At the end of the day, psychological integration is not salvation. And I think that most people who have done the work will be ready enough to concede that. This is not the end of the road, it’s not salvation. What do we want? We don’t want just integrated individuals, but we want a redeemed order of being, we want justice on earth.”
Sean McGrath is a Professor of Philosophy and Theology, a renowned researcher of the philosophical roots of the unconscious, and a former professed Catholic Monk. In this episode, McGrath first shares some of his learnings from the monastery, before helping us to understand how Jung (mis)understood evil, and the role of the feminine in Christianity.
McGrath helps us clarify the difference between psychological integration and religious experience and how Christ, at the heart of our western imagination, is not to be viewed as a symbol of the Self but of God.
Last, but not least, McGrath helps us to connect how inner work and individuation links to the actions in the outer world: how by laying down your life for your community you might find the inner peace that you seek.
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Biography
Sean McGrath is a Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Memorial University of Newfoundland and an Affiliate of the School of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal. He has published widely on the history of psychoanalysis and the concept of the unconscious. After a stint as a training candidate at the CG Jung Institute in Zurich, he became increasingly critical of Jung’s interpretation of Christianity, although he remains committed to Jung’s general approach to psychology, which he sees as very much in line with German Idealist psychology, and which he calls the psychology of productive dissociation.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_McGrath_(philosopher)
Publications
The dark ground of Spirit, Schelling and the unconscious, (Routledge 2012)
The psychology of productive dissociation, or what would Schellengian psychotherapy look like?, Comparative and continental philosophy, vol. 6, No 1, 2014, 35-48
Sexuation in Jung and Lacan, International journal of Jungian studies, 2: 1, 1, 2010
The question concerning metaphysics: A Schellengian intervention in analytical psychology, International journal of Jungian studies, 6:1, 23-51
Music
Music played in this episode, ‘Bed’ by Ketsa, ‘Amsterdam’ and ‘Amsterdam Blac Koyote Remix’ by Lasers licensed under creativecommons.org by NC-ND 4.0.