Psychotherapy for end times

Robert Romanyshyn

doi:10.9791/ajpanz.2021.02

Robert D. Romanyshyn Author

DOI: https://doi.org/10.9791/ajpanz.2021.02

Keywords: end times, grief, ecological crises, unconscious dynamics, homecoming, depth, surface, embodiment

Abstract

The broken connections between us and nature have left us feeling homeless in a world not only imperiled by multiple ecological crises and their political, economic, medical and social consequences, but also orphaned by the increasing turn to the allures of the digital world with its loss of place and embodied presence. In this context, this essay proposes that psychotherapy can be a place for homecoming in a fractured world. Exploring the key role of the grieving process in homecoming, I draw on my work in Jungian psychology, phenomenology, poetry and storytelling to show that our engaged, embodied presence with nature can re-mind us of the miracles in the mundane, the extraordinary in the ordinary, and can open our hearts to the wonder, mystery, beauty and sacred dimensions of human life.

Author Biography

Robert D. Romanyshyn, Author

Robert D. Romanyshyn is an Affiliate Member of The Inter- Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. He has published eight books including Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology: The Frankenstein Prophecies, Leaning Toward the Poet: Eavesdropping on the Poetry of Everyday Life, The Wounded Researcher, Ways of the Heart, The Soul in Grief: Love, Death, and Transformation, and Technology as Symptom and Dream. He has also published poems, numerous articles in psychology, philosophy, education and literary journals, written a one act

play about Frankenstein, and in 2009 he created a multimedia DVD entitled Antarctica: Inner journeys in the Outer World. He is a Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and now lives in the Aude region of southwest France with his wife Veronica Goodchild.