From the Brink: Experiences of the Void from a Depth Psychology Perspective

by Paul W. Ashton

Overview

A commonly encountered experience of both analyst and analysand is that of the void. It is spoken about at different stages of therapy and refers to experiences that have different origins. Sometimes the experience of the void is around a relatively limited aspect of the psyche but at other times the void seems much more global and threatens to engulf the entire personality; the whole individual psyche then seems threatened by the possibility of dissolution into nothingness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781855754447
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/27/2007
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Paul W. Ashton is a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst living in Cape Town.

Table of Contents

Introduction — The Territory — On the territory of the void — A walk on the wild side: connecting "the void" with people — Primary or secondary? — Psychotherapy and spirituality — ORIGINS of the VOID EXPERIENCE — Introduction to ORIGINS of the VOID EXPERIENCE — Empty of oneself — The void in psychogenic autism — Another "black hole" — Memory within the Borderline condition — Trauma as a void experience — Amplifications — Myths and legends of the Creation — Dimitri's void — The King's sacrifice — The "Birthday Present" — The dark night of the soul — Treatment — Introducing the management of void states — Aspects in the treatment of void states — Connections, walls, and windows — On active imagination — Individual Experiences — Void as a gender experience — Void as a gender experience

Editorial Reviews

”Paul Ashton's exploration of the human experience of the Nothing is a courageous undertaking. The Brink of the Void is encountered not only in response to primitive terror or severe trauma, but also as an almost inevitable aspect of the refining fire of the Individuation process. Ashton is informed about this experience by a broad canvas drawn from mythology, literature, art, music, religion, spirituality and film. He has found words and images for that mute state of existential abandonment. His clinical experience and wisdom are apparent.

Joy Jobson

”It is very good, and an interesting topic that is not often written about....[T]he scope of the book is very broad. [Paul Ashton] exemplifies the best Jungian thought that is both clinically grounded and also has a mythological and imaginal sensibility.

Spring Journal and Books

Paul Ashton’s work on the Void is a first and profound effort to make conscious the void, emptiness, or nothing, that precedes all conscious image and form as their originary source. His approach is Jungian but in it he relates the experience of the void to mystical experience and to dimensions of the psyche to which Jung points in his appreciation of apophatic mystics, but which he never formally elaborates in his corpus. Ashton’s work points to a dimension of psyche which precedes the archetypal into which the ego dies in cyclical and never-ending processes of bringing its wealth to conscious birth as the foundational task of historical humanity, individual and collective.

John Dourley

Paul Ashton’s work on the Void is a first and profound effort to make conscious the void, emptiness, or nothing, that precedes all conscious image and form as their originary source. His approach is Jungian but in it he relates the experience of the void to mystical experience and to dimensions of the psyche to which Jung points in his appreciation of apophatic mystics, but which he never formally elaborates in his corpus. Ashton’s work points to a dimension of psyche which precedes the archetypal into which the ego dies in cyclical and never-ending processes of bringing its wealth to conscious birth as the foundational task of historical humanity, individual and collective.”

”It is very good, and an interesting topic that is not often written about....[T]he scope of the book is very broad. [Paul Ashton] exemplifies the best Jungian thought that is both clinically grounded and also has a mythological and imaginal sensibility.”

”Paul Ashton's exploration of the human experience of the Nothing is a courageous undertaking. The Brink of the Void is encountered not only in response to primitive terror or severe trauma, but also as an almost inevitable aspect of the refining fire of the Individuation process. Ashton is informed about this experience by a broad canvas drawn from mythology, literature, art, music, religion, spirituality and film. He has found words and images for that mute state of existential abandonment. His clinical experience and wisdom are apparent.”

From the Publisher