cpuusage: history and experiences

[cpuusage]

31 minutes ago, manymoretodays said:

Hi cpu,

I'm working through the Jung and Quantum physics article from your Finding Meaning link.......now......or still. 

I copied it off so I could give it a good read and absorption.  It's only 20 pages or so......yet I often have to/want to look up some of the word definitions, and just kind of sit with some of it. 

Thank you so much for the share/link.

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

mmt

 

Thank you. Glad that you got something from it. Hope all as well as can be, X

[cpuusage]

33 minutes ago, manymoretodays said:

Hi cpu,

I'm working through the Jung and Quantum physics article from your Finding Meaning link.......now......or still. 

I copied it off so I could give it a good read and absorption.  It's only 20 pages or so......yet I often have to/want to look up some of the word definitions, and just kind of sit with some of it. 

Thank you so much for the share/link.

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

mmt

 

There was this on madness radio recently -

 

Jungian Therapy for Psychosis | George Mecouch | Madness Radio

www.madnessradio.net/jungian-therapy-for-psychosis-george-mecouch-madness-radio/

"Has modern psychiatry lost its soul? How can dreams, storytelling, and imagination help people in emotional crisis – including psychosis and madness? What lessons can we learn from shamanism, the placebo effect, and the importance of the doctor’s “bedside manner’? George Mecouch MD, psychiatrist, Jungian therapist, and author of While Psychiatry Slept: Reawakening the Imagination in Therapy, discusses how to recover the lost art of healing in an era dominated by technology."

 

[manymoretodays]

It's weird cpu.  I can hear the madnessradio narrator as I'm reading the quote.  I will most certainly have a listen.

Many thanks.  I think I cured an infant of it's constipation last night.    Oh.....maybe.......it sure was fun holding the little fellow though.

[Shep]

 

On 11/9/2018 at 9:06 AM, cpuusage said:

For the past 10 years i have spent on average 70 hours per week without a break doing as best i can to support my mum & bro. It has been incredibly difficult, stressful & challenging circumstances. As well as that trying to maintain a degree of stability & independent living. 

 

22 hours ago, cpuusage said:

There is No help / support. 

 

CPU, there are many groups in your area in Bournemouth. Please have a look:

 

Bournemouth Carer Groups

 

23 hours ago, cpuusage said:

i have till Wednesday to decide what to present to the GP / my Doc. My brother has written the Doc a letter about my continuing deterioration & level of unwellness. 

 

This isn't living or functioning on any kind of more human level. 

 

You need help in caring for your family members, as well as yourself. For the sake of your entire family,  go ahead and reach out the the Carer Groups and go to one of the drop-in meetings.

 

With deteriorating health, you can't be expected to continue helping others for, as you write, "70 hours per week without a break". That's more than someone without health issues could do. And there's no reason to. 

 

23 hours ago, cpuusage said:

Yes i know all these areas / movements / people - none of it's changing the realities of this society / culture / system / 'civilisation'. 

 

The Carers Groups type of meetings are the kinds of movements that change the realities of society. One group and one person at a time. 

 

I think you'll be surprised at the generosity of these kinds of care groups. These are people who go out of their way to take care of their loved ones, so these are the kinds of people to surround yourself with. 

[cpuusage]

2 hours ago, Shep said:

 

 

 

CPU, there are many groups in your area in Bournemouth. Please have a look:

 

Bournemouth Carer Groups

 

 

You need help in caring for your family members, as well as yourself. For the sake of your entire family,  go ahead and reach out the the Carer Groups and go to one of the drop-in meetings.

 

With deteriorating health, you can't be expected to continue helping others for, as you write, "70 hours per week without a break". That's more than someone without health issues could do. And there's no reason to. 

 

 

The Carers Groups type of meetings are the kinds of movements that change the realities of society. One group and one person at a time. 

 

I think you'll be surprised at the generosity of these kinds of care groups. These are people who go out of their way to take care of their loved ones, so these are the kinds of people to surround yourself with. 

Thanks - i have tried loads of groups & organisations in the past, There is no practical support available. i don't do groups any more, & have got more & more misanthropic. 

 

You would not believe what some of the actual realities of my life have been & some of what has gone on. A lot of it i can't discuss. 

 

Am seeing the GP tomorrow, i think that he will increase the medication.  

 

[cpuusage]

Had the GP app - took in a letter from my brother, a letter that i had written, & some notes. He immediately wants to increase the medication to 400mg Amisulpride. Need to go for a blood test, pick up the prescription tomorrow, will start the increased dose tonight, & the GP wants my bro to monitor me for a month & then see him again in another months time. The GP acknowledged that i also have complex PTSD. 

 

As i originally posted, i don't know what other options there are currently, there are none. We're not in some more ideal world / system. i have never had & can't access more in the way of appropriate psychological / social understanding, help & support. Not my fault that i have this illness / condition, am in the circumstances that i am in, have been / am treated as i am, & to be who / as i am. i tried with all the groups, self help, books, alternative healers & on-line chat rooms, & it has Not worked. A few people have been kind on-line, but there has also been a hell of a lot of abuse, personal verbal attack & bullying, & also a lot of endless conflicting & unhelpful advice & opinions.  i am sick of humans & this society / 'civilisation'. 

 

i can't take on board all the anti / critical / alternative psychiatry / medication stuff in the same way, & yes there are aspects of truth in it all, but there is also just as much rubbish with it all as there is with psychiatry. 17 years of trying within all the alternative areas, & there has been as much crap with it all as there has been with the medical system, if Not a lot more crap.  The problems & abuse from all the anti / critical / alternative / survivor / peer psychiatry / medication areas have on balance in certain ways been worse. 

