Self and Society Volume 43 Issue 3 – Association for Humanistic Psychology in Britain

The following lists the contents of Self and Society, Volume 43 Issue 3.
Each article can be downloaded as a PDF, but only if you are logged in as an AHP subscriber.
The table of contents for this issue can be downloaded as a PDF file.

Editorial:
Authors: David Kalisch, Richard House
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Guest Editorial:
Jungian analysis and humanistic psychotherapy: critical connections – past, present and future
Author: Ruth Williams MA
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Interview:
“The Two Carls”: Brian Thorne in Conversation with Andrew Samuels
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Article:
An analysis of the use of the therapist's ‘vulnerable self’ and the significance of the cross-fertilization of humanistic and Jungian theory in the development of the relational approach
Author: Helena Hargaden
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Abstract:

In this article the author examines some of the similarities and differences between Martin Buber and Carl Jung. Both men suffered abandonment by their mothers at an early age. Buber's mother left the family home; Jung's mother became mentally unstable. The author suggests that these early developmental experiences in both of the analysts’ lives influenced their theoretical and philosophical development. She introduces a case study as a method to examine both similarities and differences between Buber and Jung's approaches. The major distinction between the humanistic and Jungian approaches to therapy, she argues, is an understanding and use of the unconscious in the therapy relationship. She suggests that the relational approach in psychotherapy has benefited from a cross-fertilization of theoretical approaches, and in particular sees a fusion of Buber and Jung as offering the therapist ways of reflecting that increase the capacity for effective therapy.

To be or not to be: divergence and communality in Jungian analytic and humanistic approaches
Author: Birgit Heuer
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Abstract:

This presentation explores instances of divergence and communality in Jungian analytic and humanistic therapies in two distinct areas, namely their approaches to the body and relationality. Informed by body psychotherapy, the experience of embodied being is discussed. Conversely, it is argued that analysis tends to apprehend the body in terms of meanings. While this can be insightful and emancipatory, it fails to encompass the dimension of being. The talk's second part discusses communalities in tacit pre-clinical views, which impact on another experience-near concern: the subtle relational ‘feel’, or relational sensibilities, in the consulting room. According to the author's textual research of clinical writing, such sensibilities are implicitly communicated, yet not usually reflected upon. Here, the author's research into implicit pre-clinical bias is touched upon, and alternatives, such as a sanatological bias of deep positivity, are briefly discussed.

Models of the ‘Self’: gendered, non-gendered and trans-gendered
Author: Deirdre Johnson
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Abstract:

In this article I explore ideas about ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ in both Jung's and Assagioli's theories as these have influenced later Jungian and human potential thought. I describe what I think are the dangers of an ‘essentialist’ way of thinking, and how the polarization we ascribe to gender can be seen as a projection of a need for an ‘either/or’ model. The notion of ‘trans-genderedness’ can open up ‘both/and’ possibilities which allow for a greater versatility for both men and women. Perhaps both psychologies can suffer the shadow side of essentialism stemming from the bird's-eye view inherent in transpersonal views.

Return to the radical edge?
Authors: Dale Mathers, Chris Robertson
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Abstract:

Our article comes out of many playful dialogues and a shared revulsion with collective discourses, which ignore the sacred, and the rampant greed we (and our clients) endure as a result of advanced global capitalism. We presented at the conference jointly to share our relational creativity, and invited our audience to an interactive dialogue. We have argued together to write this article; please argue with us as you read it. Our hypothesis is that ‘there is an alternative to scientific materialism as the dominant discourse in psychotherapy’. Here are our notes, written together, about what this may be. We suggest it is about negative capability, emergence and immanence in (human) nature.

Self-actualization and individuation
Author: John Rowan
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Abstract:

This article aims at relating Maslow's idea of self-actualization to the Jungian idea of individuation. It turns out that self-actualization is quite a definite and achievable level of consciousness, within reach of all of us. Individuation, on the other hand, is only vaguely stated, and it seems quite doubtful as to whether it is achievable at all. This article provides many references (see Further Relevant Readings section), enabling further corroboration of the arguments presented.

The ontological nature of change: critical connections between the humanistic psychotherapies and Jungian analysis, past, present and future
Author: Steven B. Smith
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Abstract:

In recent decades there has been a burgeoning discourse both in psychoanalysis and within the humanistic psychotherapies about the nature of change, and the pivotal role that the therapeutic relationship plays within this process. Many readers may identify with the term ‘relational therapist’, and as a result this article explores whether our commitment to, and perhaps over-preoccupation with, relationality is unintentionally obscuring the part that the client's inherent nature plays in the psychotherapeutic process of change. From an integrative perspective I am curious about the integrative links between the humanistic notions about the ontological nature of change, such as the actualizing tendency, the paradoxical nature of change and physis, and the Jungian concept of enantiodromia. I will argue that these understandings, borne out of phenomenological experience, attest to an inner dynamic within the client or patient that can propel the individual towards change, growth and healing: sometimes as a result of the intricate interplay between the client's innate capacity for healing and the uniquely formed, co-created therapeutic relationship; and sometimes as a result of the client's essence that can afford unprecedented healing, regardless of the therapeutic relationship at hand.

Odd bedfellows: psychotherapy, history and politics in Britain
Author: Duffell Duffell
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Abstract:

Psychotherapy and politics have not fitted naturally well together. But since Britain grooms its political elite by means of privileged abandonment in childhood, this dangerous liaison can no longer be avoided. The fall-out of sending young children away to be educated in hyper-masculine institutions can be catastrophic. ‘When innocence has been deprived of its entitlement, it becomes a diabolical spirit’, as psychoanalyst James S. Grotstein has put it. But the boarding habit is so normalized in Britain that we ignore how extraordinary it is to foreigners, how traumatic to children, how regressive for society. Normalization is a powerful and overlooked defence mechanism operating on a systemic rather than individual level. Limited by the myth of individualism, psychotherapy runs shy of the political, avoids generalizations, systemic perspectives, national characteristics. This affects how we see our clients, and the author argues that in a class-ridden society like Britain, such attitudes court irresponsibility.

Poetry:
The seven ages of a neocon therapist (after Ian Birchall)
Author: Manu Bazzano
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THE ROOTS OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY:
In at the start: early experiences of the emerging counselling profession in Britain in the 1970s
Author: Clark Clark
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Abstract:

In 1968 the author first heard about student counselling, and knew this was what she must do. Her life had encompassed change: evacuation; schools in Croydon, Cambridge and Colwyn Bay; secretarial training; work at the National Council of Social Service from 1946–1949, alongside pioneers who saw needs and created voluntary agencies. She studied at Oxford University, to qualify as a social worker. Then married with two children, and after part-time research at Leicester University on racism and the mass media, she applied for the post of ‘Welfare Officer, to undertake some Student Counselling’ at Leicester Polytechnic, and was appointed in November 1971. Her role in the polytechnic was less than clear: how to create a structure, find resources and create a counselling service.

Article:
Shut up and lick your lollipop: a personal view of Alan Watts
Author: Julian Nangle
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The AHP chair's page
Author: Lucy Scurfield
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News Interchange
Author: Sissy Lykou
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Article:
Stuart's political diary
Author: Stuart Morgan-Ayrs
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