Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for The Living Philosophy
Society & CulturePhilosophy

The Living Philosophy

The Living Philosophy

The Living Philosophy is all about the exploration of philosophy's big ideas and big characters from the Ancients to the Postmoderns with a side of Psychology and seasoned with a dash of Integral.

Play
Open in
  • 20 episodes
  • Avg 1 hr 6 min
  • English

Episodes 20

NewestOldestLongest
All20Unplayed20In progress0Played0
  • S1 · E17
    August 9 · 1 hr 13 min

    🎙️#17 Dr. Sharon Blackie: Can We Re-enchant a Disenchanted World?

    Dr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning writer, psychologist and mythologist whose work sits at the junction of depth psychology, mythology and ecology. Coming from a background in behavioural psychology and neuroscience, she has spent over two decades reinstating imagination and intuition as ways of knowing. She is the author of seven books, including the internationally bestselling If Women Rose Rooted and Hagitude, which reframed midlife and elderhood as alchemical rather than diminishing. Her latest, Ripening: Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now, was published in May 2026. She writes the global-bestselling Substack The Art of Enchantment (60,000+ readers), is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Member of the Association of Jungian Analysts, and recently founded the Nostos Institute, which aims to build a living Western spiritual path out of ancient philosophy and depth psychology. ________________ In this conversation, I sit down with Sharon to explore what it might mean to re-enchant a disenchanted world. We begin with her winding path: from a fiercely behaviourist psychology department, to a PhD in the neuroscience of anxiety, and finally to the imaginal, mythic heart of depth psychology. Sharon gives a crash course in Neoplatonism (the One, the Nous and the World Soul) and traces how James Hillman and Henri Corbin drew on it to describe the imaginal world: a real, intermediary realm where images, dreams and synchronicities live. We dig into the difference between enchantment and magical thinking, why so much Jungian thought stops short of the metaphysics, and how big dreams and synchronicities tend to convert people rather than arguments. We talk about Plato's Myth of Er and the guardian daimon, why Sharon has focused on reclaiming women's stories and the archetypes of the older woman (the Hagitude project), and what her new Nostos Institute is trying to build. Along the way: fairy tales as the antidote to alienation, why young people are turning to Christianity, and whether a screen-bound, precarious, increasingly mechanised world can find its way back to community and the more-than-human world. This is a conversation for anyone who feels the pull of meaning and belonging but can't quite find the door. ________________ 🔗 Links - Website: https://sharonblackie.net/ - Substack (The Art of Enchantment): https://sharonblackie.substack.com/ ________________ ⏳ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro - Reinstating imagination as a way of knowing 01:01 From behaviourist neuroscience to the imaginal: Sharon's winding path 05:59 A crash course in Neoplatonism: the One, the Nous and the World Soul 08:55 "Platonism for the masses": Christianity and the problem of institutionalisation 12:52 Iamblichus, theurgy and the imaginal world 15:51 Soul vs. spirit: the missing piece 19:20 Enchantment vs. alienation: Studebaker, Don Quixote and "to sing into" 25:41 Magical thinking vs. enchantment: fantasy or participation? 29:20 The metaphysics Hillman and Jung left out 31:47 What actually converts you: big dreams and the angel cards 33:36 Plato's Myth of Er and the guardian daimon 36:06 Are women more porous to the imaginal? 38:55 Reclaiming women's stories: from Native American writers to Celtic myth 43:32 Beyond the hero's journey: Hagitude and the archetypes of the older woman 48:41 Inside the Nostos Institute: a Western spiritual path 57:47 What "feeling fully alive" actually looks like 1:01:11 Why young people are turning to Christianity: precarity and meaning 1:11:19 Sharon's guest recommendation: David Abram 1:13:16 Where to find Sharon's work

  • S1 · E16
    July 20 · 1 hr 30 min

    🎙️#16 Benjamin Studebaker: Why the Revolution Isn't Coming

    Benjamin Studebaker is a political theorist with a PhD from Cambridge whose work cuts against the grain of almost every revolutionary and reformist story on offer. He is the author of The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way Is Shut (2023) and Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies (2024). His central claim is that the Western democracies have become "embedded democracies" — systems in which citizens can no longer imagine an alternative worth sacrificing for, and so remain trapped in a low, stable, and deeply frustrating equilibrium. ________________ In this conversation, I sit down with Benjamin to explore his diagnosis of the chronic crisis at the heart of liberal democracy. We begin with the idea of the "embedded democracy" and the restricted imaginarium left behind by the catastrophes of the twentieth century, before working through why the culture war functions as a manageable — even useful — form of disagreement, one that dissipates energy rather than threatening the order. Benjamin unpacks his distinction between personal and impersonal hypocrisy, his four levels of legitimacy (perfect, full, minimal and liminal), and the concept of "enclavism": the retreat into faith, family, fandoms and futurism when politics feels futile. We range across Don Quixote and quixotic socialism, the Lord of the Rings image behind his book's subtitle, the problem of capital mobility, NATO defence spending and the Americanisation of European politics, and why a networked, nuclear-armed, drone-fought world makes the old theories of revolutionary change look obsolete. It's a sobering, clarifying conversation for anyone trying to understand why our politics feels simultaneously so turbulent and so stuck. ________________ You can find Benjamin's work at: Website: https://benjaminstudebaker.com About / all links: https://benjaminstudebaker.com/about Substack: https://bmstudebaker.substack.com/ ________________ ⏳ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 1:29 What is an "embedded democracy"? Why revolution is off the table 3:10 Other kinds of democracy: Poland, Hungary and living memory 6:31 Is China a viable alternative? The restricted imaginarium 9:55 Ironism: why public culture can't take anything seriously 12:12 The culture war as manufactured, manageable disagreement 14:52 Fusionism, fragmentation and the collapse of coalitions 21:06 Personal vs impersonal hypocrisy in US politics 28:25 The material drivers: universities, consumers and producers 35:14 "The way is shut": the Lord of the Rings reference explained 37:07 Quixotic socialism: acting out a politics without stakes 43:14 Enclavism and the four Fs: faith, family, fandoms, futurism 46:16 Perfect, full, minimal, liminal: the four levels of legitimacy 51:35 Can things get better? The New Deal, the 70s and why we can't go back 54:29 Capital mobility: the unsolved problem at the heart of the crisis 1:00:00 NATO, defence spending and the Americanisation of Europe 1:07:53 In defence of the Westminster system: order over fairness 1:11:03 Why reform stalls: lost threats and "middle capitalism" 1:19:49 Immiseration and the shrinking sense of the possible 1:24:25 Can revolution even happen now? Nukes, drones and integrated economies 1:28:11 Where to find Benjamin's work 1:28:48 Benjamin's guest recommendations

