CYNTHIA LUFT, M.A.

New York License 0014611

Certified Jungian Analyst

Counseling Women

NYC

(212) 254-3950

Westchester

(914) 524-9488

by appt. only

What is unique about a Jungian approach to therapy or counseling?

“The very fact that through self-knowledge, i.e., by exploring our own souls, we come upon instincts and their world of imagery should throw some light on the powers slumbering in the psyche, of which we are seldom aware so long as all goes well.” C.G.Jung (p.119, The Undiscovered Self)

   C.G. Jung’s orientation is guided by the notion that there is within each of us, what can be thought of as, an  “always already whole.” Jung called this aspect of the psyche the Self. The idea here is that there is a guiding center of the personality and it is the essence of individuality. The Self is represented in dreams, fantasies and images. Part of the work in therapy is to recognize and interpret these representations so that their meaning is understood and their impact is experienced. 

Jung’s work offers a way to engage one’s individuality, through the interpretation of your inner images. His depth psychological perspective is oriented to the big question in life: What is the meaning of existence? My patients find that this approach offers help with depression, anxiety, difficulties in relationships and feelings of futility and despair. It is a break set from the more familiar striving for perfection that is so much a part of everyday thinking and operating that it seems “normal” and can be difficult to recognize.

Jung considers this self, the Self, to be the basic organizing principle in the personality. In everyday terms, this means that there is a guiding wisdom that is part of everyone. Some call it the soul, inner wisdom or spirit. But, we need assistance in recognizing this influence and learning to decode or interpret its meaning from dreams, fantasies and emotional reactions for example. As the above quote implies, we often don’t have any idea that there are such possibilities within us as long as life goes well. It is when life doesn’t go so well that we are more likely to seek help and therefore, find new ways out of the same old problems. 

The specific focus of my approach is from a “Neo Classical Jungian” theoretical method. This approach incorporates the classical ideas that originated from C.G. Jung (1875-1961) and extends those ideas, thus the ‘neo’, in such a way as to address the specific sources of the distress in the individual within the current cultural context. The modern human being is deeply affected and formed by concepts that originated and evolved during the Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment, centered in the eighteenth century. This is the time in Western philosophy and cultural life when Reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority.

I help the women who come into my office recognize the ways that they are effected by these ideas that are so much a part of the way we think. This way they become better able to access their own symbols, intuition, personal knowledge, authority and inner instinctive truths, which have been hijacked by the influences of scientific proving, rationalization and positivism. The efficacy of the imagination, symbolization, intuition and feeling become revivified. An excessive reliance on proof, logic and the rational mind often result in silent symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, addictions and other distortions of the personality.  

The Neo Jungian therapeutic approach recognizes that there are particular stresses in the individual psyche that derive from this modern and postmodern period, cynicism being one and perfectionism another.

This Neo Jungian view and approach is being articulated by a group of NY Jungian analysts at:  www.JungNYC.com