Jung Currents: What's Up with Carl Jung

New Website Address

2010-04-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

This blog is soon going to resurface at:

http://www.jungcurrents.com/

For now, try:

http://www.heartcurrents.com/

Bear with me on this.

(or bear witness to it)

Do Zen Monks Surf the Web?

2008-12-12T13:16:00.000-08:00

The art of letting things happen, action through non-action, letting go of oneself as taught by Master Eckhart, became for me the key that opens the door to the way. We must be able to let things happen in the psyche.

Carl Jung

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Before enlightenment, Chop wood
Carry water.
After enlightenment, Chop wood
Carry water.

Zen saying

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Carl Jung was instrumental in introducing Zen to the West.

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He brought Richard Wilhelm (translator of the I Ching) to the West, wrote the introduction to Wilhelm's Secret of the Golden Flower, wrote the thirty page in introduction to D.T. Suzuki's Introduction to Zen Buddhism.
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There is amazing amount of material both about Buddhism and Zen on the Web. One of the more popular ones is http://www.zenhabits.net/; it has an e-mail subscription list of over 80,000 subscribers.
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According to this website, this are twelve habits of Zen monks:

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1. Do one thing at a time.
2. Do it slowly and deliberately.
3. Do it completely.
4. Do less.
5. Put space between things
6. Develop rituals .
7. Designate time for certain things.
8. Devote time to sitting.
9. Smile and serve others.

10. Make cleaning and cooking become meditation.
11. Think about what is necessary.
12. Live simply.
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(See the website for further elaboaration.)

I do wonder just where the Internet fits into a zen approach to life. The interntetr is frequently is associated with multi-tasking. It does not seem to simplify one's life. (It certainly can become a ritual, though.)

For some, providing the information (like www.wikipedia.com) can be a way of helping others, although since pornography is the number one use of the web, helping others does not seem to be the primary use of the internet.

All the humor on the web and brilliant photographs do help one smile.

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However, no matter how you parse it, being present on the Web is not quite the same as being present chopping wood.
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Perhap the new Zen internet saying could be

.Query Google, be enlightened, query Google.

Source of Jung quotation

C. G. Jung, Psychology and Religion: West and East, Bollingen Series XX, Collected Works, XI, trans. R. F. C. Hull. 2d ed., rev. ed. (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 7.
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Zenhabits
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http://zenhabits.net/2008/03/12-essential-rules-to-live-more-like-a-zen-monk/

Looking for Jung

2008-12-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

If the Internet acknowledges a god, that god has to be Hermes: mediator, communicator, messenger, trickster, patron of merchants, always on the move. His attributes seem as inexhaustible as does the Internet, of which he seems to be the soul.

Dolores E. Brien

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This blog originally started as an attempt to explore how Jungian thinking applies the current culture (and cultural mess) that we are now in. I have been surprised the the limited number of articles that are contemporary; most of the websites are re-hashes of Jungian theory, or sites with un-attributed quotations from Jung. I was particularly surprised that during this last recent archetypal election there was no Jungian commentary I could find, in spite of all the projectons, the shadow material, and the alchemical transformation process that were clearly present. (Can you imagine a five minute Jungian commentary at the end of a newscast? Or at least an editorial opinion in the New York Times? Where are our Jungian journalists?)

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The first website listed on a Google search for "Jung" is the Wikiepedia page on Jung; the second is for the C.G. Jung page, sponsored by the Jung Center of Houston and begun by Jungian analyst Don Williams in 1995. There are substantial resources on the website, including links to 286 articles on Analytical Psychology. However, as far as I can tell, there is no index and no way to search the site. New posts to the page occur about every month.

I was delighted today to come across a blog called the "A Jungian Notebook," by Dolores Brien, with the subtitle "Readings in Techne and Psyche: Jungian and other Sources." Perphaps there is hope yet for a greater Jungian presence on the Web, the most powerful influence in the culture.
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http://www.cgjungpage.org/

http://jungianotebook.blogspot.com/

[Image: "Bidden or not bidden, God is present"; this was the quotation carved over the front door of Jung's house.]

