Episode 66 - Cults

This Jungian Life Podcast

Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, Lisa Marchiano

Jungian, Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Psychology, Dreams, Jung, Relationships, Selfhelp, Society & Culture, Psychoanalysis

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2019

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Although cults occasionally make the headlines through tragedy or scandal, the defining features of cults are inherently human and manifest on spectrums of both severity and size. The word cult is derived from culture. While culture refers to the overarching characteristics of a society, cult refers negatively to a marginalized subgroup. Cults tap into universal human feelings and desires, such as the need to belong and resonance to parental influence. Although as adults we are no longer dependent on family and tribe for physical survival, our psychological needs for safety and attachment remain powerful. Deb, Lisa, and Joseph consider today’s polarized political divisions, the power of a rock concert or Fourth of July parade, and other ways in which the tension between the opposites of belonging and individuation manifests.

Dream

I am my current self with my current boyfriend, but I had just got married to a woman. This woman had a very powerful presence and felt radiant. She gave me a beautiful silver ring with a turquoise stone, but it didn't fit properly so I kept losing it. Each time I found it, she would add to the ring and make it even more beautiful. I told my boyfriend that I married her and that I am very happy. He took it well, and asked if we could still talk to each other and see each other every day. I said I didn't think there was a problem with that.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this Jungian life.
0:03.0	Three good friends and Jungian analysts, Lisa Marciano, Deborah Stewart and Joseph Lee,
0:09.0	invite you to join them for an intimate and honest conversation that brings a psychological perspective to important issues of the day.
0:17.0	I'm Lisa Marciano and I'm a youngian analyst in Philadelphia.
0:22.0	I'm Joseph Lee and I'm a youngian analyst in Philadelphia. I'm Joseph Lee and I'm a youngian analyst in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
0:27.0	I'm Deborah Stewart, a youngian analyst on Cape Cod. Today we wanted to tackle the topic of cults which has been a topic that has been suggested to us by several listeners.
0:47.8	And we're going to do what we always do, which is try to examine it from a union perspective and see how we can understand this fairly ubiquitous
0:58.2	phenomenon of being subjected to undue influence through a union lens.
1:05.0	I'm responding to your resonating to your comment about undue influence.
1:12.0	And where I've gone is to your comment about undue influence.
1:12.6	And where I've gone is maybe in the opposite direction,
1:17.3	which is to our human longing to belong, our human need for a family. Even if that family can be
1:27.8	very strict or demanding or challenging we belong.
1:33.0	And it seems to me that this current environment,
1:37.0	cultural environment that we're in is one that's very fragmented,
1:41.0	that demands that we find our own places of security and career direction and
1:46.2	maturation and puts us very much in ourselves with this unbelievably daunting
1:52.0	task that we be all things to ourselves and that
1:56.7	the cult phenomenon although it's probably as old as time has taken on new energy as a compensatory way of providing people with structure and
2:08.9	a sense of meaning and belonging.
2:14.4	Absolutely.
2:15.2	It really speaks to our deep need for meaning
	...

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