Brigitte Dorst Resilience Building inner strengths ISBN: 978-3-8436-0632-5 Hardcover 176 pages Format 12 x 19 cm EUR 14.99 Stress on the job, separation of partners, serious illness burdens like these can be devastating for some individuals. However, others are able to manage these crises well. In the field of psychology theses energies of resistance of the soul are called resilience. They allow us to stay psychologically balanced even in difficult life situations. In this book, Brigitte Dorst elucidates the definition of resilience from the perspective of depth psychology and explains why we need it, especially in difficult times. By means of many effective depth-psychological exercises, the experienced Jungian analyst and psychotherapist enables readers to strengthen their resilience, their energies of psychological resistance. Author: Dr. Brigitte Dorst, professor for psychology, Jungian psychoanalyst and psychotherapist in private practice in Münster, is training analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute Stuttgart and academic director of the Internationale Gesellschaft für Tiefenpsychologie (International Society for Depth Psychology). Professional focus: the psychology of symbols; crisis intervention; aging; spirituality. For many years she has been conducting study programs in Analytical Psychology as well as leading a meditation center.
Contents Introduction Part 1: Overcoming Difficult Times 1. Resilience as Energy of Life and Resistance What Is Resilience? Vulnerability and Resilience The Beginnings of the Research on Resilience Factors of Resilience for Coping with Life Burnout, Stress, and Resilience Attitudes Towards Life which Promote Resilience Spirituality and Awareness as Inner Sources of Energy 2. Understanding Existential Crises and Difficult Situations in Life What is an Existential Crisis? What Causes and Increases Existential crises Stress in Situations of Existential Crisis Burnout-Crisis Existential Crises because of Separation, Divorce, and Death The Significance of Fear in Existential Crises Existential Crises and the Search for Meaning Part 2: Resilience from a Depth-Psychological Perspective 1. Basic Ideas of Analytical Psychology The Collective Unconscious and the Archetypes Become Who You Are the Concept of Individuation The Self as Center of the Personality 2. Fantasy, Imagination, and Intuition as Powers of Resilience The Creative Power of Fantasy Imagination and Healing Intuition the Deep Knowledge from Within 3. The Inner World of Images and Symbols What is a Symbol? The Concept of Symbols in Analytical Psychology Working with Symbols: How to Get Involved with Symbols Promoting Resilience with Symbols
Part 3: Strengthening the Soul with Inner Images and Symbols 1. Exploring the Streets of Life: The Way 2. Finding Protection and Security: The House 3. Growing and Standing Fast: The Tree 4. Managing Difficult Tasks: The Mountain 5. Eliciting the Inner Light: The Sun 6. Regaining the Sources of Life: Water 7. Hoping and Beginning Anew: The Rainbow 8. Arriving at One s Own Center: Spiral and Labyrinth 9. Connecting and Holding Together: Thread, Ribbon, Rope 10. Trusting the Wisdom of the Heart: The Heart 11. Following Well-Tested Landmarks: Fairy Tales and Stories as Counseling Depth-Psychological Approaches to Fairy Tales Stories as Sources of Wisdom Part 4: Becoming Reconciled with Oneself 1. Deepening Self-Knowledge 2. Meditation and Self-Reflection Conclusion: Emerging Encouraged from Difficult Situations in Life Acknowledgements Appendix Notes Bibliography
Extract Introduction The book does not offer off-the-shelf prescriptions but well-tested exercises, advice, and a practical knowledge base, to help you develop a personal repertoire for strengthening your own psychic resistance your resilience. You should not feel pressured by overly optimistic goals for selfimprovement. On the contrary, the point is to handle life s daily challenges more easily, with less tension, and even to meet crises and exceptionally stressful situations with greater understanding, thanks to the enlivening and inspiring power of the symbolic, unfolding through fantasy and imagination. Above all, the book s practical exercises are meant to support readers in their process of psychological growth and maturation, i.e., individuation. I will discuss the concept of individuation, which is central to the Analytical Psychology of C. G. Jung, together with other foundational ideas, in Part Two of the book. Thanks to the decades-long researches of Emmy Werner, today we know the protective factors that play an important role in allowing children to thrive in even a difficult environment. Current studies of resilience center on discovering which elements in people s circumstances enable them to overcome difficult living conditions and stressful events, and identify resilience-promoting factors that can be cultivated, even in adulthood. You will find extensive information on this subject in Part One of this book. Part Two introduces C. G. Jung s view of the human psyche and the world, and explains the importance of working with inner images and symbols as a way to strengthen resilience. Parts Three and Four are devoted to practice. Above all, they offer guidance for exercises in imagination relating to specific motifs and symbols, especially to images and themes whose healing power has been demonstrated. Thus you may think of the book as an invitation to travel in your inner world. We dream of travels through the universe: Is the universe not within us? The depths of our spirit are unknown to us. The secret path leads inward. Inside us or nowhere is Eternity with its worlds, The past and future. NOVALIS