Carl Jung on My Space

2008-11-22T23:53:00.000-08:00

There are more than twenty Carl Jungs inhabiting MySpace.com. (MySpace is a social netoworking website with over 100 million accounts.) Most of these have Jung’s picture as the icon to identify them. The quotation that appeared most often was “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.”

The picture at the beginning of this post was from one of the people who responded to a C.J. Jung website; it seemed to capture a bit of Jungian psychology more than most of the material.

Other notable material included:

BTW.. You’re in my top friends now, but I bet you knew that from the collective unconscious.

Religion: Christian - Other

Interests: Networking, serious relationships

Music: I appeared on the cover of the Beatles album Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I am mentioned in Peter Gabriel's song "Rhythm of the Heat".I have also been mentioned by The Police, Tool and Saigon Kick.
My number one song of all times is Synchronicity by The Police.

Television: In the television series "Northern Exposure" myself and my ideas are often mentioned. I even made an appearence in one of the characters dreams. I am also mentioned in the popular television show "Frasier" Dr. Niles Crane is Jungian psychiatrist while his brother Dr. Frasier Crane is a Freudian psychiatrist.

Movies: My writing was introduced to Italian film maker Federico Fellini in the 1950s and had an effect on the way Fellini incorporated dreams into films after "La dolce vita". In the movie Batman Begins, the character of Jonathan Crane, aka "The Scarecrow", is a Jungian psychiatrist and at the same time personifies one of human kind's primal archetypes (the Scarecrow).

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I was expecting that Freud would have fewer profiles that Jung, since Jung seems to be so much much in current consciousness. Freud had over 100 profiles. This is not a good sign.

Carl Jung: An Anthology of Thought

2008-11-17T19:37:00.000-08:00

(There are a plethora of quotations by Carl Jung on the web, the vast majority of them without an source. This site, "Carl Jung -- an anthology of thought", is one of the best Jungian websites. It provides quoations, with their source, on many of the important topic areas in Jungian thought. -- sparker)
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Our personal psychology is just a thin skin, a ripple on the ocean of collective psychology. The powerful factor, the factor which changes our whole life, which changes the surface of our known world, which makes history, is collective psychology, and collective psychology moves according to laws entirely different from those of our consciousness. The archetypes are the great decisive forces, they bring about the real events, and not our personal reasoning and practical intellect ... The archetypal images decide the fate of man.
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Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice: The Tavistock Lectures (1935). In CW 18: (retitled) "The Tavistock Lectures" P. 183

LibraryThing and the Collective Unconsious

2008-11-14T14:08:00.000-08:00

The internet is a bit like the Collective Unconscious. What if it came to life as some kind of intelligent being? Perhaps Google is working on it; I wouldn't be surprise.

The Web certainly helps link us to one another, a more conscious collective unconscious.

An interesting site for folks interested in Jungian books is http://www.librarything.com. There are about 500,000 people in the community who list their books, provide reviews, make recommends.
When you put it all together you get some interesting statistics:
http://www.librarything.com/zeitgeist.

This is a list of the most listed books

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (36,817)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (34,225),

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (32,836),

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (32,163),

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (31,851),

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (31,633),

The Da Vinci Code (26,487),

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (25,485),

The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again (24,588),

Pride and Prejudice (23,049),

1984 (22,732),

The Catcher in the Rye (21,689),

To Kill a Mockingbird (20,258),

The Great Gatsby (18,535),

The Lord of the Rings (17,738),

The Kite Runner (17,280),

Jane Eyre (16,620),

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (15,834),

Animal Farm (15,179),

Angels & Demons (15,108),

Life of Pi (14,996), Brave New World (14,808),

Wuthering Heights (14,758),

One Hundred Years of Solitude (14,397),

The Fellowship of the Ring (13,989)

Do you think Harry Potter is influencing the collective?