  • S1 · E15
    June 22 · 1 hr 11 min

    🎙️#15 Prof. Georg Northoff: Can AI Be Conscious? Self, Time and the World-Brain Problem

    Georg Northoff is Canada Research Chair in Mind, Brain, Imaging, and Neuroethics at the University of Ottawa's Institute of Mental Health Research, a practising psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and philosopher, and one of the founders of neurophilosophy. Over two decades his work has reframed the brain's resting spontaneous activity — the Default Mode Network — as the primary architect of consciousness and selfhood. He is the author of The Spontaneous Brain, alongside more accessible introductions including NeuroWaves: Brain, Time, and Consciousness (2023) and NeuroPsychoAnalysis (2023). ________________ In this conversation, I sit down with Georg to explore his spatial-temporal neuroscience — a framework that replaces the mind-body problem with the world-brain relationship. We begin with AI consciousness, move into the Default Mode Network and why depression is a brain running too slowly, his non-dual awareness study with meditators, his critique of Heidegger as still anthropocentric, and Whitehead's process ontology. A conversation that starts with ChatGPT and ends near the edge of what it means to exist. ________________ 🔗 Links Website: https://www.georgnorthoff.com NeuroWaves: Brain, Time, and Consciousness (2023): https://www.mqup.ca/Books/N/Neurowaves2 NeuroPsychoAnalysis (2023): https://www.amazon.com/Neuropsychoanalysis-Contemporary-Introduction-Introductions-Psychoanalysis/dp/0367678047 The Spontaneous Brain: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262038072/the-spontaneous-brain/ ________________ ⏳ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro — Georg Northoff and the spontaneous brain 01:15 Can AI be conscious? The case of temporal synchronisation 03:21 OpenClaw, heartbeats, and whether AI is moving towards experience 06:00 Temporal windows: how the brain processes a word, a sentence, and a self 10:12 The spontaneous brain — why background activity is the game changer 13:56 A short history of the Default Mode Network 16:29 Time is everything: depression, anxiety, and the speed of neural flow 22:07 Self as continuity — why the DMN has the longest timescales 29:57 The paradigm shift: from cognitive to temporal neuroscience 38:03 Where does self emerge from temporal structure? 42:33 Self is more basic than consciousness 44:55 Jung, Freud, and cultural imprints in spontaneous brain activity 49:11 Non-dual awareness: the meditation study and what it shows 51:05 The World-Brain problem — replacing mind-body with a new question 56:22 Heidegger and Dasein: existential time, but still anthropocentric 1:00:23 The tango: self at the seam of inner and outer time 1:02:29 Whitehead's process ontology and the Copernican reversal 1:04:37 Why this work resonates more in China and Iran than in the West 1:09:13 Guest recommendation: Federico Zilio 1:09:59 Where to find Georg's work

  • S1 · E14
    May 3 · 1 hr 34 min

    🎙️#14 essentialsalts (The Nietzsche Podcast): Übermodernism and Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Future

    Keegan Kjeldsen hosts The Nietzsche Podcast and the Untimely Reflections (essentialsalts) YouTube channel — a deep four-year project working through Nietzsche, his forerunners back to the ancient world, and his afterlives in 20th- and 21st-century thought. He’s also a doom metal guitarist with Destroyer of Light and Slumbering Sun, and the author of The Ritual Madness of Rock & Roll, a memoir-meets-aesthetics inquiry written on the road through Europe. ________________ I sat down with Keegan to work through his concept of übermodernism — what’s “over and above” modernism, in the same Nietzschean spirit as the Übermensch is over and above man. We trace the history of “the modern” all the way back to Petrarch in the 14th century, work through Nietzsche’s perspectivism and his critique of the genealogical fallacy, and ask where the next modernism is meant to come from. A conversation for anyone tired of fighting over whether Nietzsche belongs to the right, the left, or the postmodernists. 📚 I’m hosting the Interintellect book club this Sunday 10th May to work through the third and final essay of Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality. Tickets: https://interintellect.com/salons/what-is-the-meaning-of-ascetic-ideals-friedrich-nietzsche-on-the-genealogy-of-morality ________________ 🔗 Links 🎙️ Untimely Reflections (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@untimelyreflections 🎧 The Nietzsche Podcast (Apple): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nietzsche-podcast/id1573808070 ☕ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/untimelyreflections 📖 The Ritual Madness of Rock & Roll: https://www.blackrosewriting.com/biographymemoir/p/theritualmadnessofrockandroll ________________ ⏳ Timestamps: 00:00 James’s Intro 01:59 Welcome and opening with Keegan 02:41 What is übermodernism? Going over and above modernism 05:03 Nietzsche’s perspectivism and the death of objective truth 08:14 Nietzsche as the canary in the 20th-century coalmine 11:47 When did “the modern” begin? Antiqua, nova and the first modernists 13:07 Rousseau’s letter and the first use of “modernist” as a pejorative 19:00 Genealogies, lineage and the string of pearls fallacy 28:42 Reading Nietzsche on the utility of an organ vs. its origin 34:29 Heidegger, Descartes and the “where it all went wrong” move 39:59 Nietzsche’s lectures on rhetoric: language is rhetoric, not information 43:59 Plato’s win over the Sophists as a sophist’s own move 48:59 We Philologists: the Greeks weren’t who you think they were 55:59 Petrarch and the birth of “the modern” as an age 58:29 Toledo and the Muslim transmission of the ancient texts 1:04:29 McGilchrist and the right-and-left hemisphere narrative 1:09:59 Machiavelli, humanism and man as the actor of history 1:15:29 Beyond correctness: value-for-life as the new test of truth 1:22:12 Are we übermodern yet? Great politics vs. petty politics 1:29:49 Keegan’s guest recommendations: Studebaker and Möller 1:31:29 Where to find Keegan and his next book on Nietzsche’s Hellenism

