I will be giving an online session for the Kent Psychotherapy Network (KPN), on 29th January 2022, 10:30am to noon GMT. It is open to anyone for £10 (KPN’s fee) and will not be recorded, due to using copyrighted material (under ‘fair use’ rules).
Continue reading
I’m pleased to announce that Routledge have started production of my book, which will be released on November 12th, 2018. The book is a re-examination of Psychological Types, in view of Jung’s complaints that most readers misunderstood it. There has been a significant divergence between the central message of Psychological Types and its popular interpretation.
The book is going to be controversial, both for users of Myers-Briggs typology and Jungian theory, though for different reasons. It challenges many of the assumptions that have long been held by users of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and similar instruments. To communicate Jung’s ideas clearly, it simplifies them.
The list price of the book is £26.99 but there is a discount code you can use to reduce the price of advance orders by 20% to £21.59. You can find more details of the book, and how to order your advance copy with the discount, below.
Help wanted!
For the past few years, I have been pursuing some PhD research into the relationship between personality and mythology. The overall aim is to find ways of promoting religious tolerance. It is based on Jung’s analytical psychology and is now in the final stretch.
I would appreciate your help by completing four online questionnaires, which will take about 30 minutes in total. When you have finished, there will be a report in the form of a PDF file, or Ebook, or you can read the results online. There is more information about the research on the page that introduces the questionnaires, at https://research.myers.co. Thank you, in advance.
If you have any questions or comments, please use my contact page (above).
In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins argues that God (probably) does not exist, and he associates belief in God with the childhood practice of having an “imaginary friend” (Dawkins 2006, p. 88). He advocates, as an alternative to belief in God, using science and evidence to develop useful models that replicate how the world works.
Although his argument has some validity, it is underpinned by a Western cultural premise that something is either real/exists or imaginary/unreal. This is a false dichotomy, created by the tendency in the modern Western mind to think in terms of simple opposites (Corbin 1972, p. 1). Imagination and reality are not alternatives, but imagination helps to create reality. This can be illustrated with three practical examples.
Illustration 1: Optical Illusion
In the picture above/right (published by Edward Adelson on a Wikipedia page), squares A and B are opposite colours – one is black the other is white. Can you see how this reality is created by your imagination?
A Jew and a Hindu had very different views when debating the meaning of the Swastika on BBC’s Sunday Morning Live (3rd Nov 2013). As part of Diwali week (a Hindu festival) the BBC asked David Schneider and Kiran Bali to debate the question: “Can the Swastika be reclaimed as a symbol of peace?”
The BBC followed this up with a half-hour programme: The Story of the Swastika. The two programmes illustrate some of the fundamental differences between how people think differently in the West and East, and how problems of conflict can be overcome from the perspective of analytical psychology.
Myers-Briggs typology vs Jungian individuation
‘Steve Myers unravels the century-long misinterpretation of Jung's seminal text, Psychological Types, to show how Jung's thinking offers solutions to
the conflicts that have torn apart our societies.’ (Routledge)
Use code FLR40 at
checkout
for a 20% discount