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One can also get an idea of the most popular books of Carl Jung:

Man and His Symbols 1425 copies, 4 reviews
Memories, Dreams, Reflections 934 copies, 7 reviews
The Portable Jung 488 copies, 1 review
The Undiscovered Self 370 copies, 2 reviews
Modern Man in Search of a Soul

or Marie Louise Von Franz:

Alchemy : an introduction to the symbolism and the psychology 76 copies
Shadow and evil in fairy tales 74 copies
The interpretation of fairy tales 64 copies, 1 review

On divination and synchronicity : 45 copies, 1 review
Puer aeternus 41 copies

On LibraryThing, you can find other Jungians by seeing who lists Jungian books, or add Jungiana to the weight of the LibraryThing collective unconscious.
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The Way of the Dream

2008-11-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

Marie Louise Von Franz met Carl Jung when she was 18. He agreed to see her for analysis in exchange for her translating certain Greek and Latin alchemical tests. At the end of his life, he turned of the problem of numbers and archetype to her; out of that she wrote Number and Time. She has written over twenty books, including The Feminine in Fairy Tales and Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales. She interpreted over 68,000 dreams.

Her keen intellect and deep wisdom is captured in an extraordinary ten hour film series, The Way of the Dream. This work was unavailable for almost fifteen years because of a lawsuit after the death of the producer of the film series, Fraser Boa. It is being published by the Marion Woodman Foundation. (Marion Woodman is the sister of Fraser Boa, and makes an appearance in the film series as a much younger person, in a blue dress.) The distribution on DVD is limited to 1000 copies.

This is one of the most amazing, remarkable and important films that I have ever seen.

You can order it:

http://www.wayofthedream.com

It is also being shown Friday nights through Januaray at 7:00 p.m., at 415 First Avenue, if you are in the Fairbanks neighborhood.

The Dream of Gilgamesh: The First Recorded Dream

2008-11-09T21:59:00.000-08:00

Gilgamesh got up and revealed the dream, saying to his mother:

Mother, I had a dream last night.

Stars of the sky appeared, and some kind of meteorite of Anu fell next to me.

I tried to lift it but it was too mighty for me, I tried to turn it over but I could not budge it.

The Land of Uruk was standing around it, the whole land had assembled about it, the populace was thronging around it, the Men clustered about it, and kissed its feet as if it were a little baby.

I loved it and embraced it as a wife.

I laid it down at your feet, and you made it compete with me.

Commentary: Marie Louise Von Franz

This dream is about forty-six hundred years old. Still today we can find modern parallels for the language of the unconscious has changed much less than the language of human consciousness. So if we interpret this dream from a modern stand-point we could say that up to the moment before the star fell upon Gilgamesh, he fulfilled the collective role of a king. He was the hero-king. He is typical of a man who ambitiously follows a collective pattern. Nowadays, he might be a great politician or a movie star -- a man who has followed up certain collective alleys and reached a goal.

Looked at from within, such a person reacts in a very collective way fulfilling a collective role of power. They are generally not very individual.The star, on the contrary, represents his uniqueness -- every soul has one star in the heaven. We can say that up to the appearance of the star Gilgamesh, with all his collective power and achievement, had not done anything unique. On the contrary, he had only fulfilled the typical pattern of the hero-king. The, probably, about the middle of life (because that is where it most frequently occurs), something changes.

While he is walking around among his subjects, proud of his own power position, a star falls from the sky onto his back. It turns out to be a very heavy load. That is the moment when his unique destiny befalls him, literally falls on his back. That means that just as Christ had to carry his cross, Gilgamesh now has to carry the burden of having to become the unique, chosen individual, a task which he as avoided by being an ambitious, collective man.

Marie Von Franz, The Way of the Dream, pages 69- 70.

Source of Text

http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab1.htm

Source of Image

http://www.historywiz.com/galleries/gilgameshking.htm

Echoes of Martin Luther King

2008-11-05T14:10:00.000-08:00

There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.

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Carl Jung

Martin Luther King, from his last speech, April 3, 1968:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
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From Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, November 4, 2008:
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The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

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It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come.

Sam Cooke, A Change is Gonna Come, 1964

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Listening to Obama’s brilliant acceptance speech was an extremely emotional event. I have never seen so many people crying so much. The echoes of Martin Luther King’s last speech were clearly there. Obama’s speech brought back memories of the assasination traumas of the sixties, yet also provided a way to finally move past them, to move back into the territory of hope.

Links

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-29-obama-video_N.htm
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Last part of the I Have Been to the Mountaintop speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8
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Text and video of Obama’s acceptance speech
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/politics/bal-text1105,0,2684817.story.