  • S1 · E13
    March 30 · 1 hr 24 min

    🎙️#13 Dr. Aldrich Chan: Taoism, Neuroscience and Our Disconnection from Nature

    Dr. Aldrich Chan is a neuropsychologist, psychotherapist and founder of the Center for Neuropsychology and Consciousness. An adjunct professor at Pepperdine University, Aldrich's research on the default mode network, mindfulness and trauma bridges neuroscience with ancient Taoist philosophy. He is the author of Reassembling Models of Reality (2021) and Seven Principles of Nature: How We Strayed and How We Return (2025). ________________ In this conversation, we explore Aldrich's synthesis of neuropsychology, Taoism and evolutionary mismatch theory — his SAD theory (separation, alienation, discord), the seven principles of nature (CPR WEST), subcortical midline structures and our original experience of connectedness, and what it means to live in alignment with nature. ________________ 🔗 Links Aldrich's website: https://www.drchancnc.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/draldrichan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drchancnc Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@drchancnc Book: https://geni.us/7principlesofnature ________________ ⏳ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro - Neuropsychology meets Taoism 00:43 Seven Principles of Nature and the CPR WEST acronym 03:58 The SAD theory: separation, alienation and discord 04:53 The default mode network 06:29 The triple network: DMN, salience and central executive 10:05 The boat metaphor 12:58 Separation as a natural phase 15:16 Alienation and evolutionary mismatch theory 17:21 Movement mismatch 19:09 Social connection as the most obvious mismatch 21:07 The agricultural revolution's consequences 27:44 Discord and dualism 31:01 The nature–culture debate 36:23 CPR WEST unpacked 39:14 Creativity and uncertainty 41:18 Certainty is the death of a question 43:55 Vipassana and reframing the stress response 45:07 Two stress pathways 51:06 Chaos and order 52:57 Relationship and neuroecology 54:03 Multi-level selection theory 57:59 Ego boundary dissolution 1:00:58 Subcortical midline structures 1:02:04 Jung and archetypes as brainstem activity 1:05:28 Jung called himself a Taoist 1:06:03 Shadow integration and wholeness 1:08:42 Dynamic equilibrium 1:12:03 Flow states 1:13:52 Spontaneity and play 1:18:26 Transformation 1:19:52 Wrapping up 1:22:05 Where to find Aldrich 1:23:14 Guest recommendations

  • S1 · E12
    March 24 · 56 min

    🎙️#12 Dr. Erik Goodwyn: Who Creates the Dream? The Invisible Storyteller

    Dr. Erik Goodwyn is a practising psychiatrist with a background in neurobiology who bridges the worlds of neuroscience, Jungian psychology, and fantasy. Erik is co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Jungian Studies and has written dozens of academic papers along with books on the neurobiology of the gods, dreams, and archetypes. Last year he published his first fantasy novel, King of the Forgotten Darkness, which won the Literary Titan Golden Book Award. ________________ In this return visit, we dive deep into who actually creates the dream – the Invisible Storyteller that isn't your conscious self. We explore the neuroscience behind this, discussing the Default Mode Network, Salience Network, and Executive Control Network, and what they reveal about dreaming, meaning-making, and the deeply non-egoic nature of consciousness. Erik shares clinical insights into Dissociative Identity Disorder as evidence of an underlying organising principle, we tangle with what it means for consciousness to be "non-egoic," and we work through his groundbreaking definition of archetypes through Cognitive Metaphor Theory. It's a conversation that challenges everything you think you know about who you are. ________________ 🔗 Links - Erik's website: https://erikgoodwyn.com - Erik's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theimaginarium ________________ ⏳ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro - The Invisible Storyteller 01:39 Greeting and reflections on James's reading 03:35 What is the Invisible Storyteller? 06:01 Jung's avoidance of reductionism through mythic language 08:16 The Default Mode Network and dreaming 10:27 The three networks: default mode, salience, and executive control 15:27 Memory consolidation, identity formation, emotional regulation, future planning 18:29 Is the Invisible Storyteller the unconscious? 22:18 Deeper processing independent of conscious ego 25:58 Recurrent dreams and the role of conscious engagement 28:40 The Invisible Storyteller as meaning-making 31:07 Dreams versus storytelling: memory Olympics and metaphor 36:58 The role of the right hemisphere and symbolism 41:04 The Invisible Storyteller as process or personality? 44:18 Dissociative Identity Disorder and organising principles 50:33 DID as evidence of an organising intelligence 55:43 The specificity of dissociative amnesia 58:22 Non-egoic consciousness and emergent properties 1:02:14 Consciousness arising from complex systems 1:05:44 AI image generation as analogy for dream creation 1:10:56 The Invisible Storyteller as personality versus ancestry and genome 1:15:32 Jungian vision and updating Jung's theory 1:18:40 Archetypes through Cognitive Metaphor Theory 1:22:37 Spontaneous thoughts and universal challenges 1:25:58 Primary metaphors and innate mappings 1:29:20 Danger and darkness as innate mappings 1:32:17 Definition of archetype and falsifiability 1:34:47 Building on Gary Clark's work and Anthony Stevens 1:36:25 Gratitude and future conversations

  • S1 · E11
    March 5 · 1 hr 22 min

    🎙️#11 Adriana Forte: Menstrual Futurism

    Adriana Forte is a Brazilian-born writer, facilitator, and developmental thinker currently based in a rural intentional community in Bellingen, New South Wales, Australia. Originally trained as a journalist, Adriana has spent years investigating the intersection of women's cyclical biology, embodied knowing, and the structures of modern life. She runs retreats and workshops through her Substack platform C-Lab (A Lab for a Cyclically Informed Society), and is currently completing a book on the spell of modernity and the role of the matriarch as a force for cultural repair.________________ In this conversation, James sits down with Adriana to explore one of the most under-examined questions in contemporary culture: what happens when society is built around a linear, continuous model of productivity — and half the population runs on a fundamentally cyclical one? Drawing on her own journey from Brazil through Hong Kong and India to off-grid life in rural Australia, Adriana maps the hormonal landscape of the female cycle and argues that the oscillation between estrogen and progesterone doesn't just produce moods — it produces a distinct mode of subjectivity, perception, and thought. We explore the cultural erasure of rites of passage, the psychological costs of the contraceptive pill, the wisdom encoded in perimenopause and menopause, and why Adriana believes the matriarch — the post-menopausal woman — may be the missing counter-energy to the relentless forward drive of modernity. The conversation moves through evolutionary biology, embodied philosophy, grassroots community-building, and genuine hope for a more rhythmically intelligent future.________________ You can find Adriana's work at: Substack (C-Lab): https://theclab.substack.com/ ________________ ⏳ Timestamps: 0:00 Intro - Our Bellingen Connection 5:41 How Adriana ended up on this journey 12:56 Critique of Modernity and Birth Interventions 15:23 Rhythms and female psychology 24:38 A map of the menstrual cycle 39:11 The Influence of Modernity on Women’s Psyche 45:59 Transgender and phenomenology of hormones 52:01 The oscillating nature of female psychology 59:25 The spell of the System on modern psychology 1:09:15 The challenge of organising around cyclical society 1:15:03 Adriana’s Matriarch Book 1:18:43 Where to get more from Adriana 1:19:39 Adriana’s Guest Recommendation

