If absence is the most compelling form of presence, then emptiness is pregnant with fullness, and the Void is not a place of darkness, but of potentially healing light. That is the unifying theme and underlying message of this wide-ranging collection of essays, brought together in this volume by psychiatrist and Jungian analyst Paul W. Ashton, author of From the Brink: Experiences of the Void from a Depth Psychological Perspective (2007). CONTENTS INCLUDE: * Poetry and Absence: One Writer's Account - Stephen Watson (poet & English professor)
* Music as Dreaming: Absence and the Emergence of the Auditory Symbol - Stephen Bloch (clinical psychologist & Jungian analyst)
* Jung, Some Mystics, and the Void - John Dourley (theologian & Jungian analyst)
* A Concerto of the Heart - Helen Anderson (music therapist)
* Notes on the Edge of Infinity: A Record of an Art-Making Process - Anne Graaff (artist, teacher & art historian)
* The Void: A Neurobiological Perspective - Peter Hodson (psychiatrist & Jungian analyst)
* Embodied Imagination: Form Grows from Emptiness - Tina Stromsted (dance/movement therapist)
* Alone, Within or Without - Paul W. Ashton (psychiatrist & Jungian analyst)
* Theism versus the Void: Pascal's Wager Reconsidered - Peter Collins (philosopher & Public Policy professor) PRAISE FOR EVOCATIONS OF ABSENCE: "This book fills an important gap in the literature of depth psychology. The presence of absence has long been the province of the mystical traditions and psychoanalysts, but we now have a collection of fascinating essays from other disciplines, including the Jungian tradition, on an important subject. The authors provide a glimpse into the problem of the opposites of emptiness and fullness. Through their eyes we may peer into the importance of Nothing."
- Lionel Corbett, M.D., author of Psyche and the Sacred "Our lives today are crammed with consumerism, instant communication, immediate gratification—open, empty spaces are foreign to us. This timely book examines our daily existence from that other side, urging us to think about and find meaning in nothingness. It offers abstract and intellectual debates interwoven with descriptions of personal experiences of a state of being too large to comprehend. This rich and nuanced gathering of material will speak to a wide readership."
- Astrid Berg, Ph.D., Vice-President, International Association for Analytical Psychology "I wholeheartedly recommend this splendid multidisciplinary collection of essays on the primordial image-experience of Absence. Paul Ashton and his co-authors invite the reader to enter into and explore the Void, its expressions and transformations, guided by the ample spirit of the imagination itself. A significant and fascinating book!"
- Joan Chodorow, Ph.D., Editor, Jung on Active Imagination |