A Change is Gonna Come

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUT1WgHat6I

Obama, Pain, and Consciousness.

2008-11-04T23:02:00.000-08:00

Time, slightly altered, October 13, 2006

There is no consciousness without pain.

Carl Jung

This country as been in chronic pain for many years, in a state of racial tension since its founding; out this has arisen a transformative, conscious figure.

The pain in Barack’s life (the absence of his father, being part of a racial minority) led to him to reflect deeply on his place in the world. Because of his struggles and his strong intellect, I think Barack will be the most conscious president we have yet had. The is the real beginning of the new millennium.

In the 1950, Pope Pius XXII Xiii declared the dogma of the assumption of the Virgin Mary; that Mary would essentially be part of the godhead. Jung got very excited about this, believing that it was a transitional moment in human consciousness – three had become four, the feminine was now being accepted into consciousness.
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Obama’s election is similarly a pivotal moment; he is both Black and White, the union of opposites, a transformative moment.

His election is a testament to hope and healing. The old order has given way to a youthful, but at the same time, more mature consciousness.

Dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-xii_apc_19501101_munificentissimus-deus_en.html

Window on Eternity: The Paintings of Peter Birkhauser

2008-11-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

Peter Birkhauser began his artistic career doing graphic design, posters and potraits. A severe mid-life depression led him to Jungian analysis with Marie Louise von Franz. He recorded over 3400 dreams, and began painting from them once he began Jungian analysis. It took him twelve years to finally understand that he needed to paint completely from his imagination. His works capture the numinosity of the dream world as no other artist has.

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The website "The Jung Page," from the Jung Center in Houston, has a wonderful slide show of his work. They also sell a two disc DVD collection, "Peter Birkhauser, a Modern Artist who Breaks the Mold", narrated by Jungian analyst Dean Frantz.

Birkhauser said of the artistic process:

I experience a power within myself which is not the same as my conscious ego. It has forced me to adopt a path quite foreign to my conscious attitude, a path which totally contradicted my will and everything I considered important. Before I was able to obey this power, I first needed to be crushed and almost destroyed. I often felt it was a pity this process had taken so long, but now, looking back over thousands of dreams and the sacrifices of a long, hard development, I can see how valuable the experience has been. (In conversation with Dean Franz, ca. 1975)

This mysterious power has its own will and ends. It knows things that no human being could know. So I'm sure it would not be wrong to give it the name of God. It is after all greater than every human faculty. It is what we impute to God, to know the future, or to know what an individual should do in the decades ahead. (In conversation with Dean Franz, ca. 1975)

A new book on Birkhauser (Window on Eternity) by his daughter (Eva Wertenschlag-Birkhauser) has just become available. This is a summary from the book:

Many of the dream images painted by Swiss artist Peter Birkhauser (1911–76) portray the big problems of our time: our divisiveness, possession by unconscious factors, suffering from the loss of religious values, the Unknown God knocking at the door and wanting to enter, our inability to understand evil, the world of the feminine yearning for redemption, and so on. Because the paintings of Birkhauser come from the deep wells of dreams and give them authentic form, they are mirrors of healing processes in the soul. Marie-Louise von Franz said of Birkhauser's work, "His paintings are not depictions of his own problems, but rather seek to reveal what is taking place in the depths of the collective unconscious in all of the people of our time. Because of this, they are not easy to decipher: they are simply there, and wish to be experienced." This book is an attempt to track down the meanings of the mysteries in the work of Peter Birkhauser. Included are 53 reproductions of paintings by the artist.

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The Jung Page, Peter Birkhauser Gallery

http://www.cgjungpage.org/index.php?

DVD about Peter Birkhauser

http://www.cgjungpage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=888&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=6

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Birkhauser

Book: Window on Eternity

http://www.biggerbooks.com/bk_detail.aspx?isbn=9783856307158

Political Ideology and Dreams: Republicans have more Nightmares than Democrats

2008-11-01T01:25:00.000-07:00

(with apologies to John Henry Fuselli, The Nightmare, 1792) sparker collage 2008

You may have seen the headline a few years ago - "Republicans have more Nightmares than Democrats." The study by Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D. was presented at the conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, held at the University of California, Santa Cruz in July of 2001. He didn't set out to study nightmares. His study simply looked at male and female college students who strongly identified themselves as either liberal (left) or conservative (right), and analyzed many different characteristics of their dreams.

