I’ve just spent the last two hours reading Paul Levy’s “The Wounded Healer” essay multiple times. The subject relates directly to something I’ve been struggling with for a long time.
…we become transformed when we recognize that our wound is completely personal and uniquely our own, while simultaneously being a universal, impersonal process in which everyone is participating. It is this shared felt sense that deeply connects us with each other. This is the paradox: An experience of our wholeness, what Jung calls the Self, is both personal and archetypal/transpersonal (beyond the personal) at the same time. To experience this contradiction consciously is itself the expansion of consciousness which initiates a transformation in ourselves, and by extension, the world around us.
Sure, it might have been more fun to go to a movie, but hey, there’s a time and place for everything.
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I hope you’ll pardon me, old friend, if I continue to affectionately play the Stan Laurel to your Oliver Hardy…
I read Mr. Levy’s piece and find much of wisdom in it, especially in the general proposition that we are to confront the darkness within and without and do something with/about it. Yes, I also accept that the trouble in the world – a world made by lots of human beings with lots of wounds – connects up with the trouble in individual souls.
But to my mind there is a thundering silence in these prescriptions. On the one hand there is the individual soul, on the other the great bad world. But where are all the places in between? Where are friends, lovers, neighbors, mentors, professional colleagues? Where is the beauty of a spring day, a verse, a child, a snail or a horse? Where is the joy and satisfaction of understanding how something in this diverse world of ours actually works – whether it be a machine, a game or a political system? Too much of the human world – indeed, the natural world – is being left out of the picture when it’s all about wounds. It’s like being imprisoned in a theatre where only “Macbeth” is ever being shown. The healing of wounds is a fine thing, but it’s not remote from the dailiness of living a life. Sometimes, in my experience, the best way to get healed is to put on your pants in the morning.
This is another find mess, dear Oliver, that Dr. Jung has gotten us into. The old bastard has a lot to answer for.
Hey John-
Has been a long time since I’ve posted, but still really enjoy your site… thanks!
I don’t normally refer websites, but I found one which you might find interesting. Check it out… http://www.eventtemples.com
Best,Ty