We close out the extraordinary year of 2020 with what we thought would be the final Quarantine Edition in our series. Turns out there will be more. And the guest list will shock you!

Turning the tables for this episode is the one and only Sir Alan “Tommy” Lascelles (not his real name) to grill Laura about her 5+ years as creator, host, and producer of the enormously successful podcast, Speaking of Jung.

Later, Laura is joined by Liz Jefferson (Ep. 1, 71), companion of the late Jungian analyst Daryl Sharp (Ep. 1, 5). Liz has been Laura’s confidante since the beginning, so the two of them join together on the final day of 2020 to rehash everything that has transpired to date.

Scheduled topics: this year’s new Quarantine Series, all sides of social media, communication with listeners, choosing guests, how Jung is perceived, the difference between reading Jung and applying Jung, favorite guests, bad interviews, the mental health scene, rivals, other podcasts, intros, show notes, music, other forms of therapy, psychotropic medications, frequently asked questions, being the guest, copycats, ratio of men to women, blocking, other Jungians, booking guests, YouTube, the website, only Jungian analysts, getting asked the same questions for years, politics, stealing books, Amazon, BTS, giveaways, two Instagram accounts, listener questions, trolls, opinions, educated guests, Jungian analysis, the paranormal, aliens, UFOs, the New England Patriots, astrology, race on the podcast, narcissism, projection, relationships with analysts, pet peeves, rage on Twitter, shadow work, what is the shadow?

Update 1: We didn’t get to listener questions so they were added to this page on Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. Please scroll down to that section below.

This episode was recorded on Thursday, December 31, 2020. It’s 2:38:42 long and 137.3 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser or download it directly to your computer. It’s also available on on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and on Amazon Music. You can also listen to this episode on your Amazon Echo device.

Update 2: The audio was re-edited and re-posted on Friday, Jan. 1, 2021 at 3:48 pm CT.

LAURA’S LINKS

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Speaking of Jung, Ep. 11 Shaun Lau interviews Laura about her 2015 trip to Zürich, Switzerland

Shrink Rap Radio Hosted by Dr. David Van Nuys

Discussions in Depth Psychology Hosted by Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.

Speaking of Jung, Ep. 52 Listener Roundtable with John Amenta, Norman Buckley, Victoria Hall, Timothy Hull, Peter Stuart Lakanen, and M.J. Walters

Speaking of Jung, Ep. 1 Laura’s first visit to Inner City Books to interview Daryl Sharp

C.G. Jung Speaking: Interviews & Encounters Edited by William McGuire & R.F.C. Hull

Jungians Speaking DVD Set from Chiron Publications

LIZ’S LINKS

Inner City Books Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts

Charlie Arthur Twitter

At the Heart of Matter: Synchronicity & Jung’s Spiritual Testament by J. Gary Sparks, Jungian analyst

Books by Marie-Louise von Franz Published by Inner City Books

Archetypal Symbols in Fairytales: The Profane & Magical Worlds Vol. 1 of the Collected Works of Marie-Louise von Franz

Speaking of Jung, Ep. 71 Inner City Books roundtable discussion with Liz, Dave and Ben Sharp, Victoria Cowan, and Scott Milligen

Who Is Daryl Sharp? Blog post by Daryl Sharp

Speaking of Jung, Ep. 28 Jungian analyst J. Gary Sparks on his book, Valley of Diamonds: Adventures in Number & Time with Marie-Louise von Franz

The BTSxAHCxJUNG Project Inner City Books Blog, Apr. 13, 2019

Russell Brand’s Encounter with Edward F. Edinger Inner City Books Blog, Jan. 6, 2021

CREDITS

Artwork: “The Beginning and the End,” Yoko d’Holbachie

Quarantine Edition theme music: “Subatomic Pussy,” Dhaze

LISTENER QUESTIONS

1. @curtisrobin: What meaning is in a dream that portrays the exact opposite of reality?

Laura: Dreams are compensatory. It’s a compensation. See Episode 29: Dreams & the Dynamics of Transformation with Jungian analyst Richard Sweeney, Ph.D., and the online video course The Interpretation of Dreams with Jungian analyst James Hollis, Ph.D. (By the way, don’t let anyone interpret your dream without your input. It’s about your associations.)

2. @SoylentJohn: In the wake of the last four years, and now the last 6 months, if the most high-profile Jungians—the ones who sell the books and do the lecture tours—have no generative capacity for hope and optimism, does Jung’s work have any worldly utility other than as a passing curiosity?

Laura: To me, Jung’s work is about what is done on the individual level. Perhaps there is no hope or optimism because people – in general – aren’t willing to do the work on themselves. They put the problem outside of themself when all of the issues are within. Do the inner work. That’s all we can do. But very few are willing. Not enough, from what I’ve seen as a result of doing this podcast. People will read Jung but how many are willing to enter into analysis and actually do the work?

3. @Nikoscho: I’m posting this as follow-up question - Is there any place of optimism or pessimism in this age age of the hyperreal and conformism? Do we still need projections like ,,Hope'' which is a Western idea? The same notion of hope is absent in Pre-Global Eastern culture.

Laura: I find the word “hope” to be quite controversial. I was involved in a very intense day-long discussion about the concept of hope during my remote viewing training at the University of British Columbia. Is hope an intention? How valuable are intentions? I can see both sides.

4. @caitlin_step: Who was your favourite guest, who surprised you the most, and are there any episodes you regret?

Laura: My favorite guests are the people I actually know and love and have spent lots of time with: Dianne Braden, James Hollis, Daryl Sharp, Tom Lavin, Ken James. And Christina Becker, too. I would say Sonu Shamdasani surprised me the most: firstly because he agreed to record an episode with me, and secondly because he was so kind and generous and funny! That’s the best episode I’ve ever done and will ever do. But I threw up before and after recording. And yes, there are actually several episodes I regret doing, two of which never got posted. But the ones I regret that were made into episodes I’d rather not call attention to.