Carl Jung and Soul Psychology, 1st Edition
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earl Jung
and Soul Psychology
Karen Gibson
Donald Lathrop
E. Mark Stern
Editors
First published 1991
by The Haworth Press, Ine.
Published 2013 by Roulledge
2 Park Square, Millon Park, Abingdon,Oxon OX 14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
ROIllledge i.s an imprin/ ol/he Taylor &. Froneu Group, on inlormo business
('J 1991 by The Hawolth Press, Ine. AU righls tescrved. No part 01 tllis work may bc rcproduecd
or utiJi,Cd in . ny rom or
01 by .ny melns, electronic or m«hlnica.I, irKluding photocopying,
fcrordinB, or by any information storage Ind retrieval system, without pcrmission
microfilm and fcrordinl,
in writing frum thc publishcr.
Ubnl')' ot COIII""' Cltaloc!ll·la.PublkatM Data
VoicC!, ehe llfIand science of ps~hothcrapy.
psychothcrapy.
Carl Jung .nd soul psychology.
Originally pubtishcd: Voiets, tllc ar1 Ind scienec of ps~hotherapy.
Orilinally psychotherapy. Ameriean Academy of Psy.
eholhcr.pisls.
Bibtiography: p.
I. Psychoinalysis. 2. Psychothcrapy. 3. JunI,
Jung, C. G. (Cul 1875· 1961 . I. Stern, E.
(Carl Gumv), 1875·1961
Mlrk, 1929·
Milk,
BFI73.J776V65 1986
1.50.19'54 86-29497
J.56023.ooI-O
J-56023.ooI-O CIP
ISBN 978-1-560-23001-4 (Pbk)
CONTENTS
Foundations for a Soul Psychology, E. Mark Stern 2
Psychotherapy and Soul, Donald Lathrop 8
Soul Psychology: A Native Arnerican and Jungian Dance, Karen Gibson 16
But to the Vision Opposite in Space, Barbara Jo Brothers 23
Soul and Spirit, James Hillman 29
Comment, Donald Lathrop 35
When the Spirits Come Back, Janet Dallett 36
The Lumen Naturae: Soul of the Psychotherapeutic Relationship, Marilyn Nagy 55
WHAT 1F ... Religion and the Undiscovered Self, Paschal Baute 62
The Personal and Anonymous "I", Michael Eigen 64
Comment, DeldonAnne McNeely 70
Pathos and Soul-Making, Jean Houston 73
Creativity and the Healing of the Soul, Phillip McGowan 82
Soul-Loss and Restoration: A Stndy in Countertransference, John R. Haule 95
We the Alchemists of the Soul, Nan Wolcott 108
Toward a Freud-Jung Reconciliation: An Interview, Henry Elkin, E. Mark Stern 116
C. G. Jung and the Boston Psychopathologists, 1902-1912, Eugene Taylor 131
The Wandering Uterus: Dream and the Pathologized Image, Stanton Marlan 145
Stepping Out of the Great Code, J. Greg Mogenson 151
The Pelican and the Flamingo: A Therapist' s Dreams in the Process
of Self-Exploration, Luis Raul Rios-Garcia 161
A Vital Person in My Life and An Experience of Synchronicity, Meyer Rohtbart 169
The Incest Wound and the Marriage Archetype, Robert M. Stein 171
Comment, Donald Lathrop 188
Missed Appointment, Arthur L Rautman 189
E. Mark Stern Foundations for
Editor of VOICES
A Soul Psychology
E. Mark Stern, Ed.D., completed his
dinical studies at Columbia University
(19.H) and at thc Jnstitute of the National
Psychologieal Association for Psychoanaly-
sis. Besidcs his private praclice in psycho-
Iherapy and psychoanalysis, Or. Siern is
Professor in the Graduale Division of Pas-
toral Counselinll. lona College, New Ro-
ehelle, New Vork. and is on thc faeulty of
thc Amcrican Institute for Psychotherapy
and Psychoanalysis in New Vork City. Or.
Stern is a Diplomatc in Clinical Psychol-
OJY of thc Amcrican Board of Professional
PsycholDIY and Fellow cf thc Amcrican
Psycholo,ical Auocialion.
215 East Elevcnth Street
New Vork, New Vork 1000)
Our Scicncc is /rol/l Ilte .....alching 0/ shadows.
EzRA POUND
Camu LXXXV
Soul and Seil
The soul in psyehology? How best to claim a basis for its expression?
Is there a prescribcd design : one equipped to tap into sourees 01 tran-
seendence? And da these sourees lead into possibilities for truth and good
(Woj.yta, 1979)1
Hovcring at the eore of these enigmas is the ehallenge to exercise a
seillawareness of soul. This exercise arouses Ihe "conlcmplative emotions"
(after Aquinas) and sanctifics awe, wonder, and surprise-all emotions
which orient the seU toward meaning.
The taeit awareness of the seil rises out of personal integration and
through rewarking thc disorganizcd pursuils of Iife into dynamic unity.
Sueh unity indieates a significant relationship of seil and soul. Self, now
moving into an intimaey with meaning, draws attention to thc multifaceted
eapacities of soul. And it is soul that ultimately sanctifies the boundless
potential lor develaping pcrsonhood.
Soul as Unity
In its Platonic notion, psyche (soul), as weil as its Hehrew equi-
valent nephesh, represents "the transhistorie deplh of history" (Mac-
cel, 1960. p. 269). Symbolized hyalight within the darkness, soul is
sometimes experienced as ilIuminative eonseiousness. As seen in the por-
2
trayal of saints, halos emphasize soulful qualities of transcendence. The
aureole which appears to hover above the representations of saints rede-
fines thcir transcendent boundaries. It's as if the halo unites the holy
figure to that whieh is universal and etherie.
The etherie sensibilities are often eharaeterized by birds in flight.
Y ct even he re there is an interweaving eorrespondence between the nature
of matter and spirit. In thc biblical ereation aeeount, the aqueous tur-
bulenee is girdled by a erust of "firmament" (Genesis 1: 6). Eventually,
the spirit of creation is envisaged as a dove. In the romantie vision of
William Blake, the firmament beeomes the hazy eireumferenee of the ere-
ated universe, above and below whieh the soul quests on its dove-like
journey to a spiritual reaJity (Frye, 1947).
In eontemporary times quantum physies eontinues 10 relate and cor-
relate wave (aqueousnessjspirit) and partic1e (material ereation). And
while each is portrayed as homologous to the other, wave is, like the
dove, often characterized as transcending particle. In this same sense,
soul, although eontiguous with the whole person, does conjure up avision
of transeendenee. Wavejlightjhalo are figurative representations of soul,
though they are eoterminous with body!particJe and with them form the
complete person. In Freudian theory, the unconscious has the potential of
representing itself eonsciously. This developmental sequence suggests the
possibility ofindividuating (eonseiousness) the universal (uneonscious).
This realization of psychologie al unity, aecording to Andras Angyal
( 1941 ), ultimately involves Hethieal and aesthetie attitudes "as weil as
numerous forms of everyday behavior [that) seem to transeend the seope
of a strictly individualistic life, and [antieipate] a definite trend toward
superindividual goals" (p. 170).
As a dynamic Gestalt, such unity leads to an appreeiation of the
transcended superindividual whole even as its seemingly disparate ele-
ments form the hallmark of a workable order (Smuts, 1961). True unity
is, however, never merely a eollective sum of seattered parts. Soul is
transcendent and as sueh exists as an expression of personal and eollee-
live wholeness. In these terms the so-called soul of a nation suggests an
indefinable unity. For the individual, sueh unity provides an expanded
sense of existenee-one attained by wh at St. Thomas Aquinas might have
termed an absolute unknowingness of the absolute known. In this spirit
of the vital Gestalt, unity takes on a life of its own, erpressed and ani-
mated by the soul's mystery.
Soul as Vantage Point
The late mathematicianjphilosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1929)
noted that a single mind contains the stunning eapability of ente ring the
3
eore of creation. Mind is that repeating event that "mirrors within itself
the modes of the predecessors, as memories which are fused into its own
content ... ras weH as having] a future [that] mirrors within itself such
aspects [of that] ... future las are thrown] back on to the present" (p. 91).
For Whitehead, newly excited by Einstein's relativity theory, the single
moment stands as "subjective immediacy" unifying all disparity.
Carl Jung, through his own observations, commented on the mystery
of unifying self or soul in the inspirational art form known as the "man-
dala." As an enduring Tibetan art form, the mandala depicts the Buddha,
or Iocal saint with Buddha nature, inside of a circJe, yet separated into
multiples of four, each multiple in its own circJe portraying significant
compassionate events in the life of the Buddha figure. A square, either
contained in the circJe or surrounded by it, indicates the embracing unity
of the circJe. In Jungian thinking, mandala moves beyond transcendental
iOealism and through it to the realization of soul. Here soul is ultimate
Gestalt as it gradually surfaces as unity of individual ego and universal
compassion.
Related to the mandala experience is William James' (1890/1950)
use of the term, "stream." Strcam confirms the processive unity of self/
soul and creation/superindividuality. James himself "confessed" that while
there might weIl be a "rigorous answer to [the] question of the soul's con-
tinuity" or "its relation to ... other objects," it is "in the present world
[that] minds prccede, succeed, and coexist with each other in the common
receptacle of time, and in their coJlective relations" (pp. 199-200).
In practice soul transcends ego even as it mobilizes seil. Beyond feae
and apprehension of ego, soul remains the self's mode of expansion. As
the primary means of transcending ego, soul highlights creativity and
encourages superindividual engagement.
Despite its collective intention, soul personalizes, even as it inte-
grates the whole universe. Nevertheless, soul is integrative only as it pro-
vides expanded opportunities for individual choice. It is only through
personal preferencc that the individual is able to respond to the super-
individual. Soul provides a vehicJe for achieving personal integration as
it equates with communal wholeness. According to psychologist-theo-
logian Victor White (1952), cognition, in its sacred covenant with soul,
breaks "the shell of [the] small 'I' ... rand] forges an existential link ...
with God and the cosmos" (p. 249). Soul psychology exists to understand
this covenant.
Soul Psychology
Soul psychology seeks, among other things, to notatc wh at the in-
dividual experiences as ontological insecurity. It considers moments of
anxious insecurity as opportunities for the appreciation of unified fields.
4
Such fjelds have been posited as providing soul with "real meetings with
other realities" (Buber, 1957, p. 82). This participation with the mystery
of the Whole unites seemingly disparate experienees. In the light of soul
psychology personal history-the past, present, future-is united. Past is
thus redeemed and emancipated by the present. According to a common
French truism, on ne guerit pas on se souvenant, mais on se souvient en
guerissant (one does not heal by remembering but one remembers as the
outcome of healing). Each Iife event in its own time is radically responsive
to the timelessness of universal unconscious. Unity is thus recognized
despite ambivalencc. What has becn refcrred to as ambivalence is, accord-
ing to soul psychology, nothing more than partial vision or the ambiguous
Gestalt and as such constitutes the possibility of divinity.
earl Jung (1971, 1975) must be credited with the vision of a psychic
totality capable of bridging ambivalencc. To Jung (1975) the heartIand
of the psyche remains "divinely created nature" (p. 237), challenging the
self to engage the fullness of creation. For Jung, only as ego givcs way
can self expand and begin to know "that inasmuch as one is oneself one
is also the other" (p. 237). Segments of J ung's correspondence foeus on
the self's relationships to the bröadcr collective unconscious. "Individua-
tion," for Jung, is ··the process of becoming whole and holy." To Victor
White he writes of "the oneness of thc self [containing a] divine spark
within its inviolable precincts" (p. 242).
For Jung (1977), individuation, in order to be authentie, must ulti-
mately extend to the universal. In Jungian terms, the ancestral soul
reaches into the collcctive of humankind while the personal soul develops
an awareness of its individual mission. By way of archetypes, individua-
tion implies a steady incrcmental awarencss of thc superindividual.
Archetypes are particularizcd inclinations of an emcrging universal
consciousness. An appreciation of the archetypes remains foundational
to individuation inasmuch as they servc both individually and collectively
as bridges to soul.
Archetypes as Elemellls 0/ Balance
John Weir Perry (1970), a Jungian analyst and psychiatrist, found
that two or more archetypes often blend together as syndromes-struggles
in persons wrestling with the outer bounds of sanity. In this sense arche-
types emerge as opportunities for bringing order to balancing opposites.
Borderline and/or schizophrenie experiences are often sensitive to the
workings of archetypes since they are representations of a collective crea-
tive engagement. For the recovering schizophrenie, struggling with a
tenacious surreal view of Iife, the realization of archetypes often serves
as opportunity for confronting and assimilating a sense of universal
5
balance. According to Perry, assimilation of one or more archetypes in
the schizophrenie mayawaken some key healing experiences, such as:
Location at a world center;
death and afterlife;
areturn to the beginning of time;
a cosmic conflict or battle;
a threat from the opposite [sex] (Here I think of the embattlement
of anima struggling with the animus and viee versa);
a sacred marriage (Perbaps an integration of anima and animus);
a new birth or rebirth; and
a new society.
As nonlinear developmental phases, archetypic blendings appear to
act as an ensemble of forces contributing to the workings of the soul.
The Soul's Task
Certainly there can be no bidebound picture of personal develop-
ment. Nonetbeless, tbe integration of archetypes suggests unity and eon-
fluenee. Taking a lead from Perry's schema, no one, sane or insane, ean
be spared the obligation of transcending fragmentation. The unifying task
reaches into the deepest recesses of self. Authentie well-being is tbus
based on intimations of a universal ground oeal1 being. Once only seen
in sbadow, the archetypes eventually unite in the workings of the soul.
The unification of these arcbetypes remains both tbe mystery as weH as the
realization of transcendence and love.
Within tbe context of soul psycbology, .each personal struggle antici-
pates an assent to the purpose of existence. As a true psycbology of
transcendence, tbe content of soul psycbology ultimately underlies all
other polemies and dialectics. And as psychotherapy, soul psychology
fosters what Rollo May (1969) has termed the "communion of conscious-
ness" through which and in which "love and will ... are both present in
each genuine act ... [so that] we mold ourselves and our world simul-
taneously" (p. 325).
• • •
The essays in this volume seek to expound on the identity and unify-
ing work of soul psychology. Psychotherapy is profoundly indebted to
Carl Jung, who among others, discovered the mappings of soul psychol-
ogy. Doctors Donald Latbrop and Karen Gibson have met a monumental
cballenge in enlisting tbe scope of wisdom you are about to encounter
in these pages. The dedication of Doctors Gibson and Lathrop provides
us with a solid basis for an understanding of the foundations of soul
psychology .
6
REFERENCES
Angyal, A. (1941). Foundations /or a science 0/ personality. New York: Com·
monwealth Fund.
Buber, M. (1957). Eclipse 0/ God: Studies in the relation between religion and
philosophy. New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Frye, C. (1947). Fearful symmetry: A study 0/ William Blake. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
James, W. (1950). Principles 0/ psychology (Authorized Edition). New York:
Dover Publications. (Original work published 1890).
Jung, C. (1952). Forward. In V. White, God and the unconscious. London: Havill
Press.
Jung, C. (1971). PsyclJO/ogical types. The psychology 0/ individuation (H. G.
Baynes, Trans.). New York: Harcourt Brace.
Jung, C. (1975). Letters (G. Adler & A. Jaffe, Eds.; R. F. C. Wuld, Trans.), (Vol.
2). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jung, C. G. (1977). Jung speaking: Interviews and encounters (E. McGuire &
R. F. C. Hul1, Eds.). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Marcei, G. (1960). The mystery 0/ being. Chicago: Gateway Edition.
May, R. (1969). Love and will. New York: Norton.
Perry, J. W. (1970). Jung and analylical psychology. In C. P. Rosenbaum, The
meaning 0/ madness: Symptomatology, sociology, biology alld therapy 0/ the
schizophrenias, (pp. 250-258). New York: Science House.
Smuts, J. C. (1961). Holism and evolution. New York: Macmillan.
Whitehead, A. N. (1929). Process and reality. London: Cambridge University Press.
Wojtyla, K. (1979). The person: Subject and community. The Review 0/ Mela-
physics, 33(130), 273·308.
7
Donold Lalhrop Psychotherapy and Soul
Con \ul!i ncj "di to, lor Ihi s inue
My sours journey is largdy in th e under-
wor!d. Dante's In/f rllo is my fnvorite
travelogue. My daily work ilS a psy,ho-
Iherapist is an essential pan of my own
individuation process. ThaI is oße of the
times when I feel most whole, most corn-
plel e. Other a1;tivities thai lead 10 the
same fee ling are writing, m~king love, and
cut/ing wood . My essential self-\herapy
l001s are dreamwork. and keepißg a jour-
nal.
111 West Curling
Doise, l daho 83702
Soul psychotherapy is the applied seienec of soul psychology. Soul
psychology is the seienee of the soul. What is soul?
However wc currently define it, soul is back in the language of
eve rydayncss. No less cmJuring" a litcrary journal of Americana Ihan
Esquire magazine dcvotcd its June 1985 issue to thc subjcct "Thc Soul
of America " Sublit1cd, "Two ycars aga, Esquire went looking for the real
America; we found it." That is in bald print on the cover; Ihere is no
female body 10 grab the c)'c of the newsstand shoppcr, just large bJaek
pdnt on a whitc background . Lee Eisenbcrg's (1985) opening statement
describes their editorial proecss, whieh was suitably feminine (that is,
indirecl, intuitive, self-evolving) . Thc trucness of their eolleetive, Man-
hattan, high-rise, sliek-magazine-publisher brainstorming is rcvealcd by
their eonclusions:
A breakthrough came when we rcalizcd that we hadn't been
lalking about the difference llmong regions so much as Ihr very
n.rence of Ihe American iden/ir)'. That is, if there is such a thing as
the American charactcr, ils soul lies in the slIIn tOlal 0/ va/lies thaI
exis! distinctly in a multitudc of plaees. (p. 17) (halies mine)
Soul is essence, the sum total of values. lt is that quality wh ich is
quintesscntial for the whole. It is not quantitative. It has no geographical
location. It is not limited to living ent itics nor to objeets having material
substance. (For example, a group- which is solely amental construet
and has no objective existcnce-may havc a soul.) Soul is a quality, not
a property. Soul is a vibration of the bundlc of light of whieh all matter
consists. Soul i5 perccptible only by psyche. Soul alone pcrccives itself.
It is soul in us which interacts with soul in things, in situations, in ex-
pcricnees.
8
Psychology is the science of thc psyche. Soul psychology is one tiny
part of the whole, but its subject (soul) is the essence of the psyche. Soul
psychology is the study of the essence of the psyche, of the roots and
origins of all of our values, the dark as weil as the light, lunar as weil as
solar. The soul's journey is revealed in dreams and in deeds. It is the
paradox between what we believe ourselves to be (ego consciousness's
self-concept) and wh at we are in our essencc that engages the soul psycho-
therapist.
Soul psychology is depth psychology. Freud opened the door to the
scientific study of the soul. Sexuality is the language of the soul. Jung
took the next step, which was to penetrate the transpersonal re alm of
soul, the deepest layers of psyche where wc merge with body and the
material universe on one end and with spirit and the non-material on
the other end of the spectrum.
Soul is the creator. Soul psychology studies the creative process. It
is a modern outgrowth of alchemy, of the pre-science which plumbed the
depths in seareh of the seeret of creation. Soul psychology, like alchemy,
is a phenomenological method-one observcs and describes wh at iso One
describes without presuming to explain. Thc master remains aware that
what is observed and wh at observes are one, that it is through soul that
we perceive and relate to soul.
Soul psychology describes the effects of "invisible," non-material
forces on observable phenomena, a11 of which are ultimatcly the psyche
of the observer. Psyche is both observed and observes in a11 encounters
with soul. There is no possibility of "objective" (i.e., an external rela-
tionship betwecn soul and psyche) obscrvation, description, or measure-
ment.
This fact, of soul being a necessary "contaminant" of all studies of
soul, is the cause of all of the confusion, conflict, and contention about
the nature of soul. It was the alchemist who initiated the scientific study
of soul. We, like Jung, are the beneficiaries (perhaps even the results)
of those pioneering experiments into the very nature of essence. As our
science has become ever more literal, as our consciousness has become
ever more concretized and materialistic, the search for soul has become
more and more imperative.
Soul psychotherapy is an applied science of soul psychology. Psy-
chotherapy is the laboratory of the soul psyehologist. All soul psycholo-
gists are inevitably psychotherapists. Each treatment relationship is an
experiment in which "the method" is employed in the aUempted trans-
mutation of the base material of disease to the pure gold of enlightened
self-knowledge. It is in the experience of his or her own depth therapy /
analysis that the novice begins initiation. As was true of the alchemical
pre-figuration of soul psychology, countless students try 10 learn "the
9
method" by cookbook approaches. These counterfeit pseudo-adepts re-
flect one of the basic soul disorders of Americans-the belief in the
short-cut, the quick fix, effortless transformation.
I was initiated into soul psychotherapy by psychotic women on the
wards of New Orleans' Charity Hospital where I began my studies in
psychiatry. Many other soul psychotherapists have been led to this secret
cult by recognizing their schizophrenie patients as teachers, par excel-
lence, of depth psychology. Jung was one such person. He listened re-
spectfully to the lunatic ravings of his patients at Burgholzi. In time, he
discovered the basic structural elements of the psyche, the archetypes
(archaic + typicai), f~r those experiences.
It was while working with the chronic psychotics that Jung began his
word-association experiments. He noticed that people had delayed re-
sponse times as weIl as idiosyncratic responses to certain words in the
standard word-association-test list he was presenting. He inferred that
these specific words had stimulated an emotionally laden cluster of
thoughts, feelings, images in that individual. He named these clusters
complexes. Later, he identified the core around wh ich the complex had
accumulated as the archetype. Both the complex and its archetypal core
can be labeled by examining the stimulus word, the response words, and
the subject's associations and memories brought into consciousness by
the stimulus word. Thus, if anger elicits tear or hurt oe towering and if
these lead to father in that individual, we would recognize this as the
father complex and its core as the father archetype. Likewise, we find
the mother, brother, si ster, god, goddess, ego, soul, and so on. There
is no comprehensive list of the archetypes, nor can there be.
I find it helpful to imagine the archetypes as being analogous to
the genes-the protein molecues that make up the 96 human chromo-
somes. Tbe genes are finite but the possible combination of genes is in-
finite. So are the possible combinations of archetypes and complexes.
Archetypes are the "genes" of the psyche. They are the templates upon
which the individual form of the complex is built. Like genes, arche-
types reveal themselves by their effects. Unlike genes, they ean never be
"seen" directly. Archetypes manifest as images, in dreams, in fantasy.
in creative expression. They manifest as personality types and traits, as
neurotic symptoms, as physical illness, as personal myths (life-script), as
every aspect of existenee.
Psychological constructs, such as archetypes, complexes, self, ob-
ject relations, and others, are the essential tools of the psychotherapist.
They are the retorts, the containers, for our alchemical experiments. But
laboratory equipment does not make a scientist and eoncepts do not make
a therapist, a healer. Just hanging around crazy people, even living with
them as some pioneers of soul psychotherapy did, does not transform a
10
psychologist into a healer. There remains tbe issue of the therapist's own
soul and of its "redemption." Tbe crucible for that redemption is per-
sonal therapeutic analysis. I'm not referring to those sterilized de-souled
euphemisms of denial of one's own soul wound called "didactic" or
"training" analysis. I am certainly not talking about weekend oe week-
long or month-Iong oe year-Iong or life-Iong experiential groups. No sha-
man ever emerged from sitting around the campfire swapping clinical
tidbits with the other acolytes. Personal therapy of the therapist is the
beginning of the acknowledgment of the soul wound.
Soul psychotherapy is a contemporary shamanic form which has
arisen out of the loss of soul in the industrialized, urbanized, literalized,
materialized modern world. Psychology is the secular religion of this
world. Television is the church. Soul psycbology is a heretical, under-
ground, anti-establishment movement. Soul psychotherapists are witches,
warlocks, madmen and madwomen who have wrested something personal
from their apprenticeships (credentialing programs and personal therapy).
In earHer forms of civilization, the shaman (male or female) was
identified in childhood, sometimes at birth, often at the threshhold of
adolescence. He or she was, is, different, deformed in some special way
that sets hirn or her apart. Soul speaks through the wound, through our
differentness, our deformity. In our society, depth analysis/therapy is
one of the rituals of initiation into the shamanic path, the life that is ruled
by soul. That ollr lives are dedicated to, directed by, soul merely makes
us different, neither better nor worse. We do have a sacred trust, a
responsibility, but so do the rest. For alJ of us, the ultimate command-
ment is "To thine own soul be true." There is not a day of clinical work
that passes in which our trueness is not tested.
My own recognition of the true nature of my work as a psycho-
therapist came through via a characteristically mundane development.
When I moved my family to California in 1970, my first marriage was in
a black nigredo state. We moved from New Orleans, birthplace of Ameri-
ca's soul music-jazz-to Los Angeles, birthplace of the soul-Iess images
that carry America's dominant religion-movies, TV. Ego psychology and
behaviorism, both soul-Iess systems, were ascendant. Fritz Perls and Erlc
Berne had given birth to Werner Erhard who had, in turn, taught people
to know they were alive by experiencing the sensation of a fuH bladderl
In the midst of my personal journey and within this socia! retort, I
found myself in a new land, aland of (among other things) personalized
license plates. Of course, an the good ones had been taken-"SHRINK,"
"THERAPY," "PSYCH." There was no competition for the label that
came to me as I struggled with who I wasjam-"SOUL DR." I bave been
soul doctor ever since.
11
It is the soul that "does" the psychotherapy just as it is the soul that
is "therapized." The life of the soul psychotherapist is directed by, lived
by, if you will, his or her soul. There is an intimate, personal, love/hate
relationship between the ego and the soul of the soul psychotherapist.
This is not romantic love. This is the love that comes With knowing, with
years of living together in the same body, of communicating through the
same mind.
Is soul inherently "good" and thus the practitioner of the soul's
medicine anointed by benevolence? Need J ask?
Evil has its soul and soul has its own morality, the morality of na-
ture. Indeed, it is the dark side of the soul that occupies the psychothera-
pist. No one secks help other than from concern with the dark side.
Hades is the god of soul psychotherapy.
"How do you do, Peter. I'm Don Lathrop." Jusher this 43-year-
old, well-dressed, pleasant man into my living-room-style office. "Have a
seat." He sits tentativelyon the end of the long sofa opposite the wing-
back chair I usually occupy. My consulting room is smaJl, weH lit by
three large windows in the heavy stone walls of the corner of this turn-
of-the-century building. It is decorated in warm earthtone colors accented
by blue-grey trim. This place once served as quarters for the staff of the
orphanage, the neighboring large stone building on Warm Springs Avenue
which is now a children's treatment dinic.
"Tell me your situation, Peter. I don't know anything about you
other than that you got my 'name out of the phone book and called to
make an appointment." The man sitting opposite me fidgets momentarily,
sits forward on the soft cushioned couch, c1ears his throat, looks straight
at me and says, "I molested my daughter. I ne~d help."
Did he catch that immediately inhibited blink of my eyes? Maybe
he didn't, but his soul did. He's looking right at me, reading my instinc-
tive response to his opening statement.
"Tell me about it." 1 take a quick sip from my coffee mug, arrange
. the manila folder and note paper on my lap. My pen is poised to write,
to give me something 10 do while Ihis stranger and I decide whether to
let each other into our Jives.
Fear, revulsion, disgust, self-pity, anger, uncertainty sweep over me
as Peter teils his story. It's a familiar story to me; but it is his story,
his suffering, to hirn. There is no way I can protect myself from feeling
this man's pa in by putting his words through the "clinical" part of my
mind. Psychologie al concepts help me to eontain my own anxiety, my
own pain, my own awakened eomplexes.
"I don't know why I did it. I knew it was wrong! I told myself I
was 'teaching' her, that I was showing her how to enjoy her body." No
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