Michael, thank you for the nice welcome. I have read your website for quite some time and should have reached out before when I had seen your long connection with John and also Diabasis. Your 2013 article for MIA was trenchant. I have lamented for years that most of my colleagues never ask for dreams. To make matters worse, many years ago I did a personal study where I asked clients who had been diagnosed with psychosis if any psychiatrist had ever asked them the details of their personal story regarding their “delusions or hallucinations.” I interviewed over 500 clients both inpatient and outpatient and not one person had ever been asked. Instead these ‘waking dream’ like thoughts would be thrown in the generic wastebasket of religiosity, delusions of grandeur, overinclusive ideation, etc. The asking though is crucial, for just as in dreams of the night, this is where the clients individual story of the psyche lies.
I hope everyone looks up your article again. I don’t know if anything I say upcoming about the importance of dreams can be said anybody than you stated it of few years earlier. George
Julie, I am sorry to hear that you have had such bad experiences with therapy. Sadly, It can really be a hit or miss field. My experience and much of the literature would say that the relationship and having a good connection with the therapist is the most crucial aspect and not the theoretical framework. If you ever decide to ‘dip your toe’ back in that water, that would be what I would look for.
Richard, Thank you for the thoughtful, informative and respectful reply. You are right that I am a ‘jonny come lately to MIA, though I have been reading the writing for quite some time. I also appreciate your point of view, though to use a political analogy, I am probably center left and heading left. I compare it to Barack Obama’s wonderful interview with Mark Marin on WTF. Marin asked him why he didn’t turn the ship the country was on out at sea at a greater degree of turn than the 2-3% he was doing and Obama had a wonderful answer about that 2-3% would be much greater once it got to shore and also his belief in the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice…I am probably in this 2-3% group, but I completely understand your more revolutionary stance…and I can’t say, given the state of things, you may not be right. Let’s keep both following our passions and see what we can do. Thanks
Someone Else, I will look forward to sharing more of my thoughts and experiences. It looks like you have had a lot of your own personal experiences and I am glad you are sharing and using them as teachings for others.
Madmom, your passion and love for your daughter and all she is experiencing shines through and is very touching. There are still some facilities doing incredible work in these areas, though sadly less than there should or needs to be. I think of WindHorse here in the Portland, OR area. You might see if there is anything like this near you…Very similar to Soteria-Alaska. Also all the wonderful comments coming back to you with readings and suggestions from the comment section are exciting. I am a big fan of the section in Memories, Dreams, Reflections on Jung’s confrontation with the unconscious as a good starting point. Also the writings of AE. Wishing both of you the best.
Stephen, Glad to find a fellow dreamophile. Even after 35 years of listening to my own and client’s dreams, I am constantly amazed at the wisdom of the 2,000,000 year old man and the ‘ old woman of days.’
Steve, Sorry to take so long to respond. Absolutely swamped at work for the last few days. I completely agree that ‘the brain is everything’ trend is a disturbing one. Jung has a wonderful quote from around 1920: “Psychiatry, he claimed, was to be charged with gross materialism… it had put the organ above the function!…Function had become the appendage of the organ, the psyche the appendage of the brain. Modern psychiatry behaved like someone who thinks he can decipher the meaning and purpose of a building by a mineralogical analysis of its stones.” [ Jung, 1960, page 160]… Exciting to see in the headline on MIA that the United Nations is coming out so strongly.
Michael, thank you for the nice welcome. I have read your website for quite some time and should have reached out before when I had seen your long connection with John and also Diabasis. Your 2013 article for MIA was trenchant. I have lamented for years that most of my colleagues never ask for dreams. To make matters worse, many years ago I did a personal study where I asked clients who had been diagnosed with psychosis if any psychiatrist had ever asked them the details of their personal story regarding their “delusions or hallucinations.” I interviewed over 500 clients both inpatient and outpatient and not one person had ever been asked. Instead these ‘waking dream’ like thoughts would be thrown in the generic wastebasket of religiosity, delusions of grandeur, overinclusive ideation, etc. The asking though is crucial, for just as in dreams of the night, this is where the clients individual story of the psyche lies.
I hope everyone looks up your article again. I don’t know if anything I say upcoming about the importance of dreams can be said anybody than you stated it of few years earlier. George
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Ron, appreciate your reply. Looking forward to having contact with you on an upcoming reading group on ISPS on psychosis and reading Karon’s book
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Julie, I am sorry to hear that you have had such bad experiences with therapy. Sadly, It can really be a hit or miss field. My experience and much of the literature would say that the relationship and having a good connection with the therapist is the most crucial aspect and not the theoretical framework. If you ever decide to ‘dip your toe’ back in that water, that would be what I would look for.
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Richard, Thank you for the thoughtful, informative and respectful reply. You are right that I am a ‘jonny come lately to MIA, though I have been reading the writing for quite some time. I also appreciate your point of view, though to use a political analogy, I am probably center left and heading left. I compare it to Barack Obama’s wonderful interview with Mark Marin on WTF. Marin asked him why he didn’t turn the ship the country was on out at sea at a greater degree of turn than the 2-3% he was doing and Obama had a wonderful answer about that 2-3% would be much greater once it got to shore and also his belief in the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice…I am probably in this 2-3% group, but I completely understand your more revolutionary stance…and I can’t say, given the state of things, you may not be right. Let’s keep both following our passions and see what we can do. Thanks
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Someone Else, I will look forward to sharing more of my thoughts and experiences. It looks like you have had a lot of your own personal experiences and I am glad you are sharing and using them as teachings for others.
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Hollyc, thanks for the reference. I will definitely look him up. 🙂
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Madmom, your passion and love for your daughter and all she is experiencing shines through and is very touching. There are still some facilities doing incredible work in these areas, though sadly less than there should or needs to be. I think of WindHorse here in the Portland, OR area. You might see if there is anything like this near you…Very similar to Soteria-Alaska. Also all the wonderful comments coming back to you with readings and suggestions from the comment section are exciting. I am a big fan of the section in Memories, Dreams, Reflections on Jung’s confrontation with the unconscious as a good starting point. Also the writings of AE. Wishing both of you the best.
Report comment
Stephen, Glad to find a fellow dreamophile. Even after 35 years of listening to my own and client’s dreams, I am constantly amazed at the wisdom of the 2,000,000 year old man and the ‘ old woman of days.’
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Steve, Sorry to take so long to respond. Absolutely swamped at work for the last few days. I completely agree that ‘the brain is everything’ trend is a disturbing one. Jung has a wonderful quote from around 1920: “Psychiatry, he claimed, was to be charged with gross materialism… it had put the organ above the function!…Function had become the appendage of the organ, the psyche the appendage of the brain. Modern psychiatry behaved like someone who thinks he can decipher the meaning and purpose of a building by a mineralogical analysis of its stones.” [ Jung, 1960, page 160]… Exciting to see in the headline on MIA that the United Nations is coming out so strongly.
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