 

i know all the arguments / areas with it all, & am sick of hearing it all. i have a long term no fault severe illness / schizophrenia, that i need the medication for, to treat. Yes access to wonderful treatment would be great, but i've Not had & don't have it, & i have never been & am not in affluent circumstances, life has been & is as much about survival as anything else. Some warped emphasis on right wing neoliberal capitalist 'new age' self help / personal responsibility cure yourself notions / beliefs, frankly i think is complete & utter bullsh*t.  

If i am Not suited to this forum, as i'm Not really suited to anywhere, i will leave again, no problem. 

 

 

[manymoretodays]

Just a thought cpu.......would you consider going up on your dose by less than a whole hundred milligrams? 

Like say......trying to do a dosage of 325 mg or 350 mg and giving it a bit, to see if you feel a little better?

 

In any case cpuusage, stay safe okay?  Take really good care of yourself now......the best that you can muster.  And do keep us updated, okay.

 

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

mmt

[cpuusage]

26 minutes ago, manymoretodays said:

Just a thought cpu.......would you consider going up on your dose by less than a whole hundred milligrams? 

Like say......trying to do a dosage of 325 mg or 350 mg and giving it a bit, to see if you feel a little better?

 

In any case cpuusage, stay safe okay?  Take really good care of yourself now......the best that you can muster.  And do keep us updated, okay.

 

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

mmt

 

Thanks, but i think it's better to take the medical advice & i can't continue with this level of symptoms. i'm screwed anyway, especially when universal credit & Brexit comes in next year, i won't be able to maintain the flat. i don't know how long the situation will continue for with my mum's illness, & her death is going to cause a lot of challenges as well. There's not going to be any change in getting any proper help & support, so what does it all matter. The global eco system is fucked, this 'civilisation' is fucked. i am tired of fighting it all, & it's pointless to.   

[cpuusage]

1 hour ago, manymoretodays said:

Just a thought cpu.......would you consider going up on your dose by less than a whole hundred milligrams? 

Like say......trying to do a dosage of 325 mg or 350 mg and giving it a bit, to see if you feel a little better?

 

In any case cpuusage, stay safe okay?  Take really good care of yourself now......the best that you can muster.  And do keep us updated, okay.

 

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

mmt

 

i have spoken to a few people who know me better & they think it's better to increase the medication to 400mg. 

 

i can't go on tearing myself up over all this & all the different ideological arguments. i take a fully integral / holistic / differential view on it all, that doesn't align with many other people, nor the wider society / system. 

 

 

[cpuusage]

i don't know what the answers are to everything within this society / system. i take a very comprehensive integral / holistic view, most people don't. 

i will never get a comprehensive integral understanding / approach from others / this society / system. 

If it helps take more of an edge off everything then maybe the increase in the medication is the way to go. The reality is there is a long term / severe psychotic illness. 

Yes the shutting down of the brain / mind / emotions on sedatives - Not great. 

[cpuusage]

16 hours ago, manymoretodays said:

Just a thought cpu.......would you consider going up on your dose by less than a whole hundred milligrams? 

Like say......trying to do a dosage of 325 mg or 350 mg and giving it a bit, to see if you feel a little better?

 

In any case cpuusage, stay safe okay?  Take really good care of yourself now......the best that you can muster.  And do keep us updated, okay.

 

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

mmt

 

i have considered all this, discussed it with my brother & a friend, & i feel that you are right, that a 350mg dose would be better. i will try the 350mg for a month. 

 

 

[cpuusage]

i don't want to be on the medication - But it has been & is an endless catch 22 / double bind. If i stop the medication i go totally psychotic with all of the consequences that entails, within this current society / system. 

 

There hasn't been & isn't the appropriate treatment for the underlying condition. So what was i & am i meant to do? 

 

Denying that there is a severe psychotic illness that likely does have on one level biological aspects doesn't work. Working with alternative healers doesn't work. 

 

 

[Shep]

2 hours ago, cpuusage said:

i have considered all this, discussed it with my brother & a friend, & i feel that you are right, that a 350mg dose would be better. i will try the 350mg for a month. 

 

Such wise advice from Manymoretodays.

 

CPU, I'm so glad you are only going to the 350 mg dose. Please let us know how you do. 

 

2 hours ago, cpuusage said:

There hasn't been & isn't the appropriate treatment for the underlying condition. So what was i & am i meant to do? 

 

Just a thought coming from another long-time user of these antipsychotics, but try to look inside for answers instead of to others. Doctors, whether alternative or mainstream, can only do so much. But as we've been telling you, you're a smart, thoughtful, and insightful person. Those are excellent qualities that have nothing to do with an underlying condition but speak to so much more. 

 

Do the best you can. If you can get along with less meds, you'll likely feel better physically and therefore, feel better psychologically. I wish there were better answers. 

[cpuusage]

1 minute ago, Shep said:

 

Such wise advice from Manymoretodays.

 

CPU, I'm so glad you are only going to the 350 mg dose. Please let us know how you do. 

 

 

Just a thought coming from another long-time user of these antipsychotics, but try to look inside for answers instead of to others. Doctors, whether alternative or mainstream, can only do so much. But as we've been telling you, you're a smart, thoughtful, and insightful person. Those are excellent qualities that have nothing to do with an underlying condition but speak to so much more. 

 

Do the best you can. If you can get along with less meds, you'll likely feel better physically and therefore, feel better psychologically. I wish there were better answers. 

 

Thank you Shep. i will do my best with it all. 

[cpuusage]

On 11/15/2018 at 1:22 PM, Shep said:

Just a thought coming from another long-time user of these antipsychotics, but try to look inside for answers instead of to others. Doctors, whether alternative or mainstream, can only do so much. But as we've been telling you, you're a smart, thoughtful, and insightful person. Those are excellent qualities that have nothing to do with an underlying condition but speak to so much more. 

