James Hillman Polytheistic Psyche

hillman lecture at cia: dreaming or lobbying?
via after_enlightenment
yesterday i went to hear dr. james hillman speak at CIA. he is a psychologist, and was one of the last directors of the C.G. Jung center in zurich while jung was alive. i have heared dr. hillman lecture in the past and found him lively and interesting. he spoke on dreams, adressing many of the different purposes of dreams,from anxiety to predictive. this time i was under the impression, from the advertisments and the blurb written in Scene, that he was going to talk about how people are born knowing their purpose, and dreams are messages that will lead us to our futures. the specific imagery had been the idea of the oak tree looking into it's own acorn.

unfortunatly, i left disappointed. first, the sound quality was not great. it had a fuzziness that seemed to make the words incomplete. then, to my suprise, he ended up talking about religion and polotics and imagination. some of it was interesting. the verb "to dream", says hillman, never appears in the new testaments and the word "dream" is used only three times. being an old testeament jewish girl, i was shocked. someone is constantly dreaming, joseph and his predictive dreams etc. in the first five books of the bible. a phrase he used often was "the causaisin (spelled as he pronounces it), christian way". he discussed the lack of imagination in government, often referring to "the cheney, wolfawitz, rumsfeld, rice" making this team one entity. his two main political points were that the war in iraq and the horrible environmental policies we have show a lack of imagination from "the cheneyl, wolfawitz, rumsfeld, rice". personally, i think they have been very imaginative in their use of government for increasing their own personal wealth and stature, infact it has been phenomenal what a good job they have done at creating a country in which their imagination has become everyone's reality and only their best friends truly come out on top. hillman seemed to equate imagination as something that only existed if it agreed with what he sees as the right thing to do (like pull out of iraq or create environmentally friendly policies), and that the thought that went into existing policy was unimaginative because "they didnt think about the importance of, say art, in the places they were bombing". no, they were imaging about themselves, and their own beliefs, but it is still imagining. what started as a dream lecture became a bit of a democratic rally.

then i got tripped up by the semantics of the lecture. "don't interpret, be interested" in the dream. well, what is being interested? "asking questions of the dream, for you dont have the dream, the dream has you" well, no wonder my therapist gets annoyed with me when i come in having had a dream conversation with myself, positive i understand the meaning. no wonder she always tries to take me anywhere then my own interpretation- and i dont think i agree with it. hillman refered to people's lack of knowledge as innocence, i would call it ignorance (it's the difference between not being able to really understand and not being educated in my mind)

and really, while i appreciate Dr. hillman's view on the world, and even mostly agree with him, i felt tricked into this lecture, persuaded by dreams.

and he never once mentioned the acorn.

James Hillman Polytheistic Psyche

hillman lecture at cia: dreaming or lobbying?

yesterday i went to hear dr. james hillman speak at CIA. he is a psychologist, and was one of the last directors of the C.G. Jung center in zurich while jung was alive. i have heared dr. hillman lecture in the past and found him lively and interesting. he spoke on dreams, adressing many of the different purposes of dreams,from anxiety to predictive. this time i was under the impression, from the advertisments and the blurb written in Scene, that he was going to talk about how people are born knowing their purpose, and dreams are messages that will lead us to our futures. the specific imagery had been the idea of the oak tree looking into it's own acorn.

unfortunatly, i left disappointed. first, the sound quality was not great. it had a fuzziness that seemed to make the words incomplete. then, to my suprise, he ended up talking about religion and polotics and imagination. some of it was interesting. the verb "to dream", says hillman, never appears in the new testaments and the word "dream" is used only three times. being an old testeament jewish girl, i was shocked. someone is constantly dreaming, joseph and his predictive dreams etc. in the first five books of the bible. a phrase he used often was "the causaisin (spelled as he pronounces it), christian way". he discussed the lack of imagination in government, often referring to "the cheney, wolfawitz, rumsfeld, rice" making this team one entity. his two main political points were that the war in iraq and the horrible environmental policies we have show a lack of imagination from "the cheneyl, wolfawitz, rumsfeld, rice". personally, i think they have been very imaginative in their use of government for increasing their own personal wealth and stature, infact it has been phenomenal what a good job they have done at creating a country in which their imagination has become everyone's reality and only their best friends truly come out on top. hillman seemed to equate imagination as something that only existed if it agreed with what he sees as the right thing to do (like pull out of iraq or create environmentally friendly policies), and that the thought that went into existing policy was unimaginative because "they didnt think about the importance of, say art, in the places they were bombing". no, they were imaging about themselves, and their own beliefs, but it is still imagining. what started as a dream lecture became a bit of a democratic rally.

then i got tripped up by the semantics of the lecture. "don't interpret, be interested" in the dream. well, what is being interested? "asking questions of the dream, for you dont have the dream, the dream has you" well, no wonder my therapist gets annoyed with me when i come in having had a dream conversation with myself, positive i understand the meaning. no wonder she always tries to take me anywhere then my own interpretation- and i dont think i agree with it. hillman refered to people's lack of knowledge as innocence, i would call it ignorance (it's the difference between not being able to really understand and not being educated in my mind)

and really, while i appreciate Dr. hillman's view on the world, and even mostly agree with him, i felt tricked into this lecture, persuaded by dreams.

and he never once mentioned the acorn.

