Is schizophrenia a “severe mental disorder,” as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO)? How might changing the perspective of the traditional western medical model, which labels certain symptoms as strictly pathological, ultimately transform those who are suffering? The Hearing Voices Movement (HVM) which originated in Europe teaches people with schizophrenia to respect their voices and to treat their voices as persons, says Dr. Tanya Marie Luhrmann, whose research seeks to understand the phenomenology of unusual sensory experiences often linked with schizophrenia. C.G. Jung used the imagination to work at the borderlines between dissociation and psychosis… Sharing some ideas that […]
Continue reading »Author: Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.
Bonnie Bright, Ph.D. holds M.A. degrees in Psychology from Sonoma State University and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she also completed her doctorate. She is a certified Archetypal Pattern Analyst™ and Transpersonal Soul-Centered Coach, using Somatic, Symbolic, and Shamanic perspectives to guide clients through spiritual awakening, integrate mystical experiences, and overcome creative blockages. She founded the Institute for Soul-Centered Psychology and Coaching™ in 2020.
Bonnie is accredited through the International Association of Coaches, Therapists, & Mentors (IACTM) and has extensive training in dream work, Holotropic Breathwork, and the Enneagram. She also completed a 2-year training in Indigenous African Spiritual Technologies with elder Malidoma Somé, has lived with indigenous Shipibo people in Peru as part of a shamanic initiation to learn medicine and healing modalities , and has worked with shamans and healers in the Africa, and North and South America.
In 2010, she founded Depth Psychology Alliance™, an online organization with over 5,500 members, and served as Executive Editor of Depth Insights™ journal for six years. Bonnie is the editor of "Earth, Climate, Dreams: Dialogues with Depth Psychologists in the Age of the Anthropocene" (2019) and "Depth Psychology and the Digital Age" (2016). Her journey into soul-centered work began with a mystical experience in 2006, which continues to inform her daily quest for awakening and helping others find their own path to soul.
A Revision of One’s Calling: A Journey through Embodied Experience—An Interview
At age six, Elizabeth Wisniewski was diagnosed with a rare eye disease, and when her retina detached at 14, she lost vision in her right eye. At age 21, while undergoing her 30th eye surgery, everything went terribly wrong, and she lost almost all her vision in her left eye as well. Though she was devastated by her future without sight, Elizabeth’s natural curiosity and passion for learning led her to pursue a degree in political science and environmental studies and then, in a significant shift, to earn a degree as a doctor of chiropractic. She also became a yoga teacher and […]
Continue reading »Normalizing Non-Ordinary Experiences: An Interdisciplinary Approach
In her research, Ann Taves, Ph.D., professor of Religious Studies at The University of California at Santa Barbara, explores non-ordinary experiences and the way different disciplines might diagnose the same experience, such as hallucinating, from different perspectives—including psychology, psychiatry, religion, or spirituality. For example, while psychiatrists largely look at hallucinations as symptoms of pathology, many religious and spiritual movements are based on those exact same kinds of unusual experiences, which could potentially be more common or less problematic than psychology or psychiatry tends to view them. Taves believes that depth psychology, influenced so deeply by Jung, is in a unique position […]
Continue reading »Love and Relationships as a Spiritual Path in the 21st Century: A Jungian Perspective
In her forthcoming book, Love Between Equals: Relationship as a Spiritual Path, Jungian analyst, Polly Young-Eisendrath, expresses hope about love in the 21st century, but she also feels significant concern due to the enormity of the challenge we are facing. Personal love—that is, love that we feel within—has changed over time, according to Polly. In this day and age, we seek some very specific outcomes in our relationships that have not always been sought in “traditional” relationships. Unfortunately, relational trauma can occur when we perceive that the partner we have chosen to witness us is failing us. Dissatisfaction then leads us […]
Continue reading »Depth Psychology: Empowering Multicultural Women in the Wider World—An Interview with Media Mogul Nely Galán
Depth Psychology: Empowering Multicultural Women in the Wider World As a Latina and a self-made media mogul who has produced hundreds of television shows, headed a TV network, and generated a significant amount of income, Nely Galán ironically felt an odd sense of relief when the economy crashed in 2008, bringing many of her projects to a halt. In hindsight, Galán believes she had been feeling incongruent in her career because she was in a field where much of the focus was on achieving success, and where individuals were not valued for being their authentic selves. By that point in […]
Continue reading »Illness, Identity, and the Archetype of the Exile: Finding Meaning and Vitality through Depth Psychotherapy