 

Do the best you can. If you can get along with less meds, you'll likely feel better physically and therefore, feel better psychologically. I wish there were better answers. 

i do agree that i am a lot more than the condition / schizophrenia diagnosis. But there is also the reality of a serious / severe illness / condition. 

i do see things holistically, but also find it very hard to answer these questions about the different weightings of biological, psychogenic, sociological & spiritual / transpersonal areas. 

So much as well i feel has been & is dependent on treatment, & the levels of understanding, help & support which is available. 

i have been fluctuating a lot with stuff, but have been feeling a bit better on the whole. i have increased the medication to 350mg. There is also the question of Dopamine Supersensitivity, drug dependency / tolerance etc. But i have stopped all medication 5 times in the past & it always ends up in very severe illness. 

Maybe some things are changing? But it remains to be seen how it all translates into the actual treatment & overall quality of life of people? 
 

Mistakes I Have Made in My Research Career 

Robin M. Murray

Schizophrenia Bulletin, Volume 43, Issue 2, 1 March 2017, Pages 253–256,https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbw165

Published:

 

21 December 2016

https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article/43/2/253/2730504    

 

The realities of everything now is that i am totally dependent on the medication. i am in very challenging & difficult life circumstances & situation. i have not been & am not well enough to work, & am dependent on social security help. It has been & is very concerning areas with regards to austerity, welfare 'reforms', Trump & Brexit etc. 

The whole society / culture is also regressing around the attitudes towards & treatment of the disabled - 

 

Government changes to Mental Health Capacity Act places human rights of disabled people in jeopardy

Written by Kitty S Jones

https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2018/11/18/government-changes-to-mental-health-capacity-act-places-human-rights-of-disabled-people-in-jeopardy/   

 

i can't get away from all the concerns of increasing societal collapse, & even the mainstream is now picking up on it all more - 

End of days: Is Western civilisation on the brink of collapse?
History tells us all cultures have their sell-by date. Do political strife, crippling inequality and climate change mean the West’s time is now up

www.newscientist.com/article/mg23731610-300-end-of-days-is-western-civilisation-on-the-brink-of-collapse/

So, is the West really on the ropes? Perhaps. But ultimately its survival will depend on the speed at which people can adapt. If we don’t reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, tackle inequality and find a way to stop elites from squabbling among themselves, things will not end well. In Tainter’s view, if the West makes it through, it will be more by luck than by good judgement. “We are a species that muddles through,” he says. “That’s all we’ve ever done, and all we’ll ever do.”

This article appeared in print under the headline “The Fall”

Leader: “Apocalypse not now but the fate of civilisation is in our hands”

www.newscientist.com/article/mg23731613-300-apocalypse-not-now-but-the-fate-of-civilisation-is-in-our-hands/

Case of trying to do my best & plodding on as best as possible. 

 

 

[cpuusage]

20 minutes ago, cpuusage said:

i do agree that i am a lot more than the condition / schizophrenia diagnosis. But there is also the reality of a serious / severe illness / condition. 

i do see things holistically, but also find it very hard to answer these questions about the different weightings of biological, psychogenic, sociological & spiritual / transpersonal areas. 

So much as well i feel has been & is dependent on treatment, & the levels of understanding, help & support which is available. 

i don't see things as either / or - i think that there are biological, psychogenic, sociological & spiritual areas to my own experience / condition. That it is a whole person condition. 

 

i think that it does make sense that there are epigenetic; brain / emotional developmental / functional aspects to it all.  

i do feel that things are differential, that there is aspects of a serious underlying illness, as well as aspects of spiritual crisis / emergence. 

That there has been / are dual diagnosis aspects with regards to addiction & a psychotic disorder. 

Aspects of psychiatry i think are valid. 

 

The whole debate about mental health, psychiatry & medication can be maddening in itself. 

 

i have to go with my own experience, understandings & intuition around it all. 



 

[cpuusage]

This is part of the whole Elephant in the room -

 

Study Finds Deteriorating Mental Health Among Poor White Americans

Researchers find evidence of low socio-economic status White Americans’ rising distress and declining well-being since the mid-1990s.

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/11/study-finds-deteriorating-mental-health-among-low-ses-white-americans/ 

 

Why Precision Psychiatry is Not a Paradigm Shift

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/11/precision-psychiatry-not-paradigm-shift/ 

 

"Thus, Gómez-Carrillo argues that “precision psychiatry” as it is presented in the literature is a red herring, continuing the dominance of the neurobiological reductionist paradigm that has repeatedly failed to find any identifiable biomarkers for mental health concerns.

Instead, writes Gómez-Carrillo, psychiatry should be focusing on better understanding the social, environmental, and psychological correlates of mental health concerns. After all, trauma, poverty, marginalized identity, and urban living are all much more highly correlated with mental health concerns than biological factors. That, she writes, would be a true paradigm shift."

[cpuusage]

1 hour ago, cpuusage said:

Aspects of psychiatry i think are valid. 

 

The whole debate about mental health, psychiatry & medication can be maddening in itself. 

 

i have to go with my own experience, understandings & intuition around it all. 

Of course psychiatry & the mental health system has done & does a lot that is wrong, abusive & damaging, but i don't agree with the denial of mental illness. 

 

Am far more in line with the reform of psychiatry & the mental health system. 

Some people are very severely unwell & need proper treatment, understanding, care, help & support. 

i can't agree with either the extreme anti-psychiatry / abolitionist / denial of mental illness & extreme pro biomedical psychiatry positions. 

 

Isn't it logical & obvious that there are whole person / integral areas that it all goes into & that we need a genuinely integrated / integral / holistic approach. 

