The Vertical Labyrinth: Individuation in Jungian Psychology

Peter Strathy is Vice-President Planning, Doctors’ Hospital, Toronto.

Inner City Books was founded in 1980 to promote the understanding and practical application of the work of C.G. Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst whose writings and theoretical constructs have received universal acclaim. The author is a Jungian analyst, a professor in the theory of personality at the University of Rome, and the author of many articles and books.

The work is devoted to an explanation in Jungian terms of the process of individuation on human psychological development. The realization of one’s human potential is a slow and painful process that often parallels the historical evolution of consciousness. Jungian interpretations of the human condition assent that the struggle to grow and express oneself is rarely a process of conflict with external forces; what is essential rather is the resolution of complex and often irrational inner conflicts. The search for inner strength, purpose, and self-esteem is complex and profoundly individual and unique for each man.

The author illustrates his thesis with descriptions of significant dreams and their mythological amplifications taken from the case record of his six-year psychoanalytic treatment of a highly successful but deeply unhappy artist. He also includes excerpts from his own training analysis and relevant quotes from the writings of Jung and his colleague Erich Neumann. The interpretation of dream images together with their universal mythological meanings is central to an understanding of the human psyche. The book contains profound observations and comments on the quality and power of the relationship between therapist and patient. The therapeutic process, to be effective, must reopen and reactivate emotional wounds in the therapist, as well as the patient, forcing the therapist to confront his own deep inner dimensions with self-understanding and acceptance. Any freedom gained by the patient is linked closely to the analyst’s own capacity to be a free individual. The achievement of self-esteem is based in part on the ability to contact, understand, and use the deep irrational drives and contradictions of our own individual life force. The moral integrity of the analyst is a necessary precondition of a healing process in the patient.

The author’s insights will be of great value to therapists and “teachers” from any theoretical orientation or “school.” Difficult concepts are expressed in clear and precise language and organized in a logical progression. Useful explanatory notes and a glossary of Jungian terms are included.

Interest in this scholarly work will be confined to those engaged in the healing professions, to philosophers and psychologists, and to those academics interested in psychoanalytic interpretations of human experience. Large specialized university collections and medical libraries will also be purchasers.