The Mystery of Transformation

The transformation of personality is mysterious, whether it comes about gradually or suddenly. In part, it is the result of the process of aging. Life itself puts a person through a series of transformations similar to the moultings of insects and reptiles. There are also rituals created by humans in their cultures that facilitate transformations to higher levels of identity and consciousness through instigating a process of spiritual death and rebirth into a greater sense of wholeness. The essence of the process is alchemical and what controls it is mysterious, lodged in the unconscious dynamics of the self. The chapters in this book are attempts at exploring those dynamics while acknowledging that they will forever remain beyond our understanding, a mystery. This work consists of a series of probes into the mystery of the individuation process. Central to the discussion are Jung's late writings on the alchemy of psychological transformation in the late stages of individuation.

Murray Stein, Ph.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the International School of Analytical Psychology Zurich (ISAP-ZURICH). He is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (1977) and of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts (1980). He was president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) from 2001 to 2004 and President of ISAP-ZURICH from 2008 to 2012. He has lectured internationally and authored countless papers and well over 45 books, including Jung's Treatment of Christianity, In Midlife, Jung's Map of the Soul, Minding the Self, Outside Inside and All Around and Jung's Red Book for Our Time Volume 1 through 5 (co-edited with Thomas Arzt). He is currently preparing his Collected Writings, 6 volumes of which have been published to date. He lives in Switzerland and has a private practice in Zurich and from his home in Goldiwil.

Table of Contents

1. The Mystery of Transcendence - A Dream for Our Time

2. Dante's Divine Comedy - A Journey to the Mystery of Transformation

3. The Marriage of Anima and Animus in the Mystery of Individuation

4. "The Piano Lesson" - Wolfgang Pauli's Mysterious Union of the Opposites

5. Mysterium Coniunctionis - "The Mystery of Individuation"

6. Individuation and/vs. Enlightenment

7. The Mystery of Creativity - A Journey in Pictures

8. The Meanings of "Meaning"

9. The Faith of the Analyst

References