Fundamentalism, Terrorism, and Mindlessness: The Shadow of Thinking
Following our series of authors speaking on their chapters from the book Jung’s Shadow Concept, Malcolm Rushton will speak on “Fundamentalism, Terrorism and Mindlessness : The Shadow of Thinking”. He will explore how the concept of a love and power axis is applied to clinical practice as well as to large groups and nations.
This talk is open to the wider bpf membership and analysts, psychotherapists, and trainees from other organisations.
Date:26/09/2024 Time: 8:00am-9:00am Venue: Online via Zoom
Event Details
Description
In my chapter in “Jung’s Shadow Concept – Fundamentalism, Terrorism and Mindlessness: The Shadow of Thinking”, I explore the way that all of our patients are exposed to a “power axis” of relating in early life, and how a “love axis” becomes like an “atrophied muscle” which struggles to play its part in life. Patients who come to see us are searching for that muscle without really knowing what they are searching for. They bring the two tools they have been given by their families – abandonment and impingement – to analyse us, and to see if we know the secret, and can bring that unknown missing “love” dimension out of the “Shadow” and help them to better live their lives.
In the world, in groups and nations, there is evidence of this same search that we find in the consulting room, but the larger the group, the more the power Axis, marked out by “Fundamentalism, Terrorism and Mindlessness”, holds sway, and the harder it is to introduce that elusive “love axis” and indeed “thinking” in the face of powerful group processes. I would like to explore this theme, both in the consulting room and the wider world's struggles.
About the Speaker
Malcom Rushton is a training analyst at the Society of Analytical Psychology and works full-time as an analyst in private practice. He has an interest in shamanism which is expressed in a wide – ranging collection of ancient art. These objects often play a significant part in his analytic work.