Axiom of Maria

The possibility of transformation lies waiting in us all. This hermeneutic study weaves together an alchemical axiom with Jungian and psychoanalytic concepts in order to find a more complete picture of how the transference relationship might embody a transformation process. The Axiom of Maria ("One becomes two, two become three, and out of the third comes the One as the fourth") is a cryptic, alchemical dictum that describes a fourfold process of transformation. The stages of this axiom resemble states found in the individuation process - undifferentiated oneness, initial differentiation, synthesis, and the encounter with one's shadowy, unintegrated aspects. By holding the alchemical and psychological perspectives in tandem, a new mutually informed perspective was derived. Of special interest in this research were the third and fourth aspects of change. Whereas the depth psychological field is currently investigating various aspects of the third, as evidenced by Jung's "third party in the (therapeutic) alliance," Winnicott's "potential space," Schwartz-Salant's "interactive field" and Ogden's "analytic third," Maria's axiom introduces a fourth, transformative stage. This fourth stage has two aspects-content and process. Since "there is no light without shadow" (Jung, 1944/1993, p. 159) the "new view" of the third stage acts to constellate its opposite identified as the old, least developed, or unintegrated aspects of consciousness. In Jung's typology theory, the fourth function is inferior and described as archaic and unrecognized. Likewise, Hillman speaks of the inferiores, Bion of "negative capability," and Grotstein of the "transcendent position." Each of these point to the inherent vulnerabilities that are contained in the psyche and recognize that it is in the process of accepting these and including them in everyday life that the stage is set for transformation.

Yoruba

Yoruba Healing

Tu Tu Tango

Going here to take pics of artists today...

Griffith Park: A Natural Haven

Griffith Park: A Natural Haven
This 4,000-acre park is the nation's largest urban wilderness area, with sage and manzanita-covered hills in which deer, coyote and quail roam. Once part of Rancho Los Feliz, Griffith Park got its name from its former owner, the notorious Colonel Griffith J. Griffith, who spent a year in prison for attempting to murder his wife. Griffith gave the land to the city of Los Angeles in 1896. City leaders were scandalized by Griffith's behavior; they refused to accept the money he offered to construct an observatory until after his death in 1898. Today, in addition to the marvelous observatory, the park offers numerous attractions and activities.

locals

http://people.tribe.net/edubya/blog?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Tribe%5B55ea0e7e-4e8f-4bb8-a1a5-6c09f9e97b57%5D&topicId=616868b0-d2fb-440f-ae25-adc4705821bc

Soccer world record holder

Is he famous like Pele or sumpin? Where's his face?

Active Imagination

http://www.jameslomax.com/words/376/literature-creativity-jung-and-photography

Active Imagination

http://www.jameslomax.com/words/376/literature-creativity-jung-and-photography

Why does Mickey have three fingers?

Artist One ---->Gottfried Helnwein

Artist Two----> Nadin Ospina

Artist Three----> Eliezer Sonnenschein

Artist Four----> Julia Morrisroe

Other Artists ----> Others

Creative imagination

What is TRIZ?

Comics

oh kewl comics!

Who is better/bitterer Shelly or Rowling?

Both of their (Rowling and Shelly) works were inspired by their mother's death. How does one compare Potter with Frankenstein? Which was a better birth? Ludicrous?

ttp://books.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1074767.php/JK_Rowling_says_mothers_death_inspired_Harry_Potters_orphan_status

Because tragedy is too tragic we need comic release

I am reading this to find out what the role of imagery is in the development of identity. I saw this book at the MOCA show on comics; strangely or not so strangely a whole chapter has been bowdlerized and has no pictures because they are afraid of litigation from Disney for showing drawings that artists have parodied.

Steps

1 Narration
2 Evaluation
3 Education
4 Transformation

Oh cute! A Cyclops Kitty!

What does the cyclops kitty image tell you? Well, it says to me.....