 

[cpuusage]

On 11/12/2018 at 3:57 PM, manymoretodays said:

Hi cpu,

I'm working through the Jung and Quantum physics article from your Finding Meaning link.......now......or still. 

I copied it off so I could give it a good read and absorption.  It's only 20 pages or so......yet I often have to/want to look up some of the word definitions, and just kind of sit with some of it. 

Thank you so much for the share/link.

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

mmt

 

How you doing? i love Jung, & think that he was very far ahead of his own time & far ahead of this time still. i recently got hold of this book - 

Catafalque (2-Volume Set): Carl Jung and the End of Humanity

"Catafalque offers a revolutionary new reading of the great psychologist Carl Jung as mystic, gnostic and prophet for our time.

This book is the first major re-imagining of both Jung and his work since the publication of the Red Book in 2009--and is the only serious assessment of them written by a classical scholar who understands the ancient Gnostic, Hermetic and alchemical foundations of his thought as well as Jung himself did. At the same time it skillfully tells the forgotten story of Jung's relationship with the great Sufi scholar, Henry Corbin, and with Persian Sufi tradition.

The strange reality of the Red Book, or "New Book" as Carl Jung called it, lies close to the heart of Catafalque. In meticulous detail Peter Kingsley uncovers its great secret, hidden in plain sight and still--as if by magic--unrecognized by all those who have been unable to understand this mysterious, incantatory text.

But the hard truth of who Jung was and what he did is only a small part of what this book uncovers. It also exposes the full extent of that great river of esoteric tradition that stretches all the way back to the beginnings of our civilization. It unveils the surprising realities behind western philosophy, literature, poetry, prophecy--both ancient and modern.

In short, Peter Kingsley shows us not only who Carl Jung was but who we in the West are as well. Much more than a brilliant spiritual biography, Catafalque holds the key to understanding why our western culture is dying. And, an incantatory text in its own right, it shows the way to discovering what we in these times of great crisis must do.

Book details 848-page hardcover in two volumes."

[cpuusage]

Another one that looks interesting - 

Jung, Buddhism, and the Incarnation of Sophia: Unpublished Writings from the Philosopher of the Soul
by Henry Corbin

"Examines the work of Carl Jung in relation to Eastern religion, the wisdom teachings of the Sophia, Sufi mysticism, and visionary spirituality

Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was one of the most important French philosophers and orientalists of the 20th century. In this collection of previously unpublished writings, Corbin examines the work of Carl Jung in relationship to the deep spiritual traditions of Eastern religion, the esoteric wisdom teachings of Sophia, the transformational symbolism of alchemy, and Sufi mysticism.

Looking at the many methods of inner exploration in the East, including the path of the Sufi and Taoist alchemy, Corbin reveals how the modern Western world does not have its own equivalent except in psychotherapy. Expanding Jung’s findings in light of his own studies of Gnostic and esoteric Islamic traditions, he offers a unique insight into the spiritual values underlying Jung’s psychoanalytic theories. Corbin analyzes Jung’s works on Buddhism, providing his own understanding of the tradition and its relationship to Sufi mysticism, and explores the role of the Gnostic Sophia with respect to Jung’s most controversial essay, “Answer to Job.”

Explaining how Islamic fundamentalists have turned their back on the mystic traditions of Sufism, Corbin reveals how totalitarianism of all kinds threatens the transformative power of the imagination and the transcendent reality of the individual soul.

Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was one of the most important French philosophers and orientalists of the 20th century. In this collection of previously unpublished writings, Corbin examines the work of Carl Jung in relationship to the deep spiritual traditions of Eastern religion, the esoteric wisdom teachings of Sophia, the transformational symbolism of alchemy, and Sufi mysticism.

Looking at the many methods of inner exploration in the East, including the path of the Sufi and Taoist alchemy, Corbin reveals how the modern Western world does not have its own equivalent except in psychotherapy. Expanding Jung’s findings in light of his own studies of Gnostic and esoteric Islamic traditions, he offers a unique insight into the spiritual values underlying Jung’s psychoanalytic theories. Corbin analyzes Jung’s works on Buddhism, providing his own understanding of the tradition and its relationship to Sufi mysticism, and explores the role of the Gnostic Sophia with respect to Jung’s most controversial essay, “Answer to Job.”

Explaining how Islamic fundamentalists have turned their back on the mystic traditions of Sufism, Corbin reveals how totalitarianism of all kinds threatens the transformative power of the imagination and the transcendent reality of the individual soul."

[cpuusage]

Some more here - 

Trauma and the Soul 
by Donald Kalsched 

"In Trauma and the Soul, Donald Kalsched continues the exploration he began in his first book, The Inner World of Trauma (1996)―this time going further into the mystical or spiritual moments that often occur around the intimacies of psychoanalytic work. Through extended clinical vignettes, including therapeutic dialogue and dreams, he shows how depth psychotherapy with trauma’s survivors can open both analytic partners to "another world" of non-ordinary reality in which daimonic powers reside, both light and dark. This mytho-poetic world, he suggests, is not simply a defensive product of our struggle with the harsh realities of living as Freud suggested, but is an everlasting fact of human experience―a mystery that is often at the very center of the healing process, and yet at other times, strangely resists it.

With these "two worlds" in focus, Kalsched explores a variety of themes as he builds, chapter by chapter, an integrated psycho-spiritual approach to trauma and its treatment including:

images of the lost soul-child in dreams and how this "child" represents an essential core of aliveness that is both protected and persecuted by the psyche’s defenses;
Dante’s guided descent into the Inferno of Hell as a paradigm for the psychotherapy process and its inevitable struggle with self-destructive energies;
childhood innocence and its central role in a person’s spiritual life seen through the story of St. Exupéry’s The Little Prince;
how clinical attention to implicit processes in the relational field, as well as discoveries in body-based affective neuroscience are making trauma treatment more effective;
the life of C.G. Jung as it portrays his early trauma, his soul’s retreat into an inner sanctuary, and his gradual recovery of wholeness through the integration of his divided self.
This is a book that restores the mystery to psychoanalytic work. It tells stories of ordinary patients and ordinary psychotherapists who, through working together, glimpse the reality of the human soul and the depth of the spirit, and are changed by the experience. Trauma and the Soul will be of particular interest to practicing psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, analytical psychologists, and expressive arts therapists, including those with a "spiritual" orientation.

