Soulwork and Illness with Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

Product Description

In her work as both a medical doctor and Jungian analyst, Jean Bolen noticed a similarity between serious illness and deep psychoanalytical work: both bring people into a personal “underworld” of fears and secrets. Uncovering these usually hidden realities can be profoundly healing. Here Bolen explains the processes that can turn pain into revelation and sometimes even physical recovery–and why this process is not just for those who are ill. “All of us have a life-threatening condition,” she says. “We will all die–we just don’t know when. So what are we here for? Isn’t that what we need to find? That’s the soul journey.”

Bolen is the author of several books including Goddesses in Everywoman (Harper &Row 1983) and Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness and the Search for Meaning (Scribner 1996).

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• What really matters in your life journey
• How serious illness takes you to the “underworld”
• A creative way to end relationships that drain you
• The message of the Inanna myth in modern life crises
• Prolonging terminal patients’ lives through psychological treatment
• How to use the “knife of Psyche”
• The benefits of being a difficult patient
• How patients and professionals can promote soul-level healing
• Why prayer and affirmations work even when you don’t know how
• The return of “The Little Engine That Could”
• The role and needs of supportive companions in illness
• Spiritual healing and meaning through the I-Thou relationship

Host: Michael Toms Interview Date: 8/28/1996