Letting go and (re)discovering oneself is a central question for parents when their children leave home. A new phase of life begins, bringing with it complex and varied feelings. This text helps parents deal with their new identity, free of parental duties, with a focus on the process of "loss".
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Imagining has long been used as a therapeutic tool. Carl Jung developed the concept further by introducing Active Imagination, in which the creative powers of the unconscious produce images which are then addressed by the ego. While Jung never described this method in book form, Kast explains it thrillingly to the lay reader.
In the case of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" - one of two tales retold and interpreted in this volume by noted Jungian psychotherapist Verena Kast - the "open sesame" formula occurs in situations of actual or emotional impoverishment, when we find ourselves in some way restricted. The opening reveals hidden the experience of opening up allows the great treasure within to be revealed.The Myth of Sisyphus, the second story in this volume, also has a deeper meaning. The eternal repetition faced by Sisyphus, as well as by all of us in our daily lives - at times when change would be most welcome - is not unlike the situation of the patient in therapy. "Won't I ever get a grip on my problems?" What is most important is to see the repetition for what it is and to reflect on the subtle changes that occur through this difficult process. In the best sense, Fairy Tales for the Psyche entertains and instructs, giving deeper meaning to well-known stories and, at the same time, to our lives.
When adults read fairy tales, they are generally not just interested in what happens to the they also reflect on the deeper meaning and the "moral" of the story. This compact volume includes the text of Grimms' lesser-known "Mermaid in the Pond", followed by Verena Kast's interpretation of the tale. For those of us stuck in day-to-day routines, Kast shows how to take a reading of our own "passion barometer" by making this story of love, betrayal, death, transformation and renewal our own. Through exploration of our deepest emotions regarding interpersonal relationships - in story, symbol and myth - we can finally overcome our insecurities and fears to acknowledge, and then communicate, what really turns us on.
Emotion is an expression of the self, Verena Kast writes in this study of the neglected emotions of joy, inspiration, and hope. Here, Kast suggests simple techniques for recapturing our joy through development of an autobiography of joy.
Verena Kast refers to Sisyphus as the „myth of the forty-year-olds,“ who often experience their lot in life to be a Sisyphus task. Are our human efforts all in vain, or is there some meaning to be found? In the end, it is a struggle with death itself. Verena Kast deals with a problem that also fascinated Nietzsche and Freud. _ This book is packed with down-to-earth experience, clinical anecdotes, wit and insight. - Murray Stein
In what is often called her most important book, Verena Kast examines the role of mourning in the therapeutic process. Working as a psychotherapist, Frau Kast has often observed depressive illnesses caused by painful losses which have not been adequately mourned. Traditionally, mourning has not been a subject of psychologists' attention. Frau Kast uses dreams to illustrate the stages of mourning and shows systematically how the unconscious stimulates us to encounter our grief.