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Free Saint George and the Dandelions Essay Sample
Introduction
The field of Jungian psychology has been growing rapidly over the last two decades. Wheelwright J. is one such author who has increased its awareness and its increasing relevance to life's predicament in his book "Saint George and the dandelions." This paper will critique wheelwright's work in the book "Saint George and the dandelions."
Critique
The book is written in a distinctively refreshing way, this means that it is meant to be read by tired analytical psychologists who have open minds and want to rediscover that act of taking psyche seriously. But again when the analyst is considered to have discovered themselves, it should be a close second to combine humor with seriousness. According to the author, St. George is an admission that "the hero archetype is a particular pitfall for me" (pg.30). on the same page, there is the admission that when patients have frightening needs mobilizes the whole of himself to accompany them and march them such that he can find himself being taken over by the image of St. George. Seriously, this image gives him that kind of jolt, like it was a monkey's glands squirting. Although there is claim that it gives the ability to do a lot of things and have all sorts of courage and strength that is not normally there, there is claim that it is a fearsome thing to do.
From a Jungian perspective, psychotherapy is about fostering individualism, and according to Wheelwright, it is about "being who the person is meant to be." But individualization is a unique challenge for transgender people because basically it is challenging for them to be who they are meant to be. They are challenged by societal norms and many expectations from the family as they are not only challenged by certainty of the biological stability of sex and gender. Therefore, as much as Jungian psychotherapy can help people as explained by the author, the author fails to show that it has a "cure" of transgender issues. There is a cultural shift called the transgender movement which the author does not explain how these transgender people can be themselves 'to be the person they are meant to be' (Fraser L. 2009). Clearly, the author fails to make a case for transgender issues and how they can be themselves.
Another important aspect is that of topology. Even among the Jungians themselves, there are some disagreements about the same despite spirited efforts by Wheelwright to convince otherwise. But for Wheelwright, he stresses the importance of Jung's theory of types and stresses further in page 272 that "I find them indispensible in relating to and communicating to my patients..." this is just but a contradiction as some Jungians de-emphasize this and disagree with this view (Mattoon, M. A. and Davis, M. 1995).
The book is more of a myth than reality taking into consideration that psychotherapy is just but a new and even foreign concept to most people. The myth is viewed as an expression that is responsible for us to dream from the author's perspective. In his perspective on the section that is devoted to Jung, he describes his unconscious theory and the concept of archetype. He describes the unconscious part as the largest and gives an account of Jung's interpretation of the archetype related to myth. This is just but an obsession of myths as the association does not immediately come to mind. To him he only knows that all Jungians are kind, sensitive, loving and loving people. Yet in his foreword, he says that he wonders about Carl Jung's whole contribution. This is double speaking, yet on the same page he wonders how practitioners make people feel better just by meeting them without practicing.
Conclusion
Jungian psychology has been growing rapidly over the last two decades and Wheelright's book is written in a distinctively refreshing way, this means that it is meant to be read by tired analytical psychologists who have open minds and want to rediscover that act of taking psyche seriously. But again when the analyst is considered to have discovered themselves, it should be a close second to combine humor with seriousness. But again the book fails to address transgender issues.
