The book is my attempt to address some rather thorny academic debates involving language: Does it represent our experience or create it? Do our words reflect a pre-existing reality or do they construct it? Such debates, with numerous philosophical repercussions, have polarized academics in recent years, and the book is my attempt to help heal that polarization.  

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As you might imagine based on the title of the series, this is a work heavily influenced by Carl Jung. It is my way of bringing his psychology to bear on philosophical issues that, on first glance, may seem far outside the purview of psychology. But it has always been my understanding that the field of psychology needs to broaden its area of concern; it is not just a discipline to be confined to the clinic or consulting room. As I understand it, psyche (what some refer to as mind or soul), pervades all that we do, and no area of human endeavor is irrelevant to the field of psychology. 

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Although the book has little to do with the art of life coaching, prospective clients may find it of interest and may even catch a glimmer of my coaching philosophy within its pages: Both as a coach and as an academic, I hold the conviction that there is meaning and purpose in psychological symptoms. The psyche, as I understand it, has an innate drive towards wholeness. Often unknowingly, we seek integration of our disparate selves, our contradictory impulses and opinions, our inner antagonisms and dissociations. Because this is the case, frequently what appears as an annoying stumbling block, symptom, hang up, or issue, often contains a kernel of something that we need to integrate. Jung has an interesting way of framing this sort of question. He claims that it is not just that we cure ourselves of a neurosis. In a very real way, the neurosis cures us. Put in different terms, the issues and hang ups that arise in our lives are not only asking to be resolved, their resolution requires a shift in our conscious understanding.

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If you would like to know more about Symptom, Symbol, and the Other of Language, it is just one click away. Having clicked, you will see a more in-depth synopsis of the work, a table of contents, and a link to the introduction, which you can also find here.