Donald Kalsched is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a training analyst with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. He is the author of numerous articles in analytical psychology, and lectures widely on the subject of early trauma and its treatment. His books include The Inner World of Trauma (1996)."

Answer to Job (Routledge Classics) 
by Carl Gustav Jung

"Of all the books of the Bible few have had more resonance for modern readers than the Book of Job. For a world that has witnessed great horrors, Job's cries of despair and incomprehension are all too recognizable. The visionary psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung understood this and responded with this remarkable book, in which he set himself face-to-face with 'the unvarnished spectacle of divine savagery and ruthlessness'. Jung perceived in the hidden recesses of the human psyche the cause of a crisis that plagues modern humanity and leaves the individual, like Job, isolated and bewildered in the face of impenetrable fortune. By correlating the transcendental with the unconscious, Jung, writing not as a biblical scholar but 'as a layman and physician who has been privileged to see deeply into the psychic life of many people', offers a way for every reader to come to terms with the divine darkness which confronts each individual."

Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief 
by Jordan B. Peterson (Author)

"Why have people from different cultures and eras formulated myths and stories with similar structures? What does this similarity tell us about the mind, morality, and structure of the world itself? Jordan Peterson offers a provocative new hypothesis that explores the connection between what modern neuropsychology tells us about the brain and what rituals, myths, and religious stories have long narrated. A cutting-edge work that brings together neuropsychology, cognitive science, and Freudian and Jungian approaches to mythology and narrative, Maps of Meaning presents a rich theory that makes the wisdom and meaning of myth accessible to the critical modern mind."
 

The Search for Roots: C. G. Jung and the Tradition of Gnosis Paperback – 27 Jul 2013
by Alfred Ribi (Author), Lance S. Owens (Foreword)

"The publication in 2009 of C. G. Jung's The Red Book: Liber Novus has initiated a broad reassessment of Jung’s place in cultural history. Among many revelations, the visionary events recorded in the Red Book reveal the foundation of Jung’s complex association with the Western tradition of Gnosis.

In The Search for Roots, Alfred Ribi closely examines Jung’s life-long association with Gnostic tradition. Dr. Ribi knows C. G. Jung and his tradition from the ground up. He began his analytical training with Marie-Louise von Franz in 1963, and continued working closely with Dr. von Franz for the next 30 years. For over four decades he has been an analyst, lecturer and examiner of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, where he also served as the Director of Studies.

But even more importantly, early in his studies Dr. Ribi noted Jung’s underlying roots in Gnostic tradition, and he carefully followed those roots to their source. Alfred Ribi is unique in the Jungian analytical community for the careful scholarship and intellectual rigor he has brought to the study Gnosticism. In The Search for Roots, Ribi shows how a dialogue between Jungian and Gnostic studies can open new perspectives on the experiential nature of Gnosis, both ancient and modern. Creative engagement with Gnostic tradition broadens the imaginative scope of modern depth psychology and adds an essential context for understanding the voice of the soul emerging in our modern age.

A Foreword by Lance Owens supplements this volume with a discussion of Jung's encounter with Gnostic tradition while composing his Red Book (Liber Novus). Dr. Owens delivers a fascinating and historically well-documented account of how Gnostic mythology entered into Jung's personal mythology in the Red Book. Gnostic mythology thereafter became for Jung a prototypical image of his individuation. Owens offers this conclusion:

“In 1916 Jung had seemingly found the root of his myth and it was the myth of Gnosis. I see no evidence that this ever changed. Over the next forty years, he would proceed to construct an interpretive reading of the Gnostic tradition’s occult course across the Christian aeon: in Hermeticism, alchemy, Kabbalah, and Christian mysticism. In this vast hermeneutic enterprise, Jung was building a bridge across time, leading back to the foundation stone of classical Gnosticism. The bridge that led forward toward a new and coming aeon was footed on the stone rejected by the builders two thousand years ago.”

Alfred Ribi's examination of Jung’s relationship with Gnostic tradition comes at an important time. Initially authored prior to the publication of Jung's Red Book, current release of this English edition offers a bridge between the past and the forthcoming understanding of Jung’s Gnostic roots."

 

The Gnostic Jung: And the Seven Sermons to the Dead: And the Sermons to the Dead 
by Stephan A. Hoeller 

"Many decades later Jung commented thus upon these sermons: “All my work, all my creative activity, has come from those initial fantasies ... everything that I accomplished in later life was already contained in them, although at first only in the form of emotions and images.”
The seven sermons deal with the self as the androgynous being Abraxas, with the message that self-knowledge may be attained by the conscious assimilation of the contents of the subconscious, in order to achieve unity. The “dead” are those who stopped growing spiritually by not questioning their egos. By not growing, they are in essence the living dead.
Jung considered his own work a link in the golden chain from ancient gnosticism via philosophical alchemy to the modern psychology of the subconscious. Just as in those ancient texts, his work reveals a fragmented self in which the image of the divine may be found.

