LECTURE: Experiences in early childhood that cause unbearable psychic pain or anxiety (trauma) can leave the personality and the human spirit threatened with destruction. To avoid this, a defensive splitting of the self occurs in which a "progressed" part of the self casts a spell over a "regressed" part and locks it up in an inner sanctum for safekeeping. This self-encapsulation is out pictured in dreams during the psychological process. In this lecture, using dream examples from the clinical situation and the fairy tale of Rapunzel, we will see how the wisdom of the psyche's archetypal defenses saves the imperishable personal [...]

LECTURE: Dr. Kalsched describes a series of dramatic moments in the psychotherapy of trauma survivors where a breakthrough occurred in the client's access to dissociated feelings. These moments usually occurred when “transitional space”—long since foreclosed by trauma—was re-opened between therapist and patient, and the psyche's mytho-poetic matrix re-potentiated. One sign of this “re-potentiation” is the vivid dreams that often occur at such moments—dreams in which a lost or abandoned “child” appears—often menaced by the psyche's oppressive powers. He shows the parallels between these dreams and those ancient myths that describe the birth and trials of the archetypal Hero—the one who always [...]