We live in times of uncertainty and anxiety. In these times, how can we best navigate our unknowns? Edited by Leslie Sawin, Our Uncertain World answers that question through a Jungian prism. Carl Jung’s theory has helped many people through difficult times. Jungian perspectives facilitate such challenging navigation by not simplifying complexity but rather by finding the meaningful through-lines that guide the individual toward individuation even in the darkest of times. Using Jung’s unique multi-dimensional approach, this book offers insights and provides answers to questions about life in a state of three-dimensional flux.
Our Uncertain World was born from the premise that we are in a period of ongoing change. The interlocking crises of COVID, national polarization, environmental disaster, and international war can undermine or even destroy the symbols, rituals, and mental structures that give meaning and coherence to our lives. These crises are explored in depth in the book’s three sections, Living with Personal Uncertainty over the Long Term, Social Turmoil: A Moment of Social change for Our Community and Our Nation, and Challenges Facing Our World: Grappling with the Environment, The Pandemic and War.
The authors of this book accompany the reader through the current challenges we face and examine new ways of adjusting to the existing condition of protracted uncertainty. The book encourages the reader to articulate their own challenges and develop their own language to write, speak, and live within the reality of uncertain times. Our Uncertain World provides tools for individuals and groups to formulate new perspectives and life strategies for the current reality.
Aging—what it is and how it happens—is one of today’s most pressing topics. Most people are either curious or concerned about growing older and how to do it successfully. We need to better understand how to navigate the second half of life in ways that are productive and satisfying, and Jungian psychology, with its focus on the discovery of meaning and continuous development of the personality is especially helpful for addressing the concerns of aging.
In March 2012, the Library of Congress and the Jung Society of Washington convened the first Jung and Aging Symposium. Sponsored by the AARP Foundation, the symposium brought together depth psychologists and specialists in gerontology and spirituality to explore the second half of life in light of current best practices in the field of aging. This volume, previously published by Spring Journal and featuring essays by James Hollis and Lionel Corbett, presents the results of the day’s discussion, with supplementary perspectives from additional experts, and suggests some practical tools for optimizing the second half of life.
