Walking Shadows: Archetype and Psyche in Crisis and Growth(Muswell Hill Press)

There are certain unusual mental states that have such an extraordinary intensity, that they are numinous; they involve the presence of an archetype. These states can be beautiful or utterly terrifying, they can predispose to illness but if carefully negotiated they carry enormous potential for accelerated development. This book is about these high intensity mental states as found in the psychiatric emergency room, in everyday life, in psychotherapy and in spiritual practice. How can we understand this archetypal layer of psyche and how can we work with its power to promote psycho spiritual growth? The author weaves the archetypal perspective into the psychoanalytic and medical models of mind to show us how the different layers of the individual and collective psyche intertwine to give us our rich experience of being human. Using everyday language and using case studies from clinical work in psychiatry and psychotherapy, the author takes the reader on a journey from: Breakdown to breakthrough Plato's cave to Jung's archetypal crisis Genetics to transpersonal psychology Hearing voices to post traumatic stress disorder Psychoanalysis to psychedelics The mid life crisis to the encounter with death Quantum physics to synchronicity Shakespeare to shamanism Transcendent nature to mindfulness

Table of Contents:
Preface Upstairs and Downstairs; Mapping and Psyche; Section 1. Intense States of Meaning 1. Visiting Heaven and Hell Adam's Visit to Hell; Brief Psychotic Episode?; Martin's Visit to Heaven; Through the Filmiest of Screens; The Psyche as a Sense Organ; An Overplus of Meaning; 2. Is There an Underlying Reality? Plato's Search for Truth; Plato's Cave; Ascent and Return; Plato's Archetypes; Enlightenment and Endarkenment Archetypal Crisis; 3. Jung's Archetypal Voyage Carl's Story; Jung's Crisis The Descent into the Unconscious; Philemon; Septem Sermones; Set Setting and Integration; So What Was the Matter with Jung? 4. Archetypal Crises Ruth's Story; Managing Turbulence; Charles and the Disappearing Dot; Seeking Shiva; 5. Archetypal Penetrance The Bio Psycho Social Archetypal (BPSA) Model of Psyche; Martial Risings; High Archetypal Penetrance (HAP) States; Luisa and the Dog Mess; Low Archetypal Penetrance (LAP) States; 6. Synchronicity Sally's Story; Encounter with the Numinous; Synchronicity; Last Day at the Royal London; 7. A Meaning Filled Mind Field Mind or Machine; David Bohm and the Implicate Order; Meaning and the Evolution of Consciousness; Transmissive Mind; Models and Beliefs Systems; 8. Transcendent Nature The Heath; Heavenly Gardens; Scafell Pike and the Dissolving Map; The Forest of Arden; Section 2. Self, Shadow and Us 9. Crisis - Danger and Opportunity. The Disillusioned Psychiatrist; Crisis and Suicidal Thought; Dan's Darkest Night; Working with the Mindset; Transference and Counter Transference; Delusional Mood; 10. Breaking Down or Breaking Through? Archetypal Crisis or Mental Illness? The Importance of Good Diagnosis; Fundamentalism; Kundalini; Bipolar Disorder; Spiritual Emergency; Mixed States - Marion's Story; 11. The Journey to the Self The Grail Within; Atman or Self; Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey; Jack and his Magic Beans; Milky White; The Fool; 12. Icarus and Narcissus Simon and the Madonna; Luke Meets his Mother Again; Max the Seeker; The Myth of Narcissus; Psychic Retreats; Residues of the Infantile; Ego Inflation; 13. Into the Darkness The Shadow; Gary on the Neurology Ward; Collective Shadow; Abused Children; The Problem of Evil; Hearing Voices; The Bad Trip; The Golden Boy; Nigredo States; Jumpers, Hangers and Stabbers; 14. The Numinous Feminine The Death of a Princess; Anorexia Nervosa; The Shadow of the Feminine; Anorexia and Sainthood; Ana Cool; The Anima; Rediscovering the Global Feminine; 15. Ego Death and the Midlife Crisis The Challenge of Mid Life; Stefan and the Sami; Ordinary Awakenings; The Archetypes of the Chakra System; Heart Opening; Egolescence; Transformation in O; 16. Pain and the Perinatal Police Officer Sandy and the Moment of Impact; Pain in the Brain; Enter Stanislav Grof; The Perinatal Layer of Psyche; Sandy Remoulded; The Tumultuous Struggle to be Born; The COEX; 17. Matters of Heart Lady NHS; Raymond's Last Rampage; Unkindness; Intelligent Kindness; The Saturn Archetype; Section 3. Working with the Numinous. 18. Encounter with Death Dying Mindfully; Children who Remember Previous Lives; The Ascent of the Dragonfly; Archetypes of Near Death; Philippa's Story; The Crystal Bowl; 19. Mindfulness and the Empathic Observer Meditation and the Chattering Mind; Mindfulness Practice; Mindfulness in the Emergency Room; Yoga and the House of Many Rooms; Darkness Retreat; Living Mindfully; 20. The Way of the Imagination Beyond the Personal Psyche; Stalingrad with Woolger; Cispersonal Psyche; Active Imagination; The Pink Spider; Shamanic Journeying; Monroe and Hemi-Sync; Confusion of Levels; 21. Psychedelics - Gateway to the Numinous Eleusinian Mysteries; Psychedelic - Archaidelic; Venus in a Tablet; Sacred Medicine; Therapy of Substance; Integration; Ayahuasca Retreat; 22. Breathing Esalen and the Transpersonal Movement; The Holotropic Breathwork Retreat; An Inner Healing Intelligence; Hysteria and Dissociative States; The Neptune Archetype; Pitfalls and Side Effects; Kansas Transformed;

About the Author :
Dr Tim Read has degrees in neuroscience and in medicine. He is a psychiatrist who has trained in psychoanalytical and transpersonal psychotherapy and worked for 20 years with psychiatric emergencies at the Royal London Hospital in the UK.

Review :
Breakdown to breakthrough *