Comments on: Madness http://earthpages.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/madness/ Putting it all together Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:45:45 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Earthpages.ca http://earthpages.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/madness/#comment-3539 Earthpages.ca Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:55:41 +0000 http://earthpages.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/madness/#comment-3539 Thanks for your interesting comments. I agree that Jung was a pioneer and he certainly helped me along my journey. I think one of his most important ideas, which has roots in his mentor Freud, is the notion of projection. But synchronicity and numinosity also ring true with certain types of people who don't connect with the more traditional expressions of these proposed phenomena. As for contemporary psychiatry, my view could be described as moderate. IMHO each patient is different and to say that psychiatry is bogus and 'bad for all' (as Szasz seems to) I think is somewhat extreme and removed from the realities of everyday life at this moment in history. Anti-psychiatry people seem to have an overall negative bias without really looking into the sensitive particulars of individual cases. They also overlook the fact that psychiatry is a developing science. Let's not forget that Jung himself was a licensed psychiatrist. So I think a more positive outlook would be to hope for an increasingly integrated, holistic approach, as you seem to suggest. Thanks for your interesting comments.

I agree that Jung was a pioneer and he certainly helped me along my journey. I think one of his most important ideas, which has roots in his mentor Freud, is the notion of projection. But synchronicity and numinosity also ring true with certain types of people who don’t connect with the more traditional expressions of these proposed phenomena.

As for contemporary psychiatry, my view could be described as moderate. IMHO each patient is different and to say that psychiatry is bogus and ‘bad for all’ (as Szasz seems to) I think is somewhat extreme and removed from the realities of everyday life at this moment in history. Anti-psychiatry people seem to have an overall negative bias without really looking into the sensitive particulars of individual cases. They also overlook the fact that psychiatry is a developing science. Let’s not forget that Jung himself was a licensed psychiatrist.

So I think a more positive outlook would be to hope for an increasingly integrated, holistic approach, as you seem to suggest.

]]> By: Peter Tarsio http://earthpages.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/madness/#comment-3505 Peter Tarsio Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:34:31 +0000 http://earthpages.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/madness/#comment-3505 Yes this is all very interesting to note that Jung himself struggled with his inner demons for five years and as a consequence he was able to utilize what he learned and heal other patients with the insight that he gained by actually confronting his own shadow. In our modern day medicalization of so called mental illness we have lost touch with the soul and have sought a reductionist/materialist solution that takes away the meaning of the illness ( if according to Dr. Szasz) is really a myth, then it would stand to reason that Jung took us to the unconscious and the collective unconscious where in man dwells that deep area of the psyche which contains all the myths and religions along with the mystical which he was definitely in contact as a physician. Today it is the materialist/medical-psychiatric treatment that has now become dominant and we have lost our real inheritance of what the meaning of therapy is and how the old masters where able to work without the drugs and other barbaric ways of treating the mind. There was a time when a deeper understanding of the mind was brought to light by such a genius who sought the truth about what he saw as a physician which included everything that many scientists would avoid and call pseudo science. I think our day and age wants to cut corners and find some short cut to healing so that the patient can remain functional and get back on the job. Who has time for self understanding or as he called it individuation? The post modern era is upon us and it remains a travesty in how we view madness. Peter Tarsio Yes this is all very interesting to note that Jung himself struggled with his inner demons for five years and as a consequence he was able to utilize what he learned and heal other patients with the insight that he gained by actually confronting his own shadow. In our modern day medicalization of so called mental illness we have lost touch with the soul and have sought a reductionist/materialist solution that takes away the meaning of the illness ( if according to Dr. Szasz) is really a myth, then it would stand to reason that Jung took us to the unconscious and the collective unconscious where in man dwells that deep area of the psyche which contains all the myths and religions along with the mystical which he was definitely in contact as a physician. Today it is the materialist/medical-psychiatric treatment that has now become dominant and we have lost our
real inheritance of what the meaning of therapy is and how the old masters where able to work without the drugs and other barbaric ways of treating the mind. There was a time when a deeper understanding of the mind was brought to light by such a genius who sought the truth about what he saw as a physician which included everything that many scientists would avoid and call pseudo science. I think our day and age wants to cut corners and find some short cut to healing so that the patient can remain functional and get back on the job. Who has time for self understanding or as he called it individuation? The post modern era is upon us and it remains a travesty in how we view madness.

Peter Tarsio

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