Part 3 Strengthening the Soul with Inner Images and Symbols Chapter 2 Finding Protection and Security The House Since human beings became settled, giving up the nomadic life, the house has been our dwelling place, our locus of living. Thus it stands as a symbol for the wholeness of the person. The house offers protection and shelter. It is the cave for modern humans. Even in prehistoric times, caves in earth and rock had a special meaning for people as places of security and places for living. People sought shelter in caves from threatening weather. Caves were also the dwellings of Earth and Mother Goddesses. The symbolic meaning of the cave is associated primarily with the protective and enclosing aspects of motherhood, the memory of the womb. Let the symbol of the house enter deeply into you. After relaxing for a moment with your eyes closed, allow the image of a house to take shape before your inner eye. First, though, read through the following guide to imagination, and with that, try to imagine the house of your life in all its details. You can have the following text read to you, slowly and with many pauses, or you can record it for yourself. After imagining the house, it is especially helpful to paint or draw it. A Tour through the House of Life Let yourself be led on a path through inner landscapes in your psyche. After a while you find yourself standing before a house that attracts your attention. It is the house of your life. First look at it from the outside. How does it affect you? How does one get in? Is there a surrounding fence or hedge? You see a garden gate, which you open. Now you go up to the front door. With your key you open the door. You go in, and slowly you make a tour of the whole house. What rooms do you enter? What do you find in each of them? How does it feel to be in this house? Does it have a characteristic smell? Calmly and carefully, look around your house. Is it built on a firm foundation? Can it stand up to storms? Are the outer and inner walls secure? What is the condition of the walls? Does the house have a protective roof? Can one feel at home here? Now that you have learned about your life-house from outside and inside, leave it, close the door, and make your way back. Open your eyes again, but keep the inner image before you. When you ve returned to the here and now, go on attending for a while to the aftereffects of your guided imagination. Now ask yourself the following questions: What does the house of my life look like? Which rooms did I see -- the kitchen, with stove and table; living room; bedrooms; toilets; bath; hallways? How many doors and windows were there, connecting to the outside? What furnishings are in the rooms? How much does the interior of the house seem to be in need of repair?
Did I feel sheltered and at home in these rooms, or was it unpleasant in the house? Did I feel cold, even unprotected? When I was inside the house, was there a way to get into the cellar, the attic? Is anything stored there, from earlier phases of life, which might want to be rediscovered? Are there some things that should finally be got rid of? How did everything look in the kitchen? Is cooking happening there? Is nourishment being prepared? Are there enough supplies, signifying good selfcare? What might be missing from this room? In looking around, did I feel that the house of my life might be too small? Did I have an impulse, or do I have one now, to change the house that appeared in my imagination? Is it becoming clear that a move is called for? Using a depth-psychological interpretation, the house-motif has to do with one s selfimage and present situation. A cellar can stand for the unconscious, an attic for old memories. The bedroom is a place of rest and intimacy. The kitchen relates to themes of nourishing and being nourished and self-care; it also serves as a place of transformation, through the fire and heat of the stove. A bath brings up themes of purifying and physical care. A neglected and dilapidated house points to themes of problematic self-care and poor self-acceptance. A house with many different interior spaces shows a differentiated personality. In crisis situations it can also be helpful to fantasize a dream-house in which one feels safe, sheltered, protected, and tended by good spirits. My Dream House What would such a house, a house of protection and retreat, need to look like for you? Can you imagine it in concrete detail? If you urgently needed such a place of retreat right now, where could you find it? At the home of a good friend, in a religious cloister, at a familiar vacation place? Such a house of protective retreat plays a part in the Grimms fairytale The Girl without Hands. A sign hangs over the house s front door: Here each one lives free. The heroine of the story, the girl without hands, stays in this house for a time with her son, Sorrowland. Under these conditions of retreat and healing, tended by good, angelic spirits, her hands, which had been struck off in her youth by diabolical forces, grow back again. Translation: Ann Conrad Lammers, Peterborough, New Hampshire, USA.