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The Flight to and From Addiction
• Classroom Question?
• So what is the craving behind addiction?
The Process of Individuation
From Latin “individuus” – “undivided,” “whole”
A process of psychological differentiation, having for its
goal the development of the individual personality

Not to overcome one’s personal psychology and
become perfect, but to become familiar with it
Increasing awareness of one’s unique psychological
reality, including personal strengths and limitations, and
at the same time a deeper appreciation of humanity in
general
When we are on the path, we are at the goal
The Self

The Center of the Psyche
 The “Central Archetype”
 Like the Sun in the Center of the Solar System
 Archetype of order, organization, and unification
 Unites the personality
 Responsible for fulfilling the blueprint of life
 At birth – all is the Self
 Connecting bridge to “The Unity”
 Goal is psychological wholeness and completeness
 Transpersonal, transcends the ego
Jung’s Landscape
Psyche refers to the totality of all psychological
processes. It “embraces all thought, feeling, and
behavior, both conscious and unconscious. It functions
as a guide which regulates and adapts the individual to
his social and physical environment.”
J u n g ' s M o d e l o f th e P s y c h e
ego
Ego-Self Axis
Personal
unconscious
consciousness
C
A
A
Self
A
C
C
A
C
collective
unconscious
A
A
C
A=Archetype
C=Complex
C
Adapted from Stevens, 1990, pg. 29
Is Their Meaning in Addiction?
• Call that is challenging my being?
• Creative connection?
• Similar experience of being enslaved by the
energy behind creativity?
– Are they both drawn to the dark regions of the
soul?
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Addiction a Counterfeit Quest for
Wholeness?
“The night darkens the spirit, but only to
illuminate it”
•Leonard states – “here was my hope”
•Confrontation with meaning of our existence
•Purposeful journey?
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Etymological Roots: Addiction
• ORIGIN mid 16th cent.:
adjective addict [bound
or devoted (to someone)
• From Latin addict‘assigned,’ from the verb
addicere = to say
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Addicts Experience Possession
• Give ourselves over to almost anything
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Food
Sex
Shopping
TV
Gambling
Relationships
EBAY
Facebook
Money
Power
Identity (our minds)
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Possession
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Dracula Syndrome
• Giving ourselves over
• Possessed
If there is going to be transformation – the individual has to
admit that they allowed themselves to be taken over
Individual chooses to take the first drink – maybe too many
first drinks and we become bound by a demon lover who
takes over our soul
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Demon Lover / Dark Passenger
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Let’s Talk About Denial
• We can’t see ourselves
• We need a crack in the ego
• Is the crack a voluntary act
or is it
… Grace
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What Characterizes Addiction?
• Addiction brings me to face the void
• Brought me before death
• Fear, anger, and anxiety
• It’s about wanting order, perfection, and control but being
unable able to get it
• Power struggle with reality – we deny “what is”
• Can bring us to awakening
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Creativity and Addiction
• Create ORIGIN late Middle English – 1150 CE
(in the sense [form out of nothing,] used of a
divine or supernatural being)
• From Latin creat- ‘produced,’ from the verb
creare.
The use of imagination or original ideas
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Leonard’s Essence of the Matter
• Creativity and addiction?
But to choose to be taken by the creative call – was
this not the challenge of creativity? Was this not my
urge to drink the “spirits” of the alcohol ultimately a
desire for the higher spirit of the creative?
The Creative Daimon
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Creative Daimon
• In ancient Greek belief: a divinity or supernatural
being of a nature between gods and humans.
• An inner or attendant spirit or inspiring force.
• Socrates said it was an inner voice that guided
him
• Rilke once said that he did not want to undergo
psychoanalysis because it might remove his
“devils” and he might also lose his angels
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Clip Immersion
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Daimon: Angels and Demons
• According to Jung the energy of the psyche, is by its
nature daimonic – it is a force that carries destructive
capacities and capacities for self-discovery
• Jung said: “If evil were to be utterly destroyed,
everything daimonic, including God himself would suffer
a grievous loss”
• Thus we have to take the creative fire or the desire
behind our addictions and make a turn toward
wholeness
• Addiction is a “dysdaimonic act” of giving oneself over
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Battle for Control in the Psyche
• The creative [she/he] must negotiate the
• While the addict tries to escape the tension
poles between succumbing to the creative
of existence – must live through the tension
genius (being possessed) and then believing
of existence. Often the addict becomes an
they are the genius
object via their addiction
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Song Conclusion...
• Constant Craving K.D. Lang.