Transforming Depression: Healing the Soul Through Creativity

by David H. Rosen MD

Overview

In this groundbreaking book, David H. Rosen, M.D., offers depressed individuals, their families, and therapists a lifesaving course in healing the soul through creativity. This is a book about transforming depression and its powerful pull toward suicide into a meaningful alternative.In Transforming Depression, Dr. Rosen applies Carl Jung's method of active imagination to treating depressed and suicidal individuals. Having dealt with depression in his own life and the suicides of loved ones, Dr. Rosen shows that when people learn to confront the rich images and symbols that emerge from their struggles, they can turn their despair into a fountain of creative energy. He details the paths of four patients whose work in painting, pottery, and dance — in conjunction with psychotherapy — led them from depression to a more meaningful life. Their dramatic paintings illustrate the text.

Part One presents an overview of the biological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual factors involved in the diagnosis of depression.

Part Two provides a new therapeutic approach to treating depression, focusing on the symbolic death and rebirth of the ego (ego-cide) as an alternative to suicide.

Part Three presents in-depth case studies from Dr. Rosen's practice.

Part Four discusses how we can recognize crisis points and how creativity can transform depression. The author pays particular attention to the problem of teen suicide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892540617
Publisher:	Nicolas-Hays, Inc
Publication date:	05/01/2002
Series:	Jung on the Hudson Book Series
Pages:	263
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x (d)

About the Author

David H. Rosen, M.D., is a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst who holds the only American full professorship in Jungian psychology, at Texas A & M University, where he is also Professor of Humanities in Medicine. He is the author of four other books, including The Tao of Jung: The Way of Integrity. He lives in Texas.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	xi
	Color Plates	xiii
	Acknowledgments	xv
	Prologue	xvii
Part I.	Background and Context
Chapter 1.	Understanding Depression and the Quest for Meaning	3
Chapter 2.	Knowing Suicide and Its Creative Potential	21
Chapter 3.	Recognizing and Treating Depressed and Suicidal People	36
Part II.	An Innovative Way of Healing
Chapter 4.	Egocide and Transformation: A New Therapeutic Approach	61
Chapter 5.	Healing Images: Symbols of Transformation	85
Part III.	Four Transforming Journeys
Chapter 6.	Rebecca: Traversing the Dark Night of the Soul	101
Chapter 7.	Gary: The Dance of the Dragon	129
Chapter 8.	Sharon: Death of the Inner Witch and Birth of the Creative Self	145
Chapter 9.	Paul: Egocide and the Buddha	181
Part IV.	Spiral of Chance: Symbolic Death and New Lifeo
Chapter 10.	Crisis Points: How Egocide Can Help	209
	Epilogue	223
	Notes	227
	Bibliography	243
	Index	255

Editorial Reviews

"This book will save many lives." —Jane Wheelwright, author of Death of a Woman

Reviews

"This book will save many lives." —Jane Wheelwright, author of Death of a Woman

"One of the most helpful writings on depression and suicide that I have ever read." —June Singer, MD,author of Boundaries of the Soul

"Anyone who is seeling a creative understanding of depression will find hope in Rosen's exploration of symbolic death and rebirth." —Marion Woodman, author of Addiction to Perfection

"An intriguing work of Jungian psychology on a rarely broached but essential subject.: —Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves

From the Publisher