  • S1 · E10
    February 2 · 1 hr 27 min

    🎙️#10 Michael Montgomery: Psychophobia and Bridging East and West in Therapy

    Dr. Michael R. Montgomery (PhD, MA, MSc, MSW, LCSW) is an existential psychoanalyst who represents a radical wing of contemporary depth psychology—one deeply influenced by R.D. Laing's anti-psychiatry tradition, phenomenology, and a fierce commitment to humanising extreme mental states. Based between Boston, Massachusetts and having deep roots in post-conflict Belfast, Montgomery positions himself as both clinician and activist, bridging psychoanalytic practice with community healing, peace work, and cultural critique. His signature concept—"psychophobia" (society's fear of the mind and extreme mental states)—anchors a body of work challenging psychiatric medicalisation, advocating for phenomenological approaches that honour lived experience, and reclaiming psychosis, mania, and other "extreme states" as potentially transformative rather than purely pathological. _____________ In this conversation, Michael Montgomery shares his journey through various philosophical and spiritual traditions, emphasising the importance of bridging Eastern and Western thought in psychotherapy. He discusses the role of silence, community, and personal experience in healing, while also addressing the complexities of faith and human nature. The dialogue explores the concept of psychophobia and the transformative power of music and community in fostering connection and understanding. _____________ 🔗 Links - Michael's podcast: https://psychophobia.com/ - Michael's website: https://drmontgomery.com/ _____________ ⏳Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:34 How Michael knows Jon Mills 03:04 The art of speaking across ideological lines 04:36 Michael's relationship with Buddhism 08:00 Existential psychoanalysis 09:33 The R.D. Laing lineage 12:06 The importance of existential psychotherapy 13:02 Michael's experience growing up in the Troubles in Belfast 13:43 Michael's quest for answers 16:26 Michael's World Record attempt in the silent room 21:23 The endurance of spiritual lineages 22:38 Why no peace on Earth? 26:19 What Buddhism offers 27:26 The revival of relationship with Christianity 31:43 Does God exist? 37:02 What is psychophobia? 46:47 The McDonaldisation of healthcare 52:12 Michael's disillusion with the mental health system 57:21 Plurality: do we have many selves? 01:06:41 Michael's experience with dreams and consciousness 01:08:53 Elevated states and mental health 01:14:35 How dreams can change your perception of reality 01:17:08 Voices, language patterns and the nature of psyche 01:21:06 Michael's guest recommendation: Ken Wilber 01:22:11 Where to get more from Michael

  • January 19 · 58 min

    #9 Layman Pascal - Metashamanic Nietzsche

    Layman Pascal is a Canadian "feral philosopher" and host of The Integral Stage podcast who has become a central connector and theorist in the overlapping worlds of metamodernism, integral theory, and Game B. His signature contributions—the Metaphysics of Adjacency, the Integration Surplus Model of spirituality, and Metashamanics—offer a sophisticated yet playful bridge between abstract philosophy and embodied transformation. Known for his capacity to hold complexity with humour, Pascal brings both philosophical rigour and playful irreverence to questions of meaning-making in an age of metacrisis. ____________ In this conversation, we talk Nietzsche, metashamanism, and the ontology and epistemology of entities.We delve into the role of personal experience in shaping philosophical thought, and the implications of neurodiversity in understanding shamanic practices. The dialogue also touches on the nature of imagination, creativity, and the unpredictability of inspiration, exploring our different approaches to life from the moist pragmatism to dry scholarism. ____________ 🔗 More from Layman Layman's website: https://www.laymanpascal.com/ Layman's Substack: https://laymanpascal.substack.com/ ____________ ⏳ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro - the Feral Philosopher 03:19 Blaise Pascal's spiritual note 05:18 Nietzsche and the irrationality of philosophers 08:55 The power of irrationality in humanity's story 10:41 Layman's book on Nietzsche 12:00 The Integral Nietzsche 14:13 What if Nietzsche hadn't gone mad? 16:06 The enlightened Nietzsche 19:33 The shamanic Nietzsche 22:04 What is metashamanics? 23:07 Shamanic neurodivergence 26:26 Attributes of the well-adjusted shaman 28:33 Liminality and the epochal emergence of the shamanic 31:31 The shamanoid Elvis 33:17 The reality of entities 37:05 Layman Pascal: pragmatist? 47:12 The power of trance 51:50 The muse as entity 56:34 Layman's guest recommendation 57:59 More from Layman

  • S1 · E8
    January 12 · 1 hr 8 min

    #8 Stefano Carpani: Jungians vs. Post-Jungians vs. Neo-Jungians

    Dr Stefano Carpani is an Italian Jungian psychoanalyst, lecturer at the C.G. Jung Institute Zürich, and scientific consultant at Pacifica Graduate Institute. At 46, he has emerged as a leading voice amongst a new generation of Jungian thinkers, bridging depth psychology with sociology, critical theory, and contemporary political questions. In this conversation, Stefano and I explore the landscape of contemporary Jungian thought, beginning with his distinction between Jungian, post-Jungian, and neo-Jungian approaches—where neo-Jungians like himself aim to make analytical psychology relevant to 21st-century crises beyond the consulting room. We discuss his I+I theory, which synthesises Jung's individuation with sociologist Ulrich Beck's individualization, arguing that contemporary identity formation requires both psychological and sociological lenses to understand. Stefano shares insights from his award-winning work on the fall of the Berlin Wall, explaining how the numinous—an autonomous psychic force Jung described—operates in collective historical transformation, suggesting that major shifts require not just political will but adequate psychic conditions and "the attraction of the symbol." We explore the concept of enantiodromia, Jung's idea that psychological and cultural movements tend to revert to their opposites when pushed too far, applying this to contemporary political polarisation and populism. Throughout, Stefano makes a compelling case for why Jungian analysts must engage courageously with war, democracy, and social transformation, bringing depth psychology out of the clinic and into public discourse. 🔗 Links - For Jungian monthly talks organised by Stefano: https://www.instagram.com/jungianeum_/ and https://www.youtube.com/@psychosocialwednesdays1944/videos - Stefano's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHpWRYvgyhifcVkNGk9Tq-A ⏳ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:08 Stefano, the international Jungian 02:21 Jungians vs. Post-Jungians vs. Neo-Jungians 07:27 The Post-Jungians 10:15 The Neo-Jungians 12:50 Classical Jungians vs. Developmental vs. Archetypal 15:40 James's case for a Jungian textbook 20:01 The Jungian language barrier 23:20 The hindrance of jargon 27:11 Stefano's sociological Jungian work 31:49 Bringing the unconscious into everyday life 34:52 Covid through the lens of Jung 35:49 The fallacy of the end of history 38:05 The fall of the Berlin Wall as a numinous event 43:33 Moments of memetic infection 47:16 History makers as artists 49:42 Jungian lens on contemporary politics 50:53 Returning to memetic infection 58:24 What is enantiodromia? 01:00:12 Populism and energetic release 01:04:33 Stefano's guest recommendations 01:05:18 Where to find out more about Stefano