The author made his own translation of the sermons and provided a comprehensive preface, exegesis of the sermons and afterword in which he comments grippingly on Jung, gnosticism and the current era. His views on the survival of the pansophic/theosophic tradition (through the arts) are particularly enlightening.
Jung’s central doctrine of individuation is an ancient concept of the western esoteric tradition – the tendency of the individual consciousness not to surrender its light into nothingness. Unlike many eastern spiritual systems, the Western tradition never knew the permanent dissolution of the individual consciousness in the divine.
Already in the first sermon this question is discussed, i.e. how to remain an individual while simultaneously achieving an optimal degree of unity with the ineffable greatness of the pleroma within us. Jung gives us an undivided model of reality in which both causal and acausal connections, spirit and matter, are reconciled.
As for belief, Jung convincingly argues that human beings have a religious need - not a need for belief, however, but one for religious experience. This is a psychical experience that leads to the integration of the soul. Inner wholeness – gnosis – is achieved not by belief in ideas, but by experience.

In the place of a god to believe in, Jung thus offers us an existential truth that we can experience. He rejects the “god of belief” in favor of a symbol of lasting validity, and instead of the much abused concept of “belief”, he offers the power of the imagination as the way to gnosis, just as in the magickal and alchemical traditions.
The seven sermons are gripping and poetic, while the commentary is full of insight and enriched by quotes from inter alia the Nag Hammadi texts, Plotinus, Helena Blavatsky, Emerson and others. The most beautiful is a moving poem by the mystic Angelus Silesius, of which I quote a part:

“God is such as he is,
I am what I must be;
If you know one, in truth
You know both him and me.
I am the vine, which he
Doth plant and cherish most;
The fruit which grows from me
Is God, the holy ghost.”
This text, and Basilides’ thoughts on the pleroma (fullness of god), reminded me of Patti Smith’s song “Hymn” on her album Wave:
“When I am troubled in the night
He comes to comfort me
He wills me through the darkness
And the empty child is free
To take his hand, his sacred heart
The heart that breaks the dawn, amen.
And when I think I’ve had my fill
He fills me up again.”

I highly recommend this book as a bridge between psychology and religion, or rather the religious experience in the human psyche. It ought to be read together with William James’ “The Varieties of Religious Experience” and Richard Maurice Bucke’s “Cosmic Consciousness”, for a breathtaking metaphysical and metatextual experience."


 

[manymoretodays]

Thank you cpu.  More for manymore.  Always appreciated.

I'm doing well. 

The practical stuff is what becomes challenging now.  Housekeeping, yard work, staying on top of these kind of things.  And......finding time for it all......so I can enjoy it too.

Gobble, gobble turkey roasting coming soon......literally!

L, P, H, G, and G,

mmt

 

[cpuusage]

9 hours ago, manymoretodays said:

Thank you cpu.  More for manymore.  Always appreciated.

I'm doing well. 

The practical stuff is what becomes challenging now.  Housekeeping, yard work, staying on top of these kind of things.  And......finding time for it all......so I can enjoy it too.

Gobble, gobble turkey roasting coming soon......literally!

L, P, H, G, and G,

mmt

 

 

Yes me too, the practical stuff i find all very challenging. Enjoy the Turkey. 

[cpuusage]

MIA recently ran this article -

What Would Real Informed Consent on Psychiatric Drugs Look Like?

www.madinamerica.com/2018/11/real-informed-consent-psychiatric-drugs/

i don't think that the current system / treatment is right - But nor is the extreme anti psychiatry / anti medication / abolitionist / mental illness denial camp right either. 

Mental illnesses are real & exist - some very severe. Some people need treatment, proper & appropriate understanding, care, help & support, some lifelong. Some people need & are best helped with medication. 

Instead of all the either / or's, polemics, duality's, dialectics - How about a genuinely person centred, individualised & genuinely integral understanding & approach? i don't get why there is the degree of argument that there is within all this area? Surely on 'one' level it is obvious & also freely admitted by psychiatry that there are individual & variable biological, psychogenic & sociological factors present - some people within the field also add the spiritual / transpersonal. Why can't that integral model be standard? 

[cpuusage]

i thought that this short article was interesting - 

 

THE PATH OF WYRD

 

https://abeautifulresistance.org/site/2018/11/20/the-path-of-wyrd

         

i am feeling a little better & the increase to 350mg i feel is helping a bit. i may increase it to 400mg. Am seeing the Doc in a few weeks again. 

 

In relation to discussions - i can't Not think about the schizophrenia diagnosis when it has been a 38 year history of it all, & the story of my life. & i think it is a complex condition that does involve biology. 

 

i can't entirely re frame it all in alternative terms. & it is bound to effect my own identity. 

[cpuusage]

i have increased the medication to 400mg Amisulpride - i think i need to currently, with the symptoms & current struggles. 

 

It is confusing & exhausting for me to engage endlessly in a discussion about what schizophrenia is & isn't & between different ideologies around it all. i just have to accept the illness / condition & that i currently need a medication for it all. 

 

i would love to be in far more ideal circumstances & to be treated far better, as i would have loved to have been treated far better in the past - But it's Not reality. 

 

Am looking after my mum for the day, each day is a battle & a struggle. i also have to try & motivate myself at some stage to try & clean some of the flat. 

[cpuusage]

The current mental health system / psychiatry & treatment of the mentally ill is all largely wrong, the entire psychiatric / mental health system is, as is the wider system / 'civilisation' - But what can anyone do about it all? Some people have argued against it all from the start - thousands of years of dissent - for 400 years some people have argued against the mental health system / general treatment of the 'mad', people have argued against the primary pharmacological / biomedical psychiatric paradigm since the 50's. It makes No difference to how all the system & treatment is.

The vast majority of the public & service users don't want the alternatives, & that includes a lot of the anti psychiatry / anti medication camp who are largely just denialists. 

Case of waiting another 200 years imo before there is any genuine change. 
 