Swiss psychiatrist and C. G. Jung (1975-1961) viewed mid-life, the time midway between entering adulthood and the end of life, as a critical time of transition. Dr. Brad Chabin, a depth psychotherapist with a practice in West Hollywood, California, had his own experience of a spontaneous and powerful mid-life transition. It involved a devastating diagnosis and challenging times, during which, Chabin now recognizes, much of his social identity slipped away. After going back to school and getting licensed in Counseling, as well as a Ph.D. in depth psychology—even while battling a deadly disease—somehow Chabin pulled through. Chabin now believes he […]
Continue reading »Inside and Outside: How the Unconscious Reveals Itself Through Art—An Interview
As an artist, Margeaux Klein has always approached her art from an imaginative direction and produced works in her studio that felt like they originated deep within her heart and soul. Now she has begun to understand how to “read into” her work using a depth psychological lens. Reflecting back on some of her favorite works, Margeaux marvels how the unconscious psyche can take so many subtle avenues that we’re not necessarily aware of. After being inexplicably drawn to making raku bowls, she realizes the imperfection or brokenness of the bowl reflects our own brokenness back to us. After she embroidered […]
Continue reading »Symbolism of the Black Madonna: A Jungian Perspective—Interview with Judy Zappacosta
Sandplay therapist, Judy Zappacosta, MFT, first became interested in the Black Madonna at a suggestion from Dora Kalff, founder of Sandplay therapy, to visit one of the mysterious iconic figures in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. Zappacosta was immediately drawn into the “silence and dark interiority of the Black Madonna, and has made an extensive exploration of the history and symbolism associated with her. In this interview for Depth Insights™, Zappacosta reveals the powerful and evocative significance of Black Madonna figure from a Jungian and depth psychological perspective, and shares how she can impact us both individually and collectively. Zappacosta is co-leading a […]
Continue reading »Epigenetics, Ancestors, and Living Your Calling
Jungian analyst, Robert Johnson’s work on “Living your Unlived Life” has been deeply inspirational to Heather Beck, author of Take the Leap: Do What You Love 15 Minutes a Day and Create the Life of Your Dreams. Beck is also earning a Ph.D. in the Somatic Studies program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Beck has recently become interested in epigenetics, the study of heritable changes in gene function that do not involve changes in the DNA sequence*. She believes that we are born “fully locked and loaded” with gifts that we ourselves have determined before our birth. However, the moment we are […]
Continue reading »Interview—From Information to Inspiration: An Interdisciplinary Career Based on Myth, Music, Depth Psychology, and the Arts
[media-credit id=1 align=”alignright” width=”202″][/media-credit] As a cultural historian, Kayleen Asbo has crafted a fascinating career by weaving together mythology, depth psychology, music, literature, and women’s studies. The work of bringing together so many different fields stems from her burning passion and desire to create something that is truly unique. Her love of music, along with what she calls her “medieval imagination” (through which she views things in terms of their “hidden wholeness”) have been a key piece of her journey. The age of enlightenment, powered by reductionism and rationalism, is becoming ever more narrower, she notes. By following not only […]
Continue reading »Cosmology, Ritual, and Ecology: A Message from the Kogi Indians about Earth
Perhaps you’ve heard of a mysterious tribe of Native Indians who live high in the mountains of Colombia, speaking only their own original language, and having little contact with the outside world. These people, the Kogi Indians, have long referred to themselves as the “Elder Brothers,” as they carry the responsibility of being caretakers of the world, helping to maintain a balance of harmony and creativity in the world. In recent years, the Kogi have begun speaking out. They are deeply concerned that non-indigenous consumer cultures living in the modern world, whom they call the “Younger Brothers,” are harming […]
Continue reading »Reclaiming a Sense Wholeness Amidst the Environmental Crisis —An Interview with Dr. Jeff Kiehl
Dr. Jeffrey T. Kiehl has been a climate scientist for almost 40 years—but he has a unique take on the challenges we face on the climate front, because he is also a Jungian Analyst, focused on the study of the unconscious. In this short interview for Depth Insights™, Dr. Kiehl speaks with Bonnie Bright about his upcoming daylong workshop, “Reclaiming a Sense Wholeness Amidst the Environmental Crisis,” which he’ll deliver at the C.G. Jung Psychology and Spirituality Conference taking place in Santa Fe, NM, June 9-11, 2017 In the conversation, Dr. Kiehl offers an exclusive preview of his workshop by […]
Continue reading »Depth Psychological Insights on Narcissism (in the Era of Donald Trump): An Interview with Steve Buser, MD
To say that Donald Trump has “stirred a lot of emotions” is perhaps an understatement, so it makes sense that many of us would welcome a better understanding of why that is the case. The American Psychiatric Association declares that it’s unethical for a psychiatrist or psychologist to diagnose a public figure without evaluating them, so contributors to the new book, A Clear and Present Danger: Narcissism in the Era of Donald Trump, focus instead on narcissism itself and the underlying and unconscious factors at work in both individuals and the culture, notes Steve Buser, MD, who is a psychiatrist, co-founder of […]
Continue reading »Working with the Ancestors: A Jungian Perspective—A Conversation with Sandra Easter, Ph.D.
