In this seminar I intend to explore with you the meaning of an enigmatic statement of Jung’s.  He hinted that alcoholism was a ‘misguided spiritual search’.  There are two implications of this.  The first applies to the question of how people come to be addicted in the first place, no matter what their object of addiction; the second relates to recovery in terms of a spiritual path and individuation.  Jung played an oblique, but important part in paving the way for the forming of the Fellowship of A.A.  

How this applies to working in the room with people affected by addiction is what has fascinated me.  Also we may be able to tussle with the question of exactly what we mean by ‘spiritual’.

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Addenbrooke, M.  (2011) Survivorsof Addiction:  Narratives of Recovery.  London: Routledge

Alcoholics Anonymous.  The Twelve Steps.  On Google

McCabe, I. (2015) Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous; TheTwelve Steps as a Spiritual Journey of Individuation,   London: Karnac

Naifeh, S. (1995) Archetypal foundations of addiction and recovery, Journal of Analytical Psychology, 40,1:  133-159

Schoen, D. E. (2009) The War of the Gods in Addiction: C.G. Jung, Alcoholics Anonymous and Archetypal Evil, New Orleans, LA: Spring Journal Books

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