they're baaaack

September (noun) : the month in the northern hemisphere when all the analysts who were on holiday during the month of August, return en masse to their analysands (who have now added 'separation anxiety' to their list of ailments)
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We in the Northern hemisphere know that our summer holidays are over when the last long weekend holiday (Labor Day) arrives in early September and the therapists return. The release of Cronenberg's new movie, "A Dangerous Method" about Freud and Jung in the early 1900s coincides with this return.

(And maybe the new FoxTV show, "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" set to begin just before the holiday season also is no coincidence - the number of therapy sessions increase over the holidays largely in part due to family stress.)

Some non-therapeutic factoids about September from Wikipedia (for what it's worth) -
(1) the beginning of the meteorological autumn is 1 September in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of spring in the Southern hemisphere;
(2) in Latin, septem means "seven" and septimus means "seventh" and September was the seventh month of the Roman calendar until 153 BC;
(3) September begins on the same day of the week as December every year, because there are 91 days separating September and December, which is a multiple of seven (the number of days in the week); and,
(4) no other month ends on the same day of the week as September in any year.

more psychobabble

psychobabble (noun) : what you say about what your therapist says, as opposed to what he or she says
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A repeated definition for those readers who are paying attention, but one worth repeating.

Several people I know often come up with "great titles for books" but no idea for the book itself (nor the desire to actually write a book). One suggested a coffee table book of great book titles, which I think could be a best seller with the right visuals and synopses. Another idea - an autobiography that only lists chapter titles for each period of your life (provided you've led an interesting and long life).

The blog called, "Things White People Like" (which more accurately should be called, "Things White Men Like") is part of this "listing" genre of writing (and it seemed to get the writer money, a book, some press and a tour over a list of things that for any other group of people would have been deemed prejudicial, racist, sexist, or some other -ist and gotten the author sued or banned or fired from his job at Aflac). Apparently you can get away with anything as long as you target white males.

Anyway, since 'listing' things seems to be a popular form of writing, perhaps a list of psychobabble terms to throw around in your everyday conversations would be of use? Here are a few of my favourites (that may or may not be topics for future posts):

disregard for boundaries
secondary compensation
passive aggressive
nether reaches of pathology
psychic rubble of the past
disowned desire
comfortable silence
intervention
projection

Let me know if you care to share of few of your own!

Dating Carl Jung

extrovert (noun) : the loud mouth next to you
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Well, Jung's theories officially have been highlighted by match.com in an article on "how to date an introvert," so perhaps he's not so very uninteresting.

See http://www.match.com/magazine/article.aspx?TrackingID=525061&BannerID=653997&ArticleID=12167

last words on regression

Just because Jung and the extrovert post that had been planned became boring.

my own private idaho

introvert (noun) : one who is focused on, and is often preoccupied with, one's private mental experiences, feelings and thoughts
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Carl Jung's theory of personality classified people into two groups - introverts and extroverts. Sort of like belly buttons, you're either an "innie" or an "outie". An introvert possesses a hesitant, reflective, or retiring nature that keeps to itself. Of course, an introvert also can shrink from external objects, may be slightly on the defensive and sometimes prefers to hide behind mistrustful scrutiny.

So what's an innie to do?

The thing about Jung is that while he did a lot of study on the theory of personality, he didn't seem to apply it in a productive way. That's where the folks like Myers and Briggs (if you work in a big corporation, you know who they are) come in, to classify and then give tips for communication.

http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/

Jungian psychologists also make money on developing tools and tips on this. But do we really care? I mean, it's not like you can blame your parents. You just pay for the personality typing and tips or tools and move on.

At least if Freud had developed this theory, he would have worked in something about sex just to keep us interested.