This Jungian Life Podcast

Why is it that we sometimes fail to rise to life’s most important challenges? Why do we instead procrastinate, withdraw, self-sabotage, or feel unable to move toward the life we want?This week, at a listener’s suggestion, Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart explore the concept of anti-libidinal forces in the psyche: those self-destructive impulses that oppose growth, pleasure, and forward movement. We discuss the ways this phenomenon has been addressed within the profession, including Freud’s death drive, Melanie Klein’s concept of the bad breast, Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ predator in the psyche, and Donald Kalsched’s protector/persecutor.Libido was understood by Jung to mean life energy, rather than being purely sexual. We explore how blocked libido can become depression, paralyzing fear, hoarding behavior, vicious self-criticism, or simply an inability to begin or complete what matters most. Through stories such as Bluebeard, Jonah and the Whale, and Marduk and Tiamat, we consider inner monsters that threaten to devour vitality.Anti-libidinal forces, however, are not the end of the story. We also discuss the heroic task of meeting fear, reclaiming disowned energies, and choosing life one step at a time.Read the dream we analyze in full on our website.Connect With This Jungian LifeDownload our free Dream Recall Meditation Guide.Send a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠dream⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for us to analyze on the show.Check out our TJL ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Follow This Jungian Life on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Our lives have already been altered by rapidly expanding access to artificial intelligence (AI). In this week’s episode, we consider how this latest technological revolution might be reshaping the human psyche. Hosts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart are joined by a special guest, the author and Jungian analyst Christina Becker, to explore the psychological impact of AI’s incursion into our work, home and relationships. One of the major AI use cases has been for advice, self-reflection and companionship. Some users are even referring to this as “therapy”. This raises thorny questions: what happens when a sycophantic AI interface constantly mirrors us back to ourselves as being in the right? How does this affect our judgment, our relationships, and our connection to reality?Christina Becker shares her work exploring the potential of AI to support Jungian dream analysis. Together we ask whether it is possible to use this powerful tool consciously, while also being aware of the fantasies and projections we bring to it, and maintaining the integrity of our inner lives. Read the dream we analyze in full on our website.Follow UpRead Christina Becker’s book, Soul-Making: A Journey of Resilience and Spiritual RediscoveryRequest Christina Becker’s Jungian-based dream interpretation prompt on her website Read Lisa Marchiano’s article, “ChatGPT-Induced Psychosis and the Good-Enough Therapist”, Psychology Today, July 2025Download our free Dream Recall Meditation GuideSend a dream for us to analyze on the show.

The labyrinth is a powerful metaphor for psychological development and the path of individuation.This week Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart consider how twists and turns in the path of life (especially in early adulthood), ask us to confront uncertainty, anxiety, and the unknown. Ego may crave a straight, well-planned path, but life inevitably offers something else: a fiendishly difficult labyrinth. If we want to get the most out of the journey, we’ve no choice other than to give it all we’ve got. Through the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, we reflect on the necessity of facing up to our darkness. Ariadne’s thread, which allows Theseus to return after slaying the beast, shows us the vital role of connection in helping us find our way back. We also explore the story of Abhimanyu from the Mahabharata. Abhimanyu’s mother gives him some knowledge of the labyrinth, but doesn’t tell him the way out, leading to tragedy. If we’re going to crack the code and exit the labyrinth, we’ll require a soulful attitude towards life, and the right psycho-spiritual teachings. Finally, we turn to the contemplative labyrinth. This is not a place to escape from, but a path toward the center. Here, the journey becomes one of surrender, reflection, and gradual movement toward wholeness.Read the dream we analyze in full on our website.Connect With This Jungian LifeDream Studio: Our new ⁠Dream School program⁠ on dreams and art starts April 16.Send a ⁠⁠⁠⁠dream⁠⁠⁠⁠ for us to analyze on the show.Check out our TJL ⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast merch⁠⁠⁠⁠.Follow This Jungian Life on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Many people just can’t rally to do what’s necessary and improve their lives. Is it possible they just don’t carry much vitality, or is some inner conflict blocking their access? We share personal stories of ‘energy loss’ and offer insights into purposelessness.Carl Jung tells us inner energy flows according to its own laws, but if we can’t harness it? Expect to learn why some people are naturally low-energy, which aspects of your psyche might be leaking energy, how over-aligning with cultural norms can cut off access to instinctive vitality, where we can look for solutions, and much more...SPECIAL NOTE: This is the second dream we've interpreted from this listener. The first interpretation follows. This is an extraordinary opportunity to see how a dream sequence evolves!Read along with our dream interpretations HERE.Connect With This Jungian LifeDream Studio: Our new Dream School program on dreams and art starts April 16.Send a ⁠⁠⁠dream⁠⁠⁠ for us to analyze on the show.Check out our TJL ⁠⁠⁠podcast merch⁠⁠⁠.Follow This Jungian Life on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠.

Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz and Christiana Morgan all dedicated time, soul and imagination to a peculiarly Jungian form of architecture: the stone tower. This week host Deborah Stewart is joined by Dr. Martin Gledhill, an architect, author and Jungian scholar, and filmmaker Hilary Morgan, the granddaughter of Christiana Morgan, an eminent American psychologist who collaborated with Jung on some of his most important work. Deb, Martin and Hilary explore Jung’s Bollingen Tower and Christiana Morgan’s Tower on the Marsh, discussing the profound expressions of psyche through place. Both towers render psyche in art, carvings and stone. They are more than just physical places, they are architectural explorations of Self and soul. The two towers are what Martin calls “restless places”: dream-like in ambience, shaped through an ongoing, iterative process, and surrounded by differing, sometimes conflicting, accounts of their evolution.Follow Up Read Martin Gledhill’s book, The Bollingen Tower: Constructing a Jungian Sense of PlaceWatch (for free) The Tower of Dreams - a film by Hilary MorganConnect With This Jungian LifeSend a ⁠⁠dream⁠⁠ for us to analyze on the show.Check out our TJL ⁠⁠podcast merch⁠⁠.Follow This Jungian Life on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.

Jung suggested in Aion that humanity is moving from the great symbolic Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano, Deborah Stewart and Joseph Lee, as we ask what it means to live through the turbulence and vitality of this period of transition. Jung pioneered the idea that human consciousness unfolds in great symbolic ages. The shift from one to the next is not a smooth or pleasant experience. As Jung saw it, each new age emerges through a process of decline, breakdown, and renewal, a process that can bring with it frightening levels of destabilization.The Age of Pisces, shaped by Christianity, emphasized faith, morality, and the authority of external structures. But as this era wanes, Jung suggested we are coming under the influence of a new attitude, one that asks more of the individual psyche.This new Age of Aquarius asks us to hold the tension of opposites consciously, rather than splitting experience into simple categories of right and wrong, and to be open to a genuinely new attitude that can contain much greater complexity.We consider whether this emerging age calls us into a deeper interior life, one grounded not in external authority, but in an evolving relationship to the Self.Read the dream we analyze in full on our website.Connect With This Jungian LifeBook your place at our ⁠⁠free seminar⁠⁠ on March 28, Your Personal Red Book: A Dream School Taster.Send a ⁠⁠dream⁠⁠ for us to analyze on the show.Check out our TJL ⁠⁠podcast merch⁠⁠.Follow This Jungian Life on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was a Trojan princess and priestess of Apollo who was given the gift of true prophecy, along with the curse that no one would ever believe her. She warned the Trojans not to bring the famous wooden horse inside their city walls, but her prophecy was ignored and the city fell.In this episode, we discuss the psychological meaning of the Cassandra story from a Jungian perspective, exploring the painful experience of recognizing a deep truth but finding that others cannot or will not hear it.We examine how the Cassandra archetype can intrude into a person’s life, compelling them to deliver uncomfortable truths to audiences who do not wish to hear. Understanding the archetypal pattern may help us discern the difference between those who won’t hear, and those who may be able to accept our message.The story of Cassandra can also be applied to our inner lives. We often ignore our own inner Cassandra, and her quiet warning that something glittering may hide danger. False promises, quick fixes, and seductive fantasies can lure us into welcoming the Trojan horse despite our better judgment.Finally, we ask how we might hold the Cassandra complex differently. Instead of identifying with the doomed prophet, we can recognize the archetype at work: “Cassandra is visiting.” By holding insight with humility, seeking listeners who can truly hear, and accepting the limits of our power to change fate, we might shape the anguish of Cassandra into a deeper wisdom.Read the dream we analyze and find this episode’s resource list on our website.Connect With This Jungian LifeBook your place at our ⁠free seminar⁠ on March 28, Your Personal Red Book: A Dream School Taster.Send a ⁠dream⁠ for us to analyze on the show.Check out our TJL ⁠podcast merch⁠.Follow This Jungian Life on ⁠Instagram⁠.

