On Healing

Healing is a word in the title of this blog so perhaps a word or two on this word.  I am like a rabid dog in constant search of what we mean by healing or what I mean by healing.  Sometimes the word has me experience "yuck" because it conjures up "broken" "victim" "powerless" while other times it conjures up "courage" "quest" "depth" "underworld".    As this author suggests, it is an empty metaphor in psychology.  It is banal in the medical model conception of health.  I love James Hillman although he challenges me always to come up with my own conceptions and the part of my mind that wants absolutes hates James Hillman.  Enjoy!

"In Re-Visioning Psychology Hillman suggests that "The soul sees by means of affliction"(1975/ 1992, p. 107), and "The wound and the eye are one in the same"(ibid.); and indeed Conrad's wound [from the move Ordinary People] drew his attention inward, allowing him to focus on what he could not see before- so the wound healed. I mean this transitively: The wound healed Conrad. If we get caught in the medical model, we will attempt to get Conrad's functioning back up to the level which he imagines as ideal, to heal the wound, rather than letting the wound heal."

http://www.arespress.com/AresPages/Heal/Heal.html

One piece that is woefully left out here is that of connection and relating. Healing happens in relationship.  I believe this in my bones.  It is not an inside job  - it is a relational job that permeates the inside.  I find it curious the word "job".  As Novalis said, "The seat of the soul is there where the inner and outer worlds meet."

Have a great day!  Off to study for exams!