  • S1 · E7
    Dec 2, 2025 · 49 min

    #7Jon Mills: The Psychology Behind Our Self-Destructive Civilisation

    Get Jon's book "End of the World: Civilization and Its Fate": https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/end-of-the-world-9781538189016/ _______________ Dr Jon Mills is a philosopher-psychoanalyst and Honorary Professor at the University of Essex, whose work bridges Hegelian philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, and contemporary existential threats facing civilisation. With over 35 books to his name—including five Gradiva Award winners—Jon has spent decades developing what he calls “dialectical psychoanalysis,” a rigorous philosophical framework for understanding the unconscious mind. His latest work, which we’re discussing in this episode, confronts an uncomfortable question: does humanity possess a collective death drive that propels us towards self-destruction? _______________ You can find Jon’s work at: Website: https://www.philosophypsychoanalysis.com Publications: https://www.philosophypsychoanalysis.com/academics-psychoanalysis-philosophy _______________ In this conversation, I sit down with Jon to explore the darkest questions about our species’ future. We examine whether humanity harbours a death wish, diving into the multiple existential crises threatening civilisation—climate change, nuclear weapons, AI risks, geopolitical conflict, and overpopulation/demographic collapse. Jon brings his formidable philosophical toolkit to bear on these challenges, drawing from Hegel, Freud, and his own dialectical framework to understand how good and evil operate simultaneously in human affairs. We debate techno-optimism versus existential pessimism, explore the psychology behind apocalyptic thinking, and we talk about my previous episode on secular eschatology and we discuss what that reveals about our relationship with mortality. We’re left with the question of whether our species can transcend its self-destructive patterns or whether we’re inexorably drawn towards catastrophe. _______________ ⏳Timestamps 00:00 James’s Intro 01:21 Claude AI’s intro to Jon 02:16 Jon’s prolific output 02:59 Does humanity have a death wish? 04:13 The collective forces at play 05:57 Collective and the collective unconscious 09:03 What we mean by humanity - metaphor or reality? 11:03 The crises facing humanity today 12:25 What Jon wanted to achieve with the book 15:45 Universal pessimism? 19:41 James on demographic collapse 23:29 Poverty decline globally 25:21 Optimism on climate 26:09 China and the Thucydides Trap 27:45 James on AI concerns 28:16 Negative trends in prejudice and freedom 31:03 The psychology of the Thucydides Trap 34:35 Good and evil are operative at once 36:43 James’s secular eschatology thesis 41:45 Why are most apocalypse predictions Western? 43:26 Apocalypse as death-cope 44:39 Apocalypse as unmet need gone rotten? 45:35 Jon’s relationship with death 48:18 Jon’s guest recommendation: Michael Montgomery

  • S1 · E6
    Nov 18, 2025 · 1 hr 27 min

    #6 PF Jung: What is Enlightened Centrism

    PF Jung is a YouTube content creator renowned for making the meme of "Enlightened Centrism" great again. He's a self-styled "memetic feudal lord" and "applied sociologist" who has gotten himself in trouble for his attempts to bridge the polarities in society and seeking to bring the far right and far left together. He creates philosophical and political commentary content exploring nuanced positions that resist tribal categorisation, though this approach has led to significant challenges navigating the online political space. You can find Paul's work at: YouTube: youtube.com/@PFJung In this conversation, I sit down with Paul to explore the crisis facing political nuance in online spaces. We discuss his co-opting of the Enlightened Centrism meme, why holding mixed political views has become increasingly difficult to sustain online, and the exhausting work of maintaining charitable interpretation when everyone wants the fight. Paul shares his experience growing a channel whilst managing contradictions, navigating the Peterson-adjacent space, and what it means to be at the "edge of the inside" of multiple political communities. We also explore why the online political warzone demands tribal allegiance and whether there's still room for complexity in an era of constant gotchas and worst-case interpretations. ⏳ Timestamps 00:00 James's Intro 01:15 What is Enlightened Centrism? Paul's co-opted meme 02:49 Defining the position: right-wing and left-wing on different issues 04:00 Contradictions of Centrism 05:08 Crisis of National Identity 13:15 Horseshoe Theory vs Fishhook Theory 16:56 The Political Divide 20:29 PF Jung's most right-wing belief 22:40 Economic shifts and onshoring 23:43 Critique of the US economy 26:42 Economic decadence and hyper-novelty 30:52 Radical Centrism in action 36:50 Constitution treated as religion 42:28 Type I vs Type II errors in governance 43:46 Radical solution for digital culture 45:15 PF Jung's axiom of faith 48:06 Populist movements and preference cascades 1:00:33 Identity crisis of the channel 1:17:47 Edge of the Inside archetype 1:25:58 Guest recommendation

  • S1 · E5
    Nov 2, 2025 · 1 hr 15 min

    #5 Brendan Graham Dempsey: Can We Scientifically Measure Worldviews?