Inner Self.com

When the oracle was consulted at Delphi, the priestess -- the Pythia -- became totally receptive to whatever flowed through her. Her role was simply to be a mouthpiece for Apollo. In contrast, in active imagination, we have to alternate between total receptivity -- to allow the unconscious to speak through us -- and a conscious engagement with the unconscious. It is the alternation between the two which is unique to Jung's method, and which makes it so useful a tool.

As with all oracular systems, start the process with reverence. Only use active imagination when something significant needs to be discovered, and only when you have already exhausted your conscious resources. Find a time and a place where you can be alone, then take a few moments to calm your mind. Once you feel relaxed, use one of two basic ways to access the unconscious -- visual or oral.

For the visual method, close your eyes, then begin with some visual starting point, perhaps a scene in a recent dream that has significance for the issue at hand. Get this starting point as clearly in your mind as you can make it, then let it unfold as it likes. If you are strongly visual, you may find that the resulting fantasy is virtually as vivid as a dream. The difference is that, because you are awake, you can consciously engage with the figures in the dream. As with any other encounter with the inner world, you need to walk a narrow path so that you remain receptive to whatever the unconscious produces, yet are able to react with conscious intent.

In the oral technique, you engage in a dialogue with a person or object who you feel might help you with the issue at hand. You can actually talk out loud, hold the dialogue in your head, or simply write both sides of the dialogue. I normally sit at the computer, slow my breathing and stop my monkey mind as much as I can. I then type a question to, for example, an enigmatic dream figure from a recent dream. Having begun the dialogue, I remain receptive to whatever emerges from within and simply type what comes out. After allowing the inner voice to speak as long as it likes, I shift back to my own personality and react to what has been said. The dialogue continues in that manner.

You may find that you actually hear the words coming from the unconscious, or they may simply come out in the writing, without any intermediate process of hearing. When I use either the visual or oral techniques, I normally "see" only vaguely, or "hear" not at all, but somehow fill in what is missing through "feelings" in my body. Jung experienced the same thing: "Sometimes it was as if I were hearing it with my ears, sometimes feeling it with my mouth, as if my tongue were formulating words; now and then I heard myself whispering aloud. Below the threshold of consciousness everything was seething with life."[C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections]

Jung only came to this method after a great deal of struggle. At first, you may feel foolish trying either of these methods, but if you do, you will probably surprise yourself with how easy it is to allow this process to occur. When using the visual technique, you will find that the initial dream scene used as a starting point evolves in directions you could never have predicted. Similarly, when using the oral technique, you will find that the voice and character of the dream figure is sharply distinct from your own, and that you won't be able to predict the direction the dialogue will take. This lack of control can make you as uncomfortable as it did Jung: "One of the greatest difficulties for me lay in dealing with my negative feelings. I was voluntarily submitting myself to emotions of which I could not really approve, and I was writing down fantasies which often struck me as nonsense, and toward which I had strong resistances." [C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections]

I've already said that one has to walk a tightrope in using active imagination. One danger is that we don't open ourselves sufficiently to the unconscious, but instead edit what comes out before it has had a chance to really emerge. Or we may start interpreting what this all means instead of simply remaining open to what is emerging. We need to just let what wants to come out, come out.

Jung

http://www.mageist.net/jung.html

Getty

I went to the Getty 1/11 and saw Weegee,the crime photographer didn't know that he photoged the bohos as well. JUlius Shulman's stuff was there I met him at an impromptu gatering here at the library- documenting the exotic culture and futuristic tendancies of So Cal.

Apollo crowns himself was a neoclassical piece that I saw. terms to know: 1. "contrapuesto" posing with one leg forward 2. passive and active-body is reposed but with a look of restlessness on the face to indicate inner life or turmoil.http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1521&handle=li

Is that a __ in ur pocket or.....?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/grooving-in-denim/2006/01/11/1136863276742.html

regular people in an irregular circumstance...

Survivors still grapple with trauma

By Suzanna Koster in Mera Tanolian (Pakistan)
Saturday, 07 January , 2006, 14:20

Pakistani earthquake survivor Shameen Akhtar orders her husband every day to dig up their three daughters.

The girls were killed in the October 8, 2005 earthquake — one in the rubble of their house, one in a landslide and the third when her school collapsed. Their bodies have not been recovered. Editor's Choice
Full coverage: The killer quake



"Bring the dead bodies of my daughters. They need a funeral," she cries, hiding her face in her hands outside her tent in the Mera Tanolian camp near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Her husband shouts back it is impossible.

The earthquake killed more than 73,000 people and seriously injured a similar number.



Many more are suffering from the effects of the trauma.

Khalid Saeed, a mental health coordinator with the World Health Organisation, estimates up to 180,000 survivors have serious mental disorders, including severe depression, psychosis and anxiety.

