"... it is essential to mental efficiency to be able to 'dream' a current emotional experience, whether it is taking place while the person is awake, or while asleep."
Wilfred Bion, Cogitations, 1992, p. 216
"Psychology proper is only about those things that one cannot talk about."
Wolfgang Giegerich, The Soul's Logical Life, 1998, p. 32
"Only because psychologically, logically the goal has already been reached, can there also be an empirical longing after the goal has been reached."
Wolfgang Giegerich, Neurosis: The Logic of a Metaphysical Illness, 2013, p. 189
"Psychology has the job of studying not people or societies, but the soul, that is, the different logical forms that people or societies are defined by and within which they inevitably
live."
Wolfgang Giegerich, The Historical Emergence of the I, 2020, p. 145
"For a psycho-analysis is not an impartial investigation, but a therapeutic measure. Its essence is not to prove anything, but merely alter something"
Sigmund Freud, Collected Works, Volumne X, 1909, p. 104
"Thus nature is here called sublime merely because it raises the imagination to the point of presenting those cases in which the mind can make palpable to itself the sublimity of its
own vocation over nature."
Immanuel Kant, Third Critique, 1790, 5:262
"The Analyst can never be sure that in making the patient throw away a wrong form, he is not going to throw away the contained value."
Carl Jung, Seminar on Analytical Psychology, 1925, p. 10
"A dream never says what one ought to do."
Carl Jung, Seminar on Dream Analysis, 1928--1930, p. 208
"... Dasein, in so far as it is, has always submitted itself already to a "world" which it encounters, and this submission belongs essentially to its Being."
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, 1927, pp. 120--121
"Psychological adjustment is not liberation. The path of spiritual growth cuts off at an angle to that of psychological growth, and to confuse the two may be to get stuck unawares, or
with a sense of disillusionment."
Nina Coltart, The Practice of Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, 1985
A medical, drug-oriented model of human psychology has many problems and one of the most important is the topic of agency. "Solving" a problem without insight and understanding is, psychologically, not really a solution. The modern model of taking a pill to remove pain does not apply to psychology at all and is a fundamentally mistaken approach, rooted in an extremely unsophisticated philosophical understanding of the nature of what is considered "psychological".
Often what we term "mental illness" is an attempt to adapt to a difficult situation or event which is connected to complex facets of our history, character and environment and has to be approached as such. I therefore aim to look at anxiety and depression as often failed and outdated solutions which need to be unpacked and examined rather than blocked or avoided.
Anxiety and depression are all too common, understandable responses to some of the difficulties of modern life and it is usually worthwhile to investigate them so that they do not become habits from which it is hard to escape. This is particularly important in relationships where habits and patterns of behaviour often determine the tone and course of the relationship.
I am happy to provide open advice to anyone investigating psychotherapy or psychoanalysis as many people have questions about the process, structure or contents of such work before they decide to take part in it.
A graduate and past Vice-President of the C.G. Jung Institute in Küsnacht, I hold practice licenses for Canton Zürich and Canton Schaffhausen and am registered to work through Swiss Health Insurance. I have practices in both central Zürich and Schaffhausen.
Address · Sonneggsteig 7, 8006 Zürich
Email · kime@pkime.ch
Tel · 044 586 3392
By telephone, please leave a message and I will usually reply the same day.
Take tram 7 to stop "Sonneggstrasse" (two stops North of Central). Go left across the bottom of the road and you will see steps going up to the right, near to a small, modern bronze drinking fountain. Go up the steps almost to the top. To the left side, there is an iron gate. The door to the practise is red with iron decorations and the bell is on the left of the door.
If coming by car, there are "blue zone" parking spaces and also 2 hour meters all long Turnerstrasse and the surrounding area at the top of the steps.
The above interview is also now available in the book "Breakfast in Küsnacht: Conversations on C.G. Jung and Beyond"
First reading of the draft paper "Consciousness, Reflexivity and Evolution" from the ISPDI Conference November 2021
First reading of the draft paper "Psychology and Entropy" from the ISPDI Topos event, 18.02.2024