Midwife of the Soul and Soul-Making

“Psychoanalysis is a new version of the ancient theme shared by all great religions.” – Margaret Arden

Is there a connection between spirituality and therapy?

Many people enter my consulting room experiencing a profound emptiness. They know that something is missing but they can’t name it.  They know that their life lacks meaning but don’t know what to do about it.  Some describe it as a longing for something more.  Others say that there is a feeling of disconnect between what is real and authentic.

Ultimately, it is a disconnection from oneself.

Psychology without Soul

The current model of collective psychotherapy and psychology is heavily influenced by science, materialism, and the medical model.  It is psychology without a soul.

In this cosmological world, humans favour reason, science, and the concrete. If we can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist. If we don’t see it, we cast doubt on its validity.  We are stuck in a literal way of thinking where our lives are actual outer events of objective facts rather than images of inner psychological truth.  Metaphors and symbols are reduced to dogma and reason, measurement, science and the mechanical arise and objective reality rather than psychological truths. The Body, disconnected from SOUL, is a machine whose parts can be replaced. For example, depression and anxiety are treated with medication because they are not seen as soul suffering.

The Soul languishes and withers in this atmosphere of literalism and the concrete. But it is tenacious; it will look for ways to bust in.

Jung recognized that, at a deeper level,  the prevailing paradigm of philosophy, religion, and psychology is unable to hold and provide a container for human beings needing to be connected to something larger than themselves.

Jung’s cry is a true lament for a psychology that has lost its connection to SOUL and the resulting spiritual catastrophe and mental health crisis that has resulted because we are disconnected from the life-giving spiritual waters that are within.  Mental health crises are dis-eases of the Soul.

The search for wholeness  – One Path – Many Roads

Our interior journey is ultimately an attempt to reconnect to our wholeness, authenticity, and truth.  It is a process of rediscovery.  Something that was lost needs to be found.  The wisdom traditions describe this as a spiritual journey. Jung called it individuation.

The practice of analytical psychology with its interest in the development of the soul and the journey to becoming fully oneself falls in line with the perennial wisdom traditions, the ancient spiritual wisdom that is found in the personal experiences of mystics throughout the centuries, and in the elements of the lore of indigenous peoples globally.

There is a perennial philosophy and spiritual view of all the world’s religious and spiritual traditions. This philosophy shares a single, metaphysical truth –  that there is a Divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds.  Supporting this truth is the idea that psychology finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, Divine Reality and the ethic that places man’s final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent ground of all being—the thing is immemorial and universal.

This philosophy makes the connection between knowledge and being.  Knowledge is a function of being and when there is a change in being there is also a change in that nature of being.  This is the source of direct spiritual knowledge.

Jung said that the way to make a change in the world is to change ourselves, our perspectives and our viewpoint.  This is the greatest power of human beings.

Spiritual Practice

So how do we embark on a perennial spiritual journey to ourselves?   The word practice holds the key to the question.

We have to practice, that is do it and make a conscious effort to practice a connection to wholeness every day.

For Jungians, it means following one’s dreams and other ways of exploring the images of the unconscious.  It can also mean meditation.

Brene Brown suggests that spiritual practice is anything that gives us a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives and reminds us of the profound connection that we have to others.  Thus spiritual practice could be cooking, engaging in creative work or just being in nature.

We are left to our own devices to find our way – for the possible roads are many.

Christina Becker
February 2023

Have you found value here? Have you been inspired or moved?  Please consider sharing the post on your social media networks by using the buttons below.

I love to hear your comments and ideas. Use the comments below or send me an email.