Half a million face moderate mental problems, such as stress and flashbacks. Up to 2 million people need what he calls psychological first aid, which includes help in finding their way to relief workers and tracking down family members.

"Without treatment their problems will worsen," Saeed said. "They won't be able to resume their lives and take part in reconstruction. It will not only affect them but also their family and the community."

Huma Gull, who heads a team of psychologists for the WHO and the Pakistani Ministry of Health in the Muzaffarabad area, said children suffering from trauma may develop anti-social personalities or stop studying.

Adults may give up their work, compounding their difficulties.

"This leads to economic problems and that creates another psychological problem, because they lose confidence in themselves and in life," she said.

Up to 60 percent of quake survivors Gull treats suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress reaction or depression.

Patients with stress disorder relive traumatic events over and over and many live in fear of another earthquake. They are restless and have reduced concentration, appetite and sleep.

Depression also makes people want to withdraw from life.

"I don't like talking to people anymore. I just want to sit in my tent," said Riaz Ahmad, a quake survivor who lives in the Mera Tanolian camp and works as a translator for an aid agency.

"The common question on people's minds is 'what is going to happen to us?"' he said.

Gull said hospitals have also seen many patients with conversion reactions where nothing is physically wrong, but they complain of physical problems.

"One child in the hospital complains that he is blind, but he is not. He pretends this because of the fear," she said.

Saeed said trauma patients can be treated with drugs, psychotherapy and counselling.

But he cautioned there was a need to create awareness about mental health problems to avoid stigmatisation and ensure that those who need help make contact with one of the nine mental health teams set up in the area.

"Mental health care should be part of the general health care system. People with mental disorders are ill and they need treatment, just like someone with a broken leg," he said.

Ambreen Arshad, a psychologist with the Turkish Red Crescent Society working in Mera Tanolian, is trying to help women in the camp overcome trauma and has put together a women's committee.

"They just need to share, but they cannot, because everybody deals with the same grief," she said.

"People have become aggressive, angry and frustrated. They are normal people in an abnormal situation."

The first time the committee met most of the women just wept. But they have slowly started to take control over their lives, said Arshad.

"We want to turn these women from passive victims into active survivors," she said. "They collect data about the vulnerable like widows and disabled people and identify helpful contact persons. Being active reduces their grief."

Camp manager Naeem Latif said the mood in the camp seemed to have improved since Arshad began work several weeks ago.

"There are still fights, but less," he said, although many camp residents were still very frustrated.

"They don't know what is going to happen to them."

Saeed said some people had turned to religion, which could help them recover from trauma.

"People have been saying their prayers and they have been reading the Holy Quran. You highlight to them it is not only important to follow these guidelines, it is useful for your health as well."

The Table of Urthur

JUng states that Urthur's round table is a Mandala to reunite men with the lost Grail the original last supoper table was square-of necessity the next one has to be round to make us whole again and reunite us with what we have lost. But why are the worshipping a price tag instead of a Grail?

Wall of Dementia

Leeza Gibbons with State Farm is sponsoring a dementia wall along the lines of the veteran's memorial wall: it will tour the country and end up in Washington in November. I Heart Reagan.

I went to this gallery Sunday

Zach standing next to his pieces.

A story I wrote in the hospital w/ meds

1. A City of Tailors
   Or
   A Parody of Swift
   
   Once upon somewhere there was a town only made of tailors. Now, dearly beloved, you might think that this meant they were a sect of puritans with an obsession about staying covered for their own and others benefit but this of course was not the case.
   
   Rather it was a town devoted purely to craftsmanship. In most towns, you will find that there is an upper, middle and lower class. This was just not true in Taylorville. This town was segregated much more differently: you had: heehumblers, hicynics, denikrates and kehoffs.
   
   Heehumblers would sew the worst clothes for themselves and make better clothes for
   others.
   
   Hykynics make clothes badly equally for themselves and others.
   
   Denikrators would make good clothes for themselves and threadbare ones for customers.
   
   The Kehoffs would make clothes of quality for themselves and others.
   
   The shopping habits in Taylorville have failed to yield data by our marketing department.

MOCA

They have a kewl comic artist show;Alexis Smith speaks to me here as does the deconstructed Beetle by Damian Ortega. My life stood before me like a deconstructed VW

Rite of Passage

It was suggested to me that what I am going through is similar to a rite of passage; if this is true, I much would have preferred this --> Rite of passage

http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/product_detail.cfm?productID=2146&seriesID=18&seriesname=Journeys%3A%20travel%20literature&

Victims' Rights

The healing process is mostly psychic for victims and largely symbolic.