THE GAY JUNGIAN BLOG

You see, what makes a relationship strong isn’t just the good times.

Instead, strength comes from a process of rupture and repair, rupture and repair.

We get angry with each other, sometimes we let each other down, but then we come back together, and with time, we realize we’ll always be there for each other, not matter what.

A key concept in Jungian psychology is that most people don’t really know themselves. Most people are only aware of certain conscious ideas about who they are, and most of these ideas about who we are is based on how we compare ourselves to what is “normal” in our environment.

Taking a look in the mirror is tough, and taking a look at our unconscious can be even more difficult.

But the rewards are worth it.

As a psychological researcher, Jung was in many respects a very progressive thinker.

He accepted human nature and saw through the moral expectations imposed by social norms, a radical act even today.

At the same time, though, Jung was also in many ways conservative.

What really caught my eye was the study’s finding that parents were providing HIV information to their adult children. Are they even qualified to do this?

“There was much love in his contact with their sturdy bodies . . .

I’m the sort of person who is wary of people who say they have definitive answers to all of life’s big questions. The spiritual leaders of my childhood never seemed to understand my experience as a gay kid. The answers they provided just didn’t fit.

Maybe we aren’t supposed to know all of the answers.