An exploration of high intensity mental states as found in the psychiatric emergency room, in everyday life, in psychotherapy and in spiritual practice.
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.
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:
Acknowledgments
Preface
Upstairs and Downstairs
Mapping the 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 and Basilides
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 Countertransference
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
Narcissism and Psychic Retreats
Residues of the Infantile
Ego Inflation
13. Into the Darkness
The Shadow
Gary on the Neurology Ward
Collective Shadow – The Heart of Darkness
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
15. Ego Death and the Midlife Crisis
The Challenge of Mid Life
Stefan and the Sami
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 Intelligence
Hysteria and Dissociative States
The Neptune Archetype
Pitfalls and Side Effects
Kansas Transformed
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Tim Read is a medical doctor, psychiatrist and psychotherapist based in London. He was Consultant Psychiatrist at the Royal London Hospital for 20 years leading the Emergency Liaison service and the Crisis Intervention Service. He has trained in psychoanalytic therapy (IGA) and in transpersonal therapy (GTT). He is a certified facilitator of Holotropic Breathwork and has a special interest in working with expanded states of consciousness. His book Walking Shadows: Archetype and Psyche in Crisis and Growth was published in 2015.