Bulkeley collected "recent dream reports" from over 400 college students between 1996 and 2001. The students provided information about their political views as a part of a survey that asked several different questions about political beliefs. Most college students did not identify a strong affiliation with any political ideology, but some did. Bulkeley wanted to study the dreams of equal numbers of male conservatives, female conservatives, male liberals, and female liberals. Only 14 males identified themselves as conservatives, so 14 students from each of the other groups were randomly chosen for the study. Dreams were "coded using the Hall and Van de Castle content analysis categories for characters, social interactions, emotions, settings, misfortunes, and good fortunes." Bulkeley further notes that "each dream was coded by myself and one or two additional researchers who were blind to the political affiliation of the dreamers and the overall purpose of the study."

Here are some of the results that did not make the headlines:
People on the left were more likely to have females as characters in their dreams, while people on the right dreamed twice as much about male characters as about female characters.

People on the left had fewer familiar characters, fewer friends, more family members, and fewer animals; people on the right had more familiar characters, more friends, fewer family members, and more animals.
People on the left were less often the initiator of aggressive interactions in their dreams, and their aggression was less physical in nature; people on the right were more often the aggressors in their dreams, and their aggression was more often physical.

People on the left had a greater number of dreams involving friendliness and good fortune, and fewer dreams involving misfortune; people on the right had a greater number of dreams with misfortunes, and fewer dreams with friendliness and good fortune.

Male rights had the lowest percentage of family members and instances of sexuality, and the highest percentage of animal characters and being the aggressor.

Male lefts had the highest frequency of female characters, and the fewest instances of aggression.

Female lefts had the lowest percentage of being the aggressor in their dreams, and the highest frequency of friendliness and good fortunes.
Female rights had the highest frequency of sexual interactions and physical aggression. (Bulkeley, 2001)

Bulkeley goes on to summarize his results in the following manner:
People on the right had more nightmares and dreams in which they lacked power. They had a greater frequency of lifelike dreams. Female rights were especially anxious about family relationships, and male rights had dreams almost devoid of girlfriends. People on the left had fewer nightmares and more dreams in which they had power. They had a greater frequency of good fortunes and bizarre elements in their dreams. Female lefts had an especially high frequency of good fortunes, and male lefts had an unusually high percentage of female characters. (Bulkeley, 2001)

This is a pilot study that needs to be replicated with a larger sample before we can draw any real conclusions. Bulkeley was constrained by the small number of conservative males in his sample, and he presents his results without the benefit of statistics. He is cautious about trying to explain the results, and he acknowledges that his own political views may color his interpretation. He reports being surprised that party officials felt the need to comment on his study.

Bulkeley speculated on the reasons for his results in his original paper. He offered two very different scenarios that would both account for his data. He speculates that both interpretations probably have some merit.
Scenario I:The dreams of the people on the political right reveal them to be insecure, anxious, conflict-ridden, and emotionally repressed. When they are not terrified of imaginary threats they cling to the comforts of the status quo. They seek a kind of power through their political views that they lack within their deeper selves. By contrast, the dreams of people on the political left show them to be creative, progressive, and imaginative. They are confident in their abilities and willing to think beyond the boundaries of the present to envision new possibilities for the future. (Bulkeley, 2001)

Scenario II:The dreams of people on the political right reveal them to be highly attuned to the actual dangers and threats of the waking world. These people are realistic, grounded, honest about the frailties of human nature in the face of danger, and appreciative of the good things in present-day life. By contrast, the dreams of people on the political left show them to be irrational, naïve, utopian, and deluded by their own fantasies. These people are out of touch with the real world, and they wish for powers they do not have in actuality. (Bulkeley, 2001)

Since the press reported the 'nightmare' portion of the study many different people have reacted to the results. Bulkeley recently reported the following reactions to his study:

