51社区

Abstract

In his foundational text, Re-Visioning Psychology, Hillman (1975) defined personifying as 鈥渋magining things in a personal form so that we can find access to them with our hearts鈥� and stated that personifying 鈥渙ffers another avenue of loving鈥� (p. 14). This study explores and demonstrates personifying as an applied, everyday practice of depth psychology鈥攁 way in which the many figures, within and around us, become acknowledged and related to, even loved. A way that needs not an intermediary or therapist, but reawakens the wisdom and brilliance of the heart鈥檚 imagination. Prominent among those with a deep familiarity of personifying are David Abram, Betsy Perluss, Dennis Patrick Slattery, and Patricia Berry. Interviews with these four people have been part of a lyric inquiry that explores if and how personifying can become an everyday practice of depth psychology, and what the gifts of such a practice may be. The result is a creative, polyvalent text that combines story, personal experience, and poetry with the voices and wisdom of those interviewed, with special attention given to the aesthetic value of the work. While certain practices are included, the study explores how personifying, itself, stands in defiance of prescribed practices. It is a spontaneous experiencing that happens, more organically, when certain inner conditions are cultivated and nurtured. This work identifies three inner conditions鈥攅mptiness, attentiveness, and sentiency鈥攁nd provides insight and practices to cultivate each so that personifying can happen more often and originally in one鈥檚 life.