in order to provide a working framework grounded in contemporary practice and methodologies.  For the first time, a model of archetype is proposed that can be validated on empirical, rather than theoretical grounds.  This is achieved by linking the archetype to the hard data of recurrent motifs rather than academic trends in other fields.