Depth Calls to Depth: Spiritual Direction and Jungian Psychology in Dialogue

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Depth Calls to Depth: Jungian Psychology and Spiritual Direction in Dialogue draws on the author’s dual background as a certified Jungian analyst and psychologist as well as a spiritual director with a master’s degree in theology.

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Depth Calls to Depth: Jungian Psychology and Spiritual Direction in Dialogue draws on the author’s dual background as a certified Jungian analyst and psychologist as well as a spiritual director with a master’s degree in theology. Over the last several decades, spiritual direction has moved beyond its monastic origins to become a major force in contemporary spirituality. Its emphasis on direct spiritual experience offers a natural parallel to Jung’s model of psychospiritual healing.

This book describes how Jungian dreamwork can enhance the practice of spiritual direction. There is much interest in Jung’s thought in spiritual circles but little informed understanding of the details of his model and its application to work with individuals. In an effort to meet this need, chapters alternate between descriptions of Jung’s approach, augmented by extensive case material and accounts of spiritual direction sessions. In this way, the book combines a comprehensive summary of Jung’s main ideas and methodologies with vignettes that illustrate their practical application. Larger issues regarding the relationship between psychology and spirituality are discussed as well as Jung’s complicated relationship with the Christian tradition. The author’s background in Ignatian spirituality and the work of mystics like Meister Eckhart allow him to demonstrate how these approaches can bridge gaps between the Christian and Jungian models of spiritual growth. Parallels to 12-Step spirituality also are explored.

“Depth Calls to Depth is a much-needed exploration of the dynamic interplay of psychology and spirituality for spiritual directors.  With years of experience as both a Jungian therapist and spiritual director, John Ensign brings layers of insight and a fresh writing style that makes the depth human journey truly accessible.  His grounding in the story of one directee and their interactions across time makes the exploration concrete and eminently useful.  I will recommend this gift of a book to directors-in-training as well as those currently practicing!”

-Sandra Lommasson.  Bread of Life Center founder, spiritual director, and spiritual direction faculty for 30 years

“Like looking through a kaleidoscope, spiritual directors will find a generous illumination of the ever-present entanglements as spirituality and psychology play in the lives of their directees. With access to the intimate soul and dream sharing of a spiritual directee, Dr. Ensign provides layers of rich and reverent encounters that examine the stages of spiritual development from adolescence into adulthood. This intimate endeavor offers a compelling view through the lens of Carl Jung alongside threads of wisdom from Saint Ignatius, Meister Eckhart, the scriptures and other inspired writings. The depth of Ensign’s attention to bridging the ‘human and divine’ powerfully demonstrates the sacred tending of the spiritual lives with those we companion in spiritual direction.”

-Colleen Gregg, MA, Director of Mercy Center Auburn, Spiritual Director, Supervisor for Spiritual Directors

“In this thoughtfully written book, John Ensign employs Jungian and Christian-Ignatian methods of integration in his practice as a spiritual director.  He has a rare ability to clarify for readers how spiritual direction and Jungian analysis can complement one another to form a guidebook for individuals who are in search of religious experience and meaning through the wisdom of dreams, meditation, and the imagination.”

-Steven Herrmann, Ph.D., MFT.  Jungian analyst and author of Swami Vivekananda and C.G. Jung:  Yoga in the West

“In Depth Calls to Depth, Dr. Ensign offers a refreshingly readable, lively, and pragmatic illustration of a particular approach to spirituality, individuation, and development, revealing the inexpressible aspects of spiritual reality that might emerge out of dedicated attentiveness to both spirituality and psychology. Faithful to a tradition of spiritual direction and to his vocation as a Jungian analyst, he deftly interweaves these domains, attending to one directee’s life experience and dream expressions through this dialogical approach. Dr. Ensign’s work not only reveals his solid scholarly ability and an astute clinical mind, but a deep sensibility to both models, drawing on them ‘to better understand how the divine unfolds within a human life.’ Whether one takes up this book from the spiritual direction tradition or from a more psychological footing, the dialogue will captivate attention, offer new perspectives, and enhance an appreciation of the natural harmony of both approaches.

-Susan Calfee, Ph.D.  Analyst Member, C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco

 

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  1

CREDITS  3

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 5

CHAPTER 2 UNLESS AN EGG FALLS TO THE GROUND  19

CHAPTER 3 IS NOT/IS TOO: SPIRITUALITY AND PSYCHOLOGY I 33

CHAPTER 4 FINDING GOD IN THE DITCH 47

CHAPTER 5 BRIDGING THE CHASM: SPIRITUALITY AND PSYCHOLOGY II 61

A Letter To A Minister  68

Jung’s Treatment Of Symbols 70

God-Images 72

Philosophical Underpinnings Of Jung’s Approach  75

The God Of Our Experience 77

CHAPTER 6 UP POPS THE DEVIL  83

CHAPTER 7 BUT IT FEELS SO TRUE: COMPLEXES, PROJECTIONS, AND VAMPIRES 97

Psychological Triggers and Spiritual Growth 98

Tied Up in Knots: Complexes 99

I Know You: Projection 102

Complexes in Jung’s Psychological Model  103

Balancing on a Seesaw: Psychological Compensation 103

All These Voices in My Head: The Personality’s Compound Nature 105

The Bigger Picture of Psychological Wounding and Spiritual Transformation 110

The Vampire in the Details 112

CHAPTER 8 WRESTLING IN THE DARK 119

CHAPTER 9 THE ME I DO NOT WANT TO BE: JUNG’S CONCEPT OF THE SHADOW 133

Shifting Shadows 135

Whatever Possessed Me: Spirits and Complexes 137

Types of Shadow 140

Weighed and Found Wanting  143

Old Shadows Never Die 149

Shadow and Evil  155

CHAPTER 10 IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN 159

CHAPTER 11 INTIMATE STRANGERS AND THE INNER OTHER 183

Anima and Animus in the Mirror 187

The Negative Anima and Animus in Dreams 189

The Intrapersonal Anima and Animus 191

Criticism Of Jung’s Anima and Animus 195

Gender Identity and Jung 199

Ethnicity and Cultural Narratives in Dreams 205

It Is All about Relationship  210

CHAPTER 12 NOT BAD FOR A BAPTIST BOY  215

CHAPTER 13 THE SELF: WHOLENESS AS RELATIONSHIP  237

Big Self and Small Self  237

The Double Marriage 240

The Self over the Lifespan 243

The Second Half of Life 249

The Self in Relationship with Itself  252

Ego and Self in Relationship  258

Journey to the Self with Others 261

The Self Is in the Details 262

The Self and the Helper 264

CHAPTER 14 SPACE ALIENS AND DISH DRYERS  269

CHAPTER 15 JUNG AND THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION:

IMPLICATIONS FOR SPIRITUAL DIRECTION 297

God beyond Image  297

Form and Formlessness, Image and Imagination 300

Working with Symbolic Material 303

Where Is God in All This? 305

Symbols and the God-Image 307

The God-Image vs. the God of Traditional Faith 313

Meister Eckhart’s Model of Personality 316

Is There Any There There? 319

Living in the Zigzag 321

CHAPTER 16 THE SPIRITUAL PATH: JUNGIAN AND CHRISTIAN

PERSPECTIVES  323

Coming Full Circle  324

Purgation: Encountering the Shadow 328

Mark’s Purgatorio 335

Illumination and the Soul-Image  341

Divine Union and the Self 344

Being Himself in the Life He Was Already Living  347

CHAPTER 17 EPILOGUE  353

DREAM 1  355

DREAM 2  359

BIBLIOGRAPHY 367

 

 

 

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