In this episode of the podcast I am speaking with Zurich trained Jungian Analyst and Author James Hollis. Amongst other things we talk about how he stumbled across Jung and some the main influences and turning points. The middle passage (and what can happen at mid-life), choosing growth over security, leading a larger life, confronting the shadow (and some of the gold in the shadow), what matters most and religion as mystery.
James Hollis was Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center in Houston, Texas for many years and Executive Director of the Jung Society of Washington (JSW) until 2019. He also worked as a Senior Training Analyst for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. He runs a private practice as a Jungian psychoanalyst and lives and works in Washington, D.C., with his wife Jill, an artist and retired therapist. He has written twenty books including The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Mid-Life (1993), Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves (2007), What Matters Most: Living a More Considered Life (2009) and Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times (2020).
"The shadow embodies all the life which has not been allowed expression. It embodies all lost sensitivity, which denied, breaks through in sentimentality. It represents our creativity, which abandoned, locks us into ennui and enervation. It embodies our spontaneity, which suppressed, routinizes and stultifies our lives. It represents a life force greater than our conscious personality has yet utilized, and its blocking leads to diminished vitality." James Hollis
Share this post