    Brendan Graham Dempsey is a metatheory researcher at the Institute of Applied Metatheory and host of the Metamodern Meaning podcast. His work bridges evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and worldview studies, bringing empirical rigour to questions about how human consciousness and culture evolve. His latest book, Psyche and Symbolic Learning, is the second in a planned ten-volume series exploring these themes through the lens of hierarchical complexity and neo-Piagetian developmental frameworks. You can find Brendan’s work at: Metamodern Meaning podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@BrendanGrahamDempsey Brendan’s Substack: https://brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com/ Brendan’s website: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/ Our previous chats: Philosophy Wisdom and Metamodernism Critiquing Metamodernism In this conversation, Brendan introduces me to the ambitious world of metatheory – an attempt to create a unified, coherent understanding of all human knowledge by bridging disciplines from neuroscience to sociology to the humanities. We explore his new role researching worldviews empirically at the Institute of Applied Metatheory, where he’s working to bring scientific rigour to questions that have long been speculative: Can we measure the complexity of worldviews? Do cultures develop through predictable stages? How complex is the Bible compared to Homer, or a text message to your mam? We dive deep into hierarchical complexity, a psychological framework that quantifies the sophistication of thinking across domains and time periods. Brendan shares fascinating research comparing the cognitive complexity of ancient religious texts, from early biblical narratives to the Epic of Gilgamesh, revealing how literacy transforms meaning-making structures. We discuss the difference between metatheory and interdisciplinary work, why spiral dynamics isn’t quite a metatheory, and how this research programme aims to give metamodernism and integral theory the empirical grounding they’ve long needed. This is a conversation for those curious about the big questions: How does all human knowledge fit together? Can we study worldviews scientifically? And what does it mean to truly understand complexity? ⏳ Timestamps 00:00 James’s Intro 01:30 Brendan’s new role at the Institute of Applied Metatheory 03:24 What is metatheory? Situating theories within a bigger picture 06:05 Cognitive science vs. metatheory: Where are the edges? 07:37 Consilience and the unified theory of knowledge 10:27 What is the “normal science” of metatheory? 15:14 Applying metatheory: From integral medicine to worldview research 20:48 Systematising worldview terminology: Paradigms, gestalts, and meaning-making structures 23:03 Measuring cognitive complexity in texts 24:11 Can we validate developmental claims empirically? 25:08 Hierarchical complexity and neo-Piagetian psychology 28:30 Dynamic skill theory: Why you’re not “at a stage” 32:30 What does complexity mean? Is it like IQ? 33:00 Complexity as a scale of task performance, not hardware 35:05 Skill webs and context-dependent performance 37:12 Measuring texts: From texting your mam to ancient scriptures 42:14 Scoring the Bible: Early narratives vs. scribal texts 44:43 The documentary hypothesis and complexity differences in biblical sources 45:09 Literacy’s impact: Hunter-gatherer texts vs. scribal complexity 46:24 Homer, Gilgamesh, and the wisdom of Ptahhotep: Comparing ancient complexity 49:48 Translation challenges in measuring ancient texts 56:49 Education, zip codes, and complexity gaps 59:28 Why developmental models are more optimistic than IQ 1:04:24 Metatheory and metamodernism: How they relate 1:03:15 Testing metamodern and integral claims about worldview development 1:04:24 Metatheory and metamodernism: How they relate 1:10:21 Integral theory and the metamodern landscape 1:12:03 Guest recommendations: Layman Pascal and Nick Headland 1:14:08 Where to find Brendan

  • Oct 27, 2025 · 1 hr 16 min

    #4 Greg Dember: Metamodernism and the Defence of Interiority

    "The protection of interiority is the central motivation of Metamodernism." So says Greg Dember, a Seattle-based musician, songwriter and independent researcher in Metamodernism. As the co-founder of the What Is Metamodern? website with Linda Ceriello, PhD, Greg’s writing and podcast appearances speaking on metamodernism have helped popularize the terminology outside of academic discourse through accessible writing. He is the author of Say Hello To Metamodernism!: Understanding Today’s Culture of Ironesty, Felt Experience, and Empathic Reflexivity (2024 Exact Rush). He is also a co-editor of the forthcoming multi-author volume, My Impossible Soul: The Metamodern Music of Sufjan Stevens (Bloomsbury/Lexington). He holds a BA (1987) from Yale University. ____________ Greg and Linda's Metamodern site - https://www.whatismetamodern.com Greg's article on the 11 methods of Metamodernism - https://medium.com/what-is-metamodern/after-postmodernism-eleven-metamodern-methods-in-the-arts-767f7b646cae Greg's book on Metamodernism - https://www.amazon.com/Say-Hello-Metamodernism-Understanding-Reflexivity/dp/B0DHGFKZ8W/ __________ In this conversation, I sit down with Greg to explore metamodernism as the cultural backdrop that's emerged since roughly 2000, taking over from postmodernism's ironic detachment. We discuss how metamodernism oscillates between modern earnestness and postmodern irony to defend the significance of interiority and felt experience. Greg introduces his framework of 11 metamodern methods—including empathic reflexivity and the double frame—and we examine how artists like the Daniels (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Wes Anderson, Bo Burnham, and even The Beatles navigate this territory. The conversation ranges from David Letterman's evolution to Don Quixote as a proto-metamodern text, exploring how this sensibility has spread from indie niches into mainstream culture, and what it means for how we make and experience art today. _____________ ⏳Timestamps 0:00 Episode Intro2:26 Greg's current work: Sufjan Stevens book3:26 What is metamodernism? Cultural backdrop since 20104:50 From modernism to postmodernism to metamodernism7:36 David Letterman: from postmodern irony to Metamodern maturity10:32 The oscillation between modern and postmodern attributes12:26 Jimmy Fallon and the trend toward sincere enthusiasm15:56 Felt experience vs. detached observation19:26 Bo Burnham's Metamodern masterpiece "Inside"24:31 Rick Glassman and the Dance of Irony25:26 The new sincerity and its relationship to metamodernism28:26 Defending interiority as Metamodernism's central motivation31:38 From indie niches to mainstream: Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift33:29 Everything Everywhere All At Once: metamodernism as hell38:26 Wes Anderson and the metamodern sensibility39:28 The 11 metamodern methods framework40:31 Method #1: Empathic reflexivity40:56 Method #2: Oscillation between modern/postmodern dualities41:24 Method #3: The double frame (Raoul Eshelman)44:26 Quirky as a metamodern aesthetic46:26 Irony vs. cynicism: an important distinction49:26 Don Quixote as proto-metamodern?53:26 History rhymes: Shakespeare, Nietzsche, and cultural crossroads57:26 Exploring quirky and other metamodern methods59:39 Play, playfulness, and Wes Anderson1:01:01 Method #4: Meta-cute1:01:46 Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox as meta-cute1:03:56 Protecting interiority: the motivation behind metamodern art1:04:56 Metamodernism as reclaiming something eternally human1:06:26 Sufjan Stevens and the Illinois album1:07:16 Proto-metamodern vs. actually metamodern: the key distinction1:08:26 The Metamodern "Rocky Racoon"1:12:29 The Proto Metamodern Morrissey and The Smiths1:14:43 Guest recommendation: Linda Ceriello1:14:58 Where to find Greg's work