Chance encounters can change the whole direction of our lives. A casual chat with a stranger at the bank, a book that beckons to you from the shelf, or a last-minute lunch invitation might lead to transformative consequences. This week, join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano, Joseph Lee and Deborah Stewart as we circumambulate the phenomenon of the chance encounter. For Jungians, these moments are more than happy accidents. They may be understood as encounters with the deeper ordering principle Jung called the Self, which disrupts the ego’s plans and invites us toward something larger. Fairy tales often feature animal visitors offering the main character a surprising and unexpected choice. These stories can be powerful guides for recognizing the potential of chance encounters and making the most of them. We also discuss how, in an age of overstimulation, you can be receptive to the possibilities of the chance encounter. These moments usually speak softly and quietly rather than arriving with a trumpet sounding from the hills. They are visitations, not tools for self-improvement, and we must be open to allowing them in. Read the dream we analyze on our website.Connect With This Jungian LifeBook your place at our free seminar on March 28, Your Personal Red Book: A Dream School Taster.Send a dream for us to analyze on the show.Check out our TJL podcast merch.Follow This Jungian Life on Instagram.

COAGULATIO marks the psychological moment when possibility takes shape. Uncertainty recedes as we commit to our choices, and life slows and “thickens” into stable commitments and a predictable path.Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Joseph Lee as we continue our exploration of Jung’s alchemical stages. This week, we discuss the concept of coagulatio, or the solidifying of what was once liquid. Coagulatio involves settling into a path, a vocation, a relationship, or an identity. Yet these stages of solidification also carry with them loss. Incarnating something in the real world, whether in our creative life, marriage or career, means letting go of infinite possibility. Coagulatio can be seen as an antidote to puer psychology; signifying the demanding task of growing up and settling down.We also investigate the process of coagulatio in the consulting room, where finding language or images with an analyst can shape our distress into something we can work with. Similarly, dream work offers the chance to condense our psychic turmoil into tangible, relatable images that can be used in a process of growth or transformation.Coagulatio is not a permanent state: the alchemical phrase “solve et coagula” indicates a dynamic rhythm between dissolution and solidification. In the course of our life, we may find our stable path starts to feel joyless and rigid, at which point we may return to solutio, when structures loosen again and must be re-formed. Read the dream we analyze and find this episode’s resource list on our website: https://thisjungianlife.com/coagulatio/Connect With This Jungian LifeDownload our free Dream Recall Meditation GuideSend a dream for us to analyze on the show Take a look at This Jungian Life Dream School, our online course in Jungian dream analysis.Follow This Jungian Life on Instagram

Intruder dreams stage a boundary crisis: something arrives without the ego’s consent, and the dreamer wakes with fear, shame, or outrage. Join Jungian analysts Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, and Lisa Marchiano as we analyze a selection of vivid listener-submitted dreams about intruders. We begin with the word itself, “intrusion,” asking how a visitor can feel deeply unwelcome, but at the same time carry something with the potential to protect, repair or even save us.We cover:How the mind negotiates trauma, dissociated affects, and developmental change.How meaning changes depending on whether we read the intruder as a threat vs as a messenger.How intruder dreams can point to weak boundaries, often disguised in waking life as “being nice” or “keeping the peace.”Intruder dreams as communications of unexpressed anger.Detailed guidance on working with your own intruder dreamThe listener dreams we discuss feature a camel that shatters windows and becomes a man when welcomed; an animus-like husband as mediator between ego and unconscious; blank eyes and the golem as images of unfinished consciousness; and the “friendly threat” of unexpected roommates with bolognese. Read the dreams in full on our website. Connect With This Jungian LifeDownload our free Dream Recall Meditation Guide Send a dream for us to analyze on the show Take a look at This Jungian Life Dream School, our online course in Jungian dream analysis.Follow This Jungian Life on Instagram