To my surprise and amusement, this little research factoid—“Republicans have more nightmares than Democrats”—was quickly seized by political partisans on both sides who did not hesitate to assert their interpretation of my findings. Terry McAuliffe, Democratic National Committee chairman [left], declared “If George W. Bush were the leader of my party, I’d have trouble sleeping at night, too.” Not to be outdone in the game of “dream spinning,” Kevin Sheridan of the Republican National Committee [right] quickly replied, “What do you expect after eight years of William Jefferson Clinton?” The reaction was not limited to politicians in the U.S.: Alexa McDonough, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party (on the left side of the political spectrum), said she was not surprised by the findings of my study because true liberals follow their dreams to find creative solutions for problems: “The very essence of building a better world starts with dreaming…. Until we get politics being about chasing dreams again, we’re going to be causing people a lot of nightmares, and we’re mostly going to be implementing right-wing nightmares.” (Bulkeley, 2001, personal communication).

It's important that we see this study for what it is - an interesting pilot study that suggests some surprising relationships between political ideology and dreams. It makes some sense to me that the worldviews of conservatives and liberals would result in differences in their dreams. It is also possible that the findings of this study are random occurrences - that these only represent the odd dreams of this particular set of people. Until the appropriate statistics can be used on a larger sample, we can't interpret these results beyond these particular 56 people.

Source: McNulty, Jennifer. "Republicans Nearly Three Times As Likely As Democrats To Have Nightmares, Says Researcher" Association for the Study of Dreams press release, July 2001.
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http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/academicpsychology/a/conservative.htm

The Nightmare, John Henry Fuseli

http://www.answers.com/topic/nightmare

Jung, Halloween and the Shadow

2008-10-31T14:07:00.000-07:00

What your Halloween costume says about you

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

By NANCY CHURNIN / The Dallas Morning News

Usually, most of us try to be on our best behavior. We dress appropriately, speak politely and try to fit in with others where we work, where we socialize and where we go to school. Then comes Halloween, where despite the economy, 64.5 percent of consumers plan to spend a total of $5.77 billion on the holiday this year, according to the National Retail Federation's recent survey.

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It's an opportunity for a shy musician to transform into a scary witch and for children to don fairy wings and imagine themselves in flight.
And that's great, says Ron Schenk, a Jungian analyst with private practices in Dallas and Houston.
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"Halloween gives a place for those parts of our psyche that don't fit in," Dr. Schenk says. "You can dress up as a princess and feel you are the center of the universe. If you're scared, you can deal with your fear by dressing up as something dark and powerful. You can give your inner yearnings a place at the table, to acknowledge that that they are part of you."
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Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, the founder of analytic psychology, identified archetypes, such as that of the hero, as universal patterns that exist in our subconscious and emerge in a variety of forms. He also described what he calls the "shadow," such as the monster, as the part of ourselves that we deny and sometimes project onto others.

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An essential component of Jungian therapy is to accept our desires and fears and integrate them into our lives. Dr. Schenk believes Halloween can provide a great release, especially in tough times like these where many may be too tense to fully express our hopes and fears. And that makes it all the more important not to worry about what others think, but to be guided by your own inner voice telling you who you need to be.

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We talked with local Halloween fans who are doing just that. Here are their thoughts and Dr. Schenk's on what they chose to wear.

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HERO
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Richmond Punch, 28, artistic director of the Dallas Uptown Youth Orchestra, has been dressing up for years as the star of Undercover Brother, a 2002 film starring Eddie Griffin about a man who goes undercover to fight an evil establishment. At first glance, the mild-mannered Juilliard-trained musician seems as if he's going for his opposite when portraying this smart-talking, gold necklace-wearing toughie with the big Afro. But on closer inspection, Undercover Brother is a hero who saves the day. And a hero is very much how one can view Mr. Punch, who has devoted himself to the challenge of bringing music into the lives of underprivileged kids by persuading their parents to give them the opportunity to be in an orchestra for the first time.
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Why Mr. Punch likes it: "He rescues people. I feel strong when I wear this costume. I feel that I can change things in this world as he did."