  • S1 · E3
    Oct 20, 2025 · 48 min

    Erik Goodwyn: Dreams, Metaphor and Fantasy Writing

    Dr. Erik Goodwyn is a practising psychiatrist with a background in neurobiology who bridges the worlds of neuroscience, Jungian psychology, and fantasy. Erik is co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Jungian Studies and as well as dozens of academic papers he has written books on the neurobiology of the gods, dreams, and archetypes, and this year published his first fantasy novel, King of the Forgotten Darkness, which won the Literary Titan Golden Book Award. You can find Erik's work at:Website: https://erikgoodwyn.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theimaginarium In this conversation, I sit down with Erik to explore the neuroscience of dreams and their connection to creativity, trauma, and healing. We dive deep into how the default mode network operates during dreaming, why dreams create "as if" narratives to help us make sense of our lives, and how the psyche uses metaphor to consolidate memory, regulate emotions, and plan for the future. Erik shares fascinating insights from his clinical work, including how trauma dreams evolve during the healing process and why some dreams seem to bookend creative projects. We also venture into the realm of fantasy literature, discussing how writers like Tolkien and Sanderson use fantastical elements to tell deeply human stories about real lived experiences. ⏳Timestamps 00:00 James's Intro 01:31 Beginning: Wyoming, Mountain Time, and writing fantasy 03:24 Architects vs. Gardeners: Erik's writing process 08:16 The divine child archetype in therapy dreams 09:13 "as if": how dreams create meaning through metaphor 11:58 Dreams in crisis mode vs. exploratory mode (PTSD example) 15:08 Memory consolidation and forward planning in dreams 16:37 The default mode network during dreaming 19:32 Creativity and the default mode network 24:19 Dream sequences: Exploration of themes across multiple dreams 29:27 The body's natural healing process through dreams 40:58 Ernest Hartman and contextualizing metaphors 42:14 What is fantasy really about? Beyond escapism 43:01 Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as meditation on the problem of evil 43:04 Evil and grace in Middle-earth 45:29 Morgoth, Sauron, and the continuation of evil 46:37 Guest recommendation: Stefano Carpani 47:19 Where to find Erik

  • S1 · E2
    Oct 3, 2025 · 1 hr 38 min

    CJ the X: Play, Pragmatism and Jordan Peterson

    https://cjthex.com/subscribe → subscribe to CJ's mailing list for all things CJ the X https://tinyurl.com/asdi708uo → buy tickets to CJ's show in San Francisco, CA on the 10th October I sat down with CJ the X recently to discuss the creative process, pragmatism, their recent world tour and later in the weird world of dreams. We also talk about the topic that first brought us together many moons ago: Jordan Peterson and CJ's year long deep dive into him that dragged him deeper into the philosophical quest. ⏳Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 01:39 - Reflections on CJ's Intercontinental Speaking Tour 05:56 - Wrestling with the need to be right 10:27 - Play, fear and the creative process 15:27 - Colonised by the algorithm 17:47 - Search for Signal 19:27 - Exploring the Balance of Routine and Passion 23:52 - Flywheel or Passion? 26:14 - CJ's journey from chaotic fun to serious philosophy 27:33 - CJ done with YouTube? 32:28 - CJ's Jordan Peterson video 36:28 - James's struggle with intellectual responsibility 40:43 - CJ on why passion has to be the guide 44:18 - Is CJ a Platonist or a Pragmatism 45:55 - CJ on the sacred and the profane 47:11 - James on holding knowledge lightly 48:39 - The Metaphysical Club 49:48 - The strands of pragmatism 50:34 - C.S. Peirce 51:18 - William James and Peirce's Relationship 53:44 - Pragmatism and Jordan Peterson 55:55 - What is Pragmatism? 57:17 - Pragmatism vs. Postmodernism 1:00:48 - Is Western civilisation the peak? 1:01:35 - Peterson's Pragmatic Christianity 1:04:19 - The dangers of high status 1:05:51 - CJ's lessons learned from speaking tour 1:11:28 - CJ's Anti-mimetic attitude 1:14:55 - James starting Jungian Masters 1:15:38 - James on Dreams 1:16:55 - CJ's troubled relationship with the dreamworld 1:19:32 - Dreams and creativity 1:24:40 - CJ on James's excessive curiosity 1:26:18 - CJ's read on James's alien dreams 1:27:36 - Connection between dreams and creativity 1:30:01 - James wants to study CJ's dreams 1:34:44 - Wrapping up 1:35:27 - CJ's Guest Recommendations

  • S1 · E1
    Sep 23, 2025 · 1 hr 10 min

    Gary Clark: 'Jung Was 100 Years Ahead!' How Psychedelics Are Proving the Collective Unconscious is Real

    "Jung was essentially an evolutionary theorist". These are the words of Gary Clark, a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide in Australia, who has written a book on the intersection of Jungian Analytical Psychology and evolutionary neuroscience. If you want to learn more about Gary you can check out his book "Carl Jung and the Evolutionary Sciences: A New Vision for Analytical Psychology" (and grab a free PDF of its intro) here. You can also dive into the rest of his work on academia.edu and ResearchGate. In this conversation, I sit down with Gary to explore the intersection of Jungian psychology and evolutionary neuroscience, examining how recent psychedelic research provides empirical validation for Jung's theories about the collective unconscious and archetypes. We discuss how modern neuroscience, particularly studies of primary and secondary consciousness systems, maps onto Jung's framework of ego consciousness versus deeper archetypal layers. The conversation covers the revolutionary potential of psychedelic research for studying previously inaccessible aspects of consciousness and Jung's prescient evolutionary approach to depth psychology. ⏳Timestamps 00:00 James's Intro 01:07 Opening and situating Gary's work 03:35 Affective Neuroscience and the Primary and Secondary layers of consciousness 09:00 Psychedelics, the numinous and evolutionary theory 22:17 Have we found the (neuroscientific) archetypes? 28:40 Psychedelics and the Collective Unconscious 34:53 Jordan Peterson's Jungian synthesis 36:57 Peterson gets chimpanzees and ancient humans wrong 46:01 Leaving Jung behind: Depth Psychology maturation as a science 58:50 Mapovers between Iain McGilchrist's work and Gary's 1:01:19 What Gary's working on now 1:07:32 Gary's guest recommendation: Erik Goodwyn

  • Jan 12, 2025 · 23 min

    Carl Jung Was Racist.

