Confrontation with the Unconscious: Jungian Depth Psychology and Psychedelic Experience(Muswell Hill Press)

Carl Gustav Jung pioneered the transformative potential of the deep unconscious. Psychedelic substances provide direct and powerful access to this inner world. How, then, might Jungian psychology help us to better understand the nature of psychedelic experiences? And how might psychedelics assist the movement toward psychological transformation described by Jung? Jungian depth psychology and psychedelic psychotherapy are both concerned with coming to terms with unconscious drives, complexes, and symbolic images. Unaware of significant evidence for the safe clinical use of psychedelic drugs, Jung himself remained wary of psychedelics and staunchly opposed their therapeutic use. His bias has prevented Jungians from objectively considering the benefits as well as the risks of using psychedelics for psychological healing and growth. Confrontation with the Unconscious intertwines psychedelic research, personal accounts of psychedelic experiences, and C. G. Jung's work on trauma, the shadow, psychosis, and psychospiritual transformation - including Jung's own "confrontation with the unconscious" - to show the relevance of Jung's penetrating insights to the work of Stanislav Grof, Ann Shulgin, Ronald Sandison, Margot Cutner, among other psychedelic and transpersonal researchers, and to demonstrate the great value of Jung's penetrating insights for understanding difficult psychedelic experiences and promoting safe and effective psychedelic exploration and psychotherapy.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments Part 1. Encountering the Unconscious 1. Jung's Confrontation with the Unconscious and its Relation to Psychedelic Experience Psychedelic Research and Theory: a Brief History Jung, Jungians, and Psychedelic Experience 2. Psychedelic Psychotherapy Psycholytic and Psychedelic Models Schools of Psychedelic Psychotherapy An Early Jungian Approach to Psychedelic Psychotherapy 3. Basic Jungian Concepts and Principles Consciousness and the Unconscious The Relationship Between Consciousness and the Unconscious Individuation Archetypes and Their Manifestation in the Psyche Dreams and Other Symbolic Products of the Unconscious 4. Jung's Explanation of Psychedelic Experience A Lowering of the Threshold of Consciousness the Limits of Integration Ronald Sandison's Response to Jung's Criticism Part 2. Jungian Insights Into Difficult Psychedelic Experiences 5. Psychedelic Experience and Trauma Difficult Psychedelic Experiences as Potentially Traumatic Psychedelic-Induced Trauma The Relation of Trauma in Jungian Psychology to Psychedelic Experience Kalsched's Model of the Psyche's Archetypal Self-Care System Trauma and Dissociation in Jung's Psychology Trauma an d Jung's theory of the Complex Possession by Complexes in Relation the Archaic Psychological Defenses The Emergence of Trauma-Based Imagery in Psychedelic Experience 6. Psychedelic Experience and the Shadow The Shadow in Jung's Psychology Personal and Archetypal Levels of the Shadow The Overwhelmingly Numinous Nature of the Archetypal Psyche Resistance to and Projection of the Shadow The Shadow in Psychedelic Experience 7. Psychedelic Experience and Psychosis Psychosis and Psychotic States Psychedelics as Psychosis-Inducing Substances From the Psychotomimetic to the Psychedelic Paradigm The Psychotomimetic Paradigm Reconsidered Transpersonal Explanations of Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States Accounts of Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States 8. Psychosis in Jung's Psychology Jung's Focus on Schizophrenic Forms of Psychosis Commonalities Between Schizophrenia and Other Conditions Neurosis, Latent Psychosis, and Manifest Psychosis Reduced Consciousness and Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States Accounts of Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States 9. Psychedelic Experience and Transformation The Transformative Potential of Psychedelic Experiences The Transformative Potential of Psychotic States The Transformative Potential of Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States 10. A Jungian Approach to the Transformative Potential of Difficult Psychedelic Experiences Jung on the Healing Potential of Psychotic Experiences The Painful Passage Through the Shadow Towards Wholeness Treating Trauma: Integration Versus Abreaction in Jung's Psychology Jung's Definitions of Trauma and Abreaction Grof's View of Abreaction Jung's Critique of Abreaction Drawing from Both Grof and Jung The Transformative Potential of Psychedelic Psychotherapy: Two Case Studies Dr. Rick Strassman's Report Dr. Margot Cutner's Report Part 3. Jung's Psychology and Psychedelic Psychotherapy 11. The Transcendent Function: Jung's Approach to Integration 12. Jungian Psychotherapy The Method and Purpose Gaining Access Coming to Terms With the Unconscious The Relationship Between Analyst and Patient The Analyst The Dialectical Relationship The Transference Dreams and Their Interpretation The Sphere of the Irrational The Purpose of Value of Dreams The Compensating Function of Dreams 13. Implications for Psychedelic Psychotherapy Subject Readiness The Therapist and the Dialectical Relationship The Compensating Function The Significance of the Collective Unconscious Integration and the Role of Ego-Consciousness Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Scott J. Hill, Ph. D., lives in Sweden, where he conducts scholarly research on the intersection between psychedelic studies and Jungian psychology. He holds degrees in psychology from the University of Minnesota and in philosophy and religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Review :
"Scott Hill's brilliant book presents a sophisticated analysis of how psychedelic experiences may be understood from the standpoint of Jung's archetypal psychology."- Ralph Metzner, author of The Unfolding Self "A perceptive and creative interface between the thought of Carl Jung and contemporary psychedelic research, now in its rebirth, by a scholar who skilfully articulates a profound comprehension of both realms of knowledge." - William A. Richards, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine "The Jungian insights Dr. Hill provides here are invaluable for clinicians working with acute psychedelic crises and the integration of difficult psychedelic experiences. They also shed light on the robust archetypal dynamics of all psychological transformation." - David Lukoff, Co-President of the Association of Transpersonal Psychology br>"A landmark study ... timely, impeccably researched, and wisely conceived." - Sean Kelly, author of Individuation and the Absolute: Hegel, Jung, and the Path Toward Wholeness