People simply need better treatment & there needs to be far more funding for mental health. 

i don't agree with the denial of mental illness any more, nor the denial of biological factors & wish to abolish psychiatry. There obviously are biological, psychogenic, sociological & i feel spiritual / transpersonal factors present. But in truth no one knows what the exact causes are, but again that is Not a rational reason to deny the realities of mental illness. 

The general public don't seem to really care about it all - i don't have any idea as to how the public can be made to see it all as a worthwhile & important issue? 

Maybe there needs to be some kind of better genuinely unified Global / National organisation / movement that fights for the rights & care of people suffering mental illness & all these areas.

[cpuusage]

The increase in medication to 400mg is helping. i have been less worried & sleeping a bit better. Symptoms have been a bit less. 

Saw the GP again for a review & he was very understanding & supportive of the whole situation. All being as well as possible will review things with the GP in another 3 to 6 months. The GP did discuss trying to reduce the medication again at some stage, & he does acknowledge the toxic nature of this drug. it need proper & appropriate help to reduce this medication. 

The boiler hasn't been working properly which is more hassle. Same routines with looking after my mum every day & trying my best to be as supportive as possible for my mum & bro. 

 

The whole ongoing Brexit fiasco & it's implications is somewhat of a cause for concern. 

Feel that it's a case of accepting that there is a no fault severe illness / condition, & accepting the diagnosis & medication / treatment. 17 years of working with alternative healers & self help has Not resolved / cured the condition. The 'self care' industry is no substitute for real care, fairness, rights, addressing poverty etc.

NOVEMBER 26, 2018
SELF-CARE WON’T SAVE US

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/11/self-care-wont-save-us

Don't know where to go exactly from here - am Not well enough to work & the UK welfare 'reforms' & Austerity have been & are a Nightmare. 

Universal Discredit - 

https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/universal-discredit/

Was discussing where all this has lead over 10 years ago, people didn't listen. 

With regards to my own learning, progress, spiritual path & practise i plod on with it all.

 

Have also been banned from facebook for 30 days again for speaking my mind, which is not a bad thing, it does give me a rest from it all. 

 

Am not too keen on Christmas. It's better when the new year is under way. 

 

Probably seeing & starting work with the psychologist in June 2019, so will see if that can make a difference to anything.

 

 

 

 

[cpuusage]

i was reading up on the side effects of Antipsychotics from David Healy's Blog. 

 

Side Effects of Antipsychotics

Author: Dr. David Healy

https://rxisk.org/side-effects-of-antipsychotics/

 

Of course these drugs are bad. Of course my smoking & lack of proper exercise is bad. 
 

It is what to do about it all within the realities of my situation, life circumstances & the illness / condition. i have tried & try my best with everything. 

[cpuusage]

Very likely that these psych drugs are poison & that this drug is poisoning me. But what was i & am i meant to do. It's all been & is endless double bind's / catch 22's & impossible situations / circumstances. 

At some point i'm going to be hit with the transfer to universal credit - i don't know how long i will be able to afford the rent. 

No way i can get off / reduce this drug without proper help & support, that i don't have, can't access & won't be able to. 

 

Case of plodding on a day at a time as best as possible. 

My mum's care needs have gone up a lot - she has a lot of physical ailments, as well as the severe dementia & infirmity. 

 

 

 

[cpuusage]

Certainly my own experience is that if i don't take the medication i end up in very severe illness. It is impossible to know what is the underlying condition / illness & what are medication withdrawal effects, but it is impossible to really know & separate. 

The position that i have also found myself in, is thinking that there are far better treatment, care, help & support understandings & approaches, but Not being able to access it all. This has certainly been one of the catch 22 / double binds over the past 14 years - that there hasn't been what i feel is more in the way of appropriate help & support to try & reduce / come off the medication & i am Not going to put myself through another severe episode of psychosis trying to come of the medication. There also wasn't what i would consider a more appropriate response to the original presentation of the illness. Maybe a different response to it all initially would have helped more? Too late now to do anything about the past. 

i don't want to be on the medication, but also what real choice have i had & do i have with it all? & maybe even with the 'ideals' i would have still needed a medication? 

i think that this society / system needs to be different in it's understandings & treatments of people within all these areas, & i don't have any control or choice over all of that. 

It has to come down to an acceptance of it all. 

i am feeling a bit better on the 400mg of the Amisulpride. 

[cpuusage]

i have Not been well physically or mentally; psychologically & emotionally. i have been feeling more & more unwell over the past few years. 

 

i am going to see the GP to try & get a referral back to psychiatric services / the LMHT for a professional evaluation of my case & circumstances. 

 

i have been removing myself from all anti psychiatry / anti medication debate & argument pages - As it is simply Not good for my health. 

 

Just a small update on things. 

 

 

[cpuusage]

i have partly given up with things. i just plod on & take the pills, & accept that i have an incurable & severe illness / condition. 

The past few years have really taken their toll on me. 

i don't know what to think about a lot of things any more. i think that this is a very cruel World.

 

i had to have a blood test - the GP is ringing back in a couple of weeks to discuss the result - i know that i am in poor physical & worsening health.

 

Sick of fighting all this. 

 

i don't think that the LMHT will accept the referral. The GP is going to refer me to the local psychological services with an angle on treating the complex PTSD, i don't think that there are equipped to properly help me, local mental health services are total ****. He will also write a referral for the psychologist who i meant to be starting work with in June. 

 

 

 

 

 

[cpuusage]

i am really surprised - i have been given a 1 hour assessment appointment with a psychiatrist at the local LMHT, to discuss the current symptoms & interactions of the complex PTSD with the schizophrenia. 

Dependent upon the assessment i may then be given more appropriate psychological help from the local psychological services, as an interim before the psychologist in June. Or in conjunction. 