    This episode is an exploration of the allegations of racism against Jung and looks at some possible defences of Jung. Since Dalal published Jung: A Racist in 1988 there has been something of an open crisis in Jungian circles regarding the extent of the issue and what is to be done about it. This episode is about laying out the issue in as clear a way as possible. To learn more about the schism in the Jungian community see Samuels 2019 in the Further Reading section below. ____________________ 📚 References: - Hannah, B. (1976). Jung: His Life and His Work. New York: Putnam - Jung, C.G. (1909) Report on America. In The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 18. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. - Jung, C.G. (1927) Woman in Europe. In The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 10. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. - Jung, C.G. (1927a) Mind and Earth. In The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 10. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. - Jung, C.G. (1930) The Complications of American Psychology. In The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 10. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. - Jung, C.G. (1930) A Radio Talk in Munich. In The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 18. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. - Jung, C. G. (1935). The Tavistock lectures. In The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 18. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. - Jung, C. G. (1989). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York: Vintage Books. - Radin, P. (1927). Primitive Man as Philosopher. New York: D. Appleton and Company - Shamdasani, S. (2003). Jung and the making of modern psychology: The dream of a science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 📚 Further Reading: - Dalal F (1988) Jung: A Racist. British Journal of Psychotherapy 4(3): 263–279. - Collins J (2009) ‘Shadow Selves’: Jung, Africa and the Psyche. Interventions 11(1). Routledge: 69–80. - Brewster F (2013) Wheel of Fire: The African American Dreamer and Cultural Consciousness. Jung Journal 7(1): 70–87. - Brewster F (2017) African Americans and Jungian Psychology: Leaving the Shadows. London: Routledge. - Samuels A (2018) Jung and ‘Africans’: a critical and contemporary review of some of the issues. International Journal of Jungian Studies 10(2). Brill: 122–134. - Samuels A (2019) Notes on the Open Letter on Jung and ‘Africans’ published in the British Journal of Psychotherapy, November 2018. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society 24(2): 217–229. - Johnson, J. (2020) Being white, being Jungian: implications of Jung’s encounter with the ‘non-European’ other1. The Journal of analytical psychology 65(4). J Anal Psychol. - Carter C (2021) Time for space at the table: an African American - Native American analyst-in-training’s first-hand reflections. A call for the IAAP to publicly denounce (but not erase) the White supremacist writings of C.G. Jung. The Journal of analytical psychology 66(1). J Anal Psychol. ________________ ⭐ Support the channel (thank you!) ▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy ▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy _________________ 💬 More from The Living Philosophy ▶ Discord https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9 ▶ 📨 Subscribe with email: https://thelivingphilosophy.substack.com/ ________________ 🎼 Media Used: 1. Eye - Hara Noda 2. Five Leaves - Hara Noda 3. Anew - Hara Noda 4. Goodnight Mr. Malone - Bladverk Band 5. Mural - Hara Noda 6. Waltz for Maybe - Jonah Aardekke All music courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com _________________ ⌛ Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:13 Jung: A Racist 5:46 One African Race 8:53 Nature Over Nurture 11:31 Jung on African Americans 16:58 Defence 1: Primitive Compliment 19:21 Defence 2: Man of His Times 21:50 Implications

  • Dec 15, 2024 · 13 min

    Jung on Americans: the Illusion of Freedom

    Jung describes Americans as having an “astonishingly feeble resistance to collective influences” which he found “positively terrifying”. His 1931 article on the uniquely American psychology is filled with novel insights into American psychology: its herdlike nature, the Heroic Ideal driving it as well as showcasing some of Jung’s more unsavoury Shadow elements — his racism which we’ll talk more about in the next episode. ____________________ 📚 Further Reading: - Jung, C.G. 1931. The Complications of American Psychology ________________ ⭐ Support the channel (thank you!) ▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy ▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy _________________ 💬 More from The Living Philosophy ▶ 📨 Subscribe with email: https://thelivingphilosophy.com/ ________________ 🎼 Media Used: 1. Eliot Ness - Bladverk Band 2. Common Language - Venla 3. Dans Les Pensées - Franz Gordon 4. Here and Now - Bladverk Band All music courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com _________________ ⌛ Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 0:50 It’s Complicated 06:52 The Heroic Ideal 09:25 The Source of American Psychology

  • Nov 24, 2024 · 24 min

    Carl Jung’s Synchronicity: Meaningful Patterns in Life

    Synchronicity was coined by psychological pioneer Carl Jung. Its meaning is simple: a Synchronicity is a “meaningful coincidence”. But it seems that there has been a lot of misreading of Jung going on. In this episode we are going back to Jung’s original definition of Synchronicity in his 1952 work “Synchronicity: An Acausal Principle” to see what he really meant by the term. ____________________ 📚 Further Reading: - Atmanspacher, H. “The Pauli-Jung Conjecture and Its Impact Today” - Cambray, J., “Synchronicity as emergence” in “Analytical Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives in Jungian Analysis” - Cavalli, C. “Synchronicity and the emergence of meaning” - Jung, C.G. and Pauli, W., “The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche” - Jung, C.G. and Jaffé, E., “Memories, dreams, reflections” - Jung, C.G. “Letters of C. G. Jung vol.1” - Shinoda Bolen, J., “The Tao of Psychology” - Main, R., “Synchronicity and analysis: Jung and after” http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642530701725924 - Main, R., “Revelations of chance: synchronicity as spiritual experience” - von Franz, M. L., “On divination and synchronicity: the psychology of meaningful chance” ________________ ⭐ Support the channel (thank you!) ▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy ▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy _________________ 💬 More from The Living Philosophy ▶ Discord https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9 ▶ 📨 Subscribe with email: https://thelivingphilosophy.substack.com/ ________________ 🎼 Media Used: 1. A Garden Romance - Martin Landström 2. I May Have Lost Forever - Martin Landström 3. Paris in the Rain - Martin Landström 4. Moonlight Sparkle - William Claeson 5. Sea Smoke - Gustav Lundgren Trio 6. Make You Smile - Magnus Ringblom Quartet 7. Balance - Amaranth Cove 8. Silent Waves - Helmut Schenker 9. Monograph - Johannes Bornlöf All music courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com _________________ ⌛ Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 03:50 1. Temporal Alignment Component 06:46 2. Internal/External Component 10:37 3. Acausal Component 14:56 (concrete) synchronicity vs. (abstract) Synchronicity 18:38 Winks from the Universe?

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes