Welcome to this Jungian life. Three good friends and Jungian analysts, Lisa Marchiano,

Deborah Stewart and Joseph Lee, invite you to join them for an intimate and honest conversation

that brings a psychological perspective to important issues of the day.

I'm Lisa Marchiano, and I'm a Jungian analyst in Philadelphia. I'm Joseph Lee, and I'm a Jungian analyst in Philadelphia.

I'm Joseph Lee and I'm a Jungian analyst in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

I'm Deborah Stewart, a Jungian analyst on Cape Cod.

Today we are going to talk about chronic illness, and this was a topic that was suggested

in a way that affected me personally by a listener as something that is very common.

Many people have some kind of chronic condition. And it really

struck me as part of the human condition and a difficult part of the human condition.

How do we deal with our bodies and a sense of diminishment. What is the process of psychological and

spiritual adaptation to a condition that is going to be chronic in addition to loss of

physical capability? This is a difficult but I think important and a very human topic that we

are about to embark on. I think this is something that I have seen in my practice on and off

for many years. People coming in feeling deeply sad, deeply anxious, confused about a serious chronic illness, and in a sense,

seeking some kind of a stance, some kind of a relationship to what's happening that feels like solid ground for them.

Well, I think that when we have a chronic condition, it really changes our very sense

of who we are. I think Freud once said something like our first ego is a body ego,

meaning that our sense of self really consolidates

around our physical body, early in life. And there's a way that when we start to feel our physical

capacities diminished. And, you know, there's something about conditions that are painful, where there's this

kind of constant nagging reminder of our physicality in a negative way. You know, it shifts that

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