Practicing Wholeness

Wholeness is a difficult concept to understand in any field. Psychology and psychotherapy are no exceptions. If wholeness is the goal of our deepest human desire, how best can we work toward that goal over our lifetime? What path is right for us?

In this book, Murray Stein argues that practicing wholeness is relevant to many areas of our lives: our private inner worlds; our religious beliefs, images, and rituals; our organizational involvements; and our cultural paradigms. Practicing wholeness is a daily activity with implications at cognitive, emotional, physical, and spiritual levels.

Stein sets out a general concept of wholeness and attempts to detail what it is made up of by using Jung's theory of instincts and archetypes. He focuses on daily life and on the clinical practice of psychotherapy, exploring the relation of psychotherapeutic treatment to human nature. Finally, he examines several aspects of treatment as these confront the practicing therapist and the patient: the reconstruction of personal history and its meaning; the nature of the relationship between therapist and patient, and the role this plays in the healing process; and some psychopathological problems that stand in the way of practicing wholeness.

Murray Stein, Ph.D. is a supervising training analyst and former president of The International School of Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland (ISAP Zurich). His most recent books include Outside Inside and All Around, Minding the Self and The Principle of Individuation. From 2001 to 2004 he was president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology. He lectures internationally on topics related to Analytical Psychology and its applications in the contemporary world. He is publisher emeritus of Chiron Publications and is the focus of many Asheville Jung Center online seminars.