Dr. Schenk says this seems like a good fit for Mr. Punch, noting that the hero wears many faces, from Superman to the Lone Ranger to Harry Potter. "The hero figure is born in an unnoticed place, raised in obscurity, and emerges to try on a role that is larger than life. The hero often is an alter ego, wearing a mask or taking on a mysterious identity. He or she goes over the line, in an epic battle or quest to get the hard-to-attain treasure and bring it to the right place."
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FAIRY PRINCESS
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Jessica Shen, 7, and her sister, Crystal, 3, love Halloween. And Jessica says that this year, she will be trick or treating in her favorite costume ever. Two years ago she was a bumblebee, but the costume was a little hot. Last year, she was Sleeping Beauty, but the dress was a little loose on her shoulders. This year she thinks she has it just right as a fairy princess who can fly. It's even more fun that her sister likes to wear a costume just like it.
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Why Jessica likes it: "I like when people say my sister and I are so pretty and so cute," says Jessica. "And I like the way the wings make me feel that I'm flying in the wind."

Dr. Schenk finds this a very positive choice, especially for younger children. "Girls need to have the feeling of being the center of the universe, a quality which is at the core of positive self-esteem. You can't build a healthy personality if you don't feel worthiness at your core."
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WITCH
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Erin Hannigan, 36, principal oboe of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, usually crafts her own funny costume, like a moose, or a slice of pizza or a candy bar, to make kids laugh when she performs at the DSO's annual Halloween family concert. But when she goes to a Halloween party for adults, she prefers dressing up as something scary like a witch.
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Why Ms. Hannigan likes it: "I'm a pretty shy person. It's empowering when I dress up as a witch because they're aggressive, and that's not who I am. Also, every day I try to get myself to look as good as I can. So it's fun to go out there and look as hideous as possible, which is completely different than I do the other 364 days of the year. It feels like an adventure." Dr. Schenk describes the witch as a figure that would appeal to someone who is creative. "

Witches are powerful. They have a connection with supernatural forces. The image of the boiling cauldron transforms even the mundane act of cooking into something magical."
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MUMMY
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Humberto Gallego Montes, 5, has been obsessed with mummies ever since he started hearing about them at his preschool at the Museum of Nature & Science. His mother, Maria, says he talks about how he wants to live forever and take all his treasures with him. He also tells her he doesn't want to scare anyone. Humberto wants to be a "funny mummy" that makes people laugh. During the phone interview, Ms. Montes says he made a mummy out of aluminum foil and wrapped it with toilet paper.
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Why Humberto likes it: "I want to feel how it is to be wrapped around. I like the idea of preserving my body forever so they can remember me."
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Dr. Schenk notes that this choice touches on the desire for eternal life and a hunger to learn. "In a culture like ours that denies death, mummies suggest that chemical treatments and special concoctions can help you live forever. Also, there's a sense that wisdom will come if you can live through the ages."

VAMPIRE
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Stephanie Kozlovsky, 16, has wanted to be a vampire ever since reading Stephenie Meyer's best-selling Twilight series. She brought her friend and fellow Twilight fan, Audrey Hodson, 16, to get their pictures taken as what she calls "newborn" vampires. She is drawn to the idea of eternal life, of the romance of the story and the allure of being different.

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Why Stephanie likes it: "I like the sense of power that vampires have and that they have such a hard choice between good and evil. I like the way Edward [the vampire in the book] has to overcome his thirst for blood not to hurt Bella. And I like the way that for one night I can look so wild and crazy. It helps me get all that out of my system so I don't mind going back to school the next day in my uniform."
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Dr. Schenk speculates that the growing interest in vampires in popular culture may be a reaction to cultural repression. "The popularity of vampires might be attributed to a thirst for soul or life in its raw, pristine form, not homogenized, not sterilized or white-washed, but with all the passion and instinct, grit and guts, which are associated with the 'dark side.' Blood is the flow right at the core of life. It signifies essential experience which is often painful, yet makes life real.
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Original Article from the Dallas Morning News, Nancy Churnin
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/healthyliving2/stories/DN-nh_masks_1028gd.ART.State.Edition1.12aa84b.html

Books by Ronald Schenk

Dark Light: The Appeance of Death in Everyday Life

Quest, the Wasted Fisher, the Pregnant Fish: Post Modern Reflections in Depth Psychology

The Soul of Beauty: A Psychological Investigation of Appearance

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=ronald+Schenk&x=4&y=22

Halloween Theme: Flying Purple People Eater

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVbGnspgy_8

Halloween Theme: Monster Mash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZJSW_7YLVs