 

i have been fully discharged from all psychiatric services for the past 8 years, & they refused the last 4 referrals. This news has really perked me up a bit. 

 

i sometimes get 10 Lorazepam PRN from the GP - i am going to ask for 20 PRN a month, as it does help with the severe anxiety / fear. 

 

i am not currently in any state or situation to be making any major lifestyle changes. 

Will see what comes from the appointment & what they suggest with it all. 

[manymoretodays]

Hi cpu,

Happy to hear about your psychologist visit in June, and even perhaps one before that?

Hoping it's a descendant of Carl Jung himself.    Wouldn't that be grand?  Sending good intentions that it is a good fit........and that you get to work with another human peer.......and do find some coping skills that are helpful, as well as perhaps addressing the PTS of it all......... 

Learning how to stay more present myself, lately.  After a very long, dark winter this year.

 

Not happy to hear about this though........

On 3/22/2019 at 9:45 AM, cpuusage said:

i sometimes get 10 Lorazepam PRN from the GP - i am going to ask for 20 PRN a month, as it does help with the severe anxiety / fear. 

As it does sound, from your updates, that you are experiencing some anhedonia........the blahs, don't wanna care anymore type feelings.

Only 2-4 weeks of usage of the benzo's and then.........from my understanding,  you are just treating the dependency.  Trying to catch the rebound anxiety of sorts.  A vicious cycle.

........and .......possibly........more of the blahs.  However, I am so sorry that you are feeling severe anxiety and fear.

Idk.  I'd just hate to see you trapped on another medication.  And oh........what if you begin to lose some of your stellar inquisitiveness and ability to sort things out so nicely........understand so much.  I mean I suppose that is part of what makes it difficult for you.  You are brilliant.  I hear it's tough to be brilliant sometimes.

 

On 11/22/2018 at 3:36 AM, cpuusage said:

Surely on 'one' level it is obvious & also freely admitted by psychiatry that there are individual & variable biological, psychogenic & sociological factors present - some people within the field also add the spiritual / transpersonal. Why can't that integral model be standard? 

 

On 11/22/2018 at 3:36 AM, cpuusage said:

How about a genuinely person centred, individualised & genuinely integral understanding & approach? i don't get why there is the degree of argument that there is within all this area? Surely on 'one' level it is obvious & also freely admitted by psychiatry that there are individual & variable biological, psychogenic & sociological factors present - some people within the field also add the spiritual / transpersonal. Why can't that integral model be standard? 

 

On 12/15/2018 at 3:40 AM, cpuusage said:

It is what to do about it all within the realities of my situation, life circumstances & the illness / condition. i have tried & try my best with everything. 

 

Yes, yes, and yes you have.  And it is a sociological question too.........I know I saw you say something about that above.

Totally okay......to remove yourself for awhile from the debates and all the differing points of view.  I think that's called self care.  And we all do that a little, from time to time......well, I do anyway. 

 

I am hoping for best outcomes with your laboratory work that is pending now.

 

Thankyou for updating us and stopping by.  I always enjoy the wealth of article reviews and reading recommends.  I really do.

 

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

mmt

[cpuusage]

7 hours ago, manymoretodays said:

Hi cpu,

Happy to hear about your psychologist visit in June, and even perhaps one before that?

Hoping it's a descendant of Carl Jung himself.    Wouldn't that be grand?  Sending good intentions that it is a good fit........and that you get to work with another human peer.......and do find some coping skills that are helpful, as well as perhaps addressing the PTS of it all......... 

Learning how to stay more present myself, lately.  After a very long, dark winter this year.

 

Not happy to hear about this though........

As it does sound, from your updates, that you are experiencing some anhedonia........the blahs, don't wanna care anymore type feelings.

Only 2-4 weeks of usage of the benzo's and then.........from my understanding,  you are just treating the dependency.  Trying to catch the rebound anxiety of sorts.  A vicious cycle.

........and .......possibly........more of the blahs.  However, I am so sorry that you are feeling severe anxiety and fear.

Idk.  I'd just hate to see you trapped on another medication.  And oh........what if you begin to lose some of your stellar inquisitiveness and ability to sort things out so nicely........understand so much.  I mean I suppose that is part of what makes it difficult for you.  You are brilliant.  I hear it's tough to be brilliant sometimes.

 

 

 

 

Yes, yes, and yes you have.  And it is a sociological question too.........I know I saw you say something about that above.

Totally okay......to remove yourself for awhile from the debates and all the differing points of view.  I think that's called self care.  And we all do that a little, from time to time......well, I do anyway. 

 

I am hoping for best outcomes with your laboratory work that is pending now.

 

Thankyou for updating us and stopping by.  I always enjoy the wealth of article reviews and reading recommends.  I really do.

 

Love, peace, healing, and growth,

mmt

 

Thank you for the reply mmt - Not too sure that i am brilliant. 

i feel like i can't break out of certain things - everything at times feel like an endless catch 22 / double bind. 

 

i have felt for a long time that i need a professional psychiatric evaluation - i have written a letter & some notes for the appointment. 

 

All the medication areas are i feel a balance & weighing up of the pros & cons of Not taking something with the pros & cons of taking it. 

 

i can't carry on as i am with everything. i am me, & we are unique individuals, no one is going to fully understand my own life & experiences, just as i can't fully understand theirs. 

 

The increase from 200mg to 400mg Amisulpride over recent years has had pros & cons, But it has helped overall to some degree. i will wait & see what the psychiatrist / LMHT & local psychological services says about it all. The appointment is next Friday. 

 

Fact is i have a long term illness / schizophrenia, that has been very severe at times, & i need help. This is Not an ideal World & i have to make do with what help is available. 

 

With the life i have lived how much time do i have left anyway? Not that death bothers me as it doesn't.