Knots and Their Untying: Essays on Psychological Dilemmas

Using the image of knots that are hard, and sometimes impossible, to untie, Ann Ulanov circles around the psychic dilemmas that entangle us, sometimes for decades. These can be heartrending to us and destructive to others, even to those we love. Yet these knots, so peculiarly our own, also open onto human problems we share with others, even across the ages. Hence working on our knots takes us far down to taproots of energy and far up and out to bring that vital aliveness into shared existence with others. Knots thus comprise a ladder, offering footholds and handholds, for descending and ascending between what Jung calls Below and Above, human and divine.

What are such knots? What to do when forgiveness does not happen? What to do with the inferiority of the inferior function? With the question of how much lightning can we stand? With the perils of individuation? These are just a few examples from the essays in this book. The reader is invited to browse the essays according to personal interest or to read straight through. The surprise is that these vexing knots that tie us up and hold us down also give us a mooring; they bind us to a path that is uniquely our own that can bear the fruit of our service to others and to the surrounding whole.