Title:
Author: Erik Hendrick Carpio
Publication Date: 2022
Bibliographic Citation:
Hendrick, C. (2022). Influencia de C.G. Jung en la psicoterapia de Stanislav Grof. Revista de Investigación Científica Humanística de la Universidad Antropológica de Guadalajara, 8(15), 11-28.
The present essay looks for evidence of many points of coincidence between the transpersonal psychotherapy of Stanislav Grof and the theoretical elaborations of Carl Gustav Jung; it could even be said that Grof's theoretical work is a continuation of some aspects of Jung's work. In any case, when one reads Grof's work, the influence that it has received from the work of the Swiss psychiatrist is evident, and Grof himself recognizes the valuable contribution that Jung has made to his own work. In reading Grof's books, it can be recognized that the author constantly resorts to notions and theoretical elaborations on the structure and functioning of the psyche that have been initially addressed by Jung. It will be reviewed how Grof ventures into the exploration of expanded states of consciousness from the notions of Jung's notions of complex psychology.
Keywords: transpersonal psychology, consciousness, archetypes, synchronicity, psychedelic therapy
Next, we'll review the most relevant points of convergence between C.G. Jung's work and Stanislav Grof's, attempting to examine some key concepts from Jung's oeuvre and understand how they've been integrated into Grof's psychotherapy.
It must be admitted that the work of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung has not yet been fully understood or entirely assimilated by existing studies and research in contemporary psychology. As Sánchez (1961) stated, "Jung's work is simply gigantic, in volume, significance, and content" (p. 121). One could even say that some of Jung's concepts, notions, and postulates are often misinterpreted due to their complexity and the depth of the themes he addressed. Quiroga (2015) notes that Jung's work is "complex, extensive, variegated, sometimes seemingly contradictory, and difficult for the Spanish reader to access" (p. 6), and mentions that Jung is little studied in the Spanish language and that little is known about his important and advanced contributions to the field of psychology. Because Jung maintained a lifelong interest in topics related to various Eastern and Western philosophical currents, the mythology of diverse peoples, comparative religions, the study of occultism, and mysticism, he has often been associated with the New Age movement. However, all of Jung's postulates stem from an empirical and phenomenological perspective—the phenomenology of the psyche.
According to Grof (2002) himself, over 60 years ago, a psychedelic experience with LSD ignited his interest in the study of expanded states of consciousness. His experience led him to a profound feeling of connection with the cosmos, which in some way changed his perspective on the notion of reality, leading him on a path of search and exploration for the rest of his life. Since that experience, Grof has focused on investigating the therapeutic potential of expanded states of consciousness and their transformative and evolutionary effects. However, the development of his work has not been an easy task, as he has had to confront certain existing stances in psychology and psychiatry that do not recognize the scientific validity of the empirical study of psychic reality to present his ideas and conceptions about expanded states of consciousness. These stances are primarily oriented by a positivist and materialistic paradigm. Grof has had to become a conceptual innovator in the field of psychology, and his work, in many aspects, has revolutionized contemporary psychological notions, leading him to be considered one of the founders of transpersonal psychology. In developing new concepts, Grof has repeatedly turned to Jung's notions regarding the structure and anatomy of the psyche. Therefore, it's understandable to see certain correlations between the theoretical postulates of both psychotherapists; for example, the similarity between Jung's complexes and Grof's Condensed Experiences (COEX) systems, or the states of consciousness described by Grof during the experiences of the four perinatal matrices and during transpersonal experiences in relation to Jung's concepts of the archetype and the collective unconscious. It should be noted that the work on archetypes gains significant relevance in Grof's work, as he, like Jung, considers them to be cosmic, primordial, and timeless principles (Grof, 2014).
Grof's work evolved to create a detailed cartography of the deep human psyche, which is very helpful for psychotherapists working with experiential therapies where expanded states of consciousness are explored and transpersonal experiences are accessed, which then need to be interpreted, assimilated, and integrated. In the interpretation process, it becomes necessary to understand to some extent the anatomy of the psyche to comprehend the origin of the content accessed during expanded states of consciousness, and in this regard, Jung's notion of psychic reality plays a very important role.
Grof's ideas have enabled the creation of bridges between knowledge from various wisdom traditions and transpersonal psychotherapy. Above all, Grof's work in psychotherapy has empirically demonstrated the healing and transformative power of experiences related to accessing non-ordinary states of consciousness through various techniques such as the use of sacred plants, breathing techniques, deep introspection techniques, ecstatic dances, among others (Grof, 2002).
It is important to find the common ground between Jung's analytical or complex psychology and Grof's psychotherapy because this will allow for a clearer and deeper understanding of the theoretical foundations of Grof's transpersonal psychology and psychotherapy. When Grof explains perinatal experiences and transpersonal experiences, he refers to various concepts that Jung developed throughout his work, such as the collective unconscious, archetypes, complexes, synchronicity, the psychoid aspect, etc. Furthermore, both Jung and Grof were medical psychiatrists who developed therapeutic systems aimed at integrating the opposing aspects of the human psyche and a deep understanding of spiritual experience. As mentioned at the beginning, in a sense, Grof's therapy constitutes a continuation of Jung's psychoanalytic therapy in terms of the pursuit of human development, individuation, and the expansion of consciousness. De los Santos (2015) observes that Jung's ideas had a certain influence on the birth of transpersonal psychology, and that figures like Grof constantly cite Jung's work.
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