“Dates of significant events in an individual’s life, such as births, deaths or other important dates synchronistically coincide with dates of significant ancestral events, often related to trauma or pivotal moments in the life of the ancestor.”
Continue reading »How Memory Tending Can Transform You: An Interview with Dr. Daphne Dodson
You may have donated that Times of Your Life Paul Anka 8-track to charity when it didn’t sell at the last neighborhood rummage sale, but the words to “Good Morning Yesterday” live on. Sometimes it is hard to find the “memories you left behind” as Anka sang in 1976. Sometimes, as Freud argued, those memories sink below the level of our consciousness, but continue to work on us in various ways even decades later. Sigmund Freud even formulated a term “return of the repressed” to explain where neurotic symptoms originate, writing that illness is …characterized by the return of the repressed memories […]
Continue reading »The Image Making Capacity of Soul: A Conversation on Imaginal Figures in Everyday Life with Dr. Mary Harrell
Every once in a while, a term emerges on the horizon of my awareness which I find strikingly beautiful. In this case, it is the “image-making capacity of soul.” The language of soul is symbol, and symbol shows itself in image—including dream images, fairy tales and myth, or even art, Mary Harrell, Ph.D., explains in her recent book, Imaginal Figures in Everyday Life: Stories from the World Between Matter and Mind. Ultimately, this language of images is soul manifesting in a way people can understand, and without that image-making capacity, people can’t come to terms with the unconscious, Harrell insists. What […]
Continue reading »Encountering Sabina Spielrein: Forging Paths To and Through Powerful Women in Depth Psychology
In 2011, Sabina Spielrein became something of a household name due to the debut of a mainstream film called A Dangerous Method, starring well-known actors including Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, and Viggo Mortensen. The film purported to tell the story of Sabina Spielrein, a young woman psychiatric patient and acquaintance of the infamous doctors Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, pioneers of the modern psychoanalytical and depth psychology movements. When Angela Sells, who earned her degree in mythological studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, first heard of Spielrein in a class at Pacifica, something about Sabina captured her imagination. She began to research Spielrein’s life […]
Continue reading »When You Hit a Brick Wall, Turn to Stone Like Carl Jung | The Creativity Post
Carl Jung played with stones during a time of deep confusion. His example illustrates some things we know about the science of creative insight and the making hands-at-work. Source: When You Hit a Brick Wall, Turn to Stone Like Carl Jung | The Creativity Post
Continue reading »Remembering the Role of the Body in Culture, Trauma, and Everyday Dynamics: An Interview with Dr. Rae Johnson
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” ― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, The Power of Myth If you’ve ever had the experience of being fully in your body, you can likely relate exactly to what Campbell meant when he referred to the […]
Continue reading »Archetypal Reflections: Dr. Keiron Le Grice on Jungian and Depth Psychologies
C.G. Jung contended that our personalities are made up of a multitude of archetypes, Dr. Keiron Le Grice, Chair of the Jungian and Archetypal Studies program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, reminded me when he recently sat down with me to share his insights into the field of depth psychology. Each archetype asserts its own aims, moods, and ideas on our personalities, influencing our lives on a day-to-day basis. Jungian and depth psychologies, by aiming to make what is unconscious conscious, offer an entrance point into recognizing and understanding the various deep forces that move through us from one day to […]
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