Jung

Unconsciously Conscious

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com

Triggers or Tripped

Fascinated by Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious or autonomous psyche I ponder (generally whilst staring into the fire) are there triggers in our life for the autonomous psyche to kick in? Is the collective unconscious the reason for what some people perceive as irrational behavior? However surely it is the most rational if it is predetermined?

Now there are so many choices about which direction to move in that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t just ahead it surrounds us in a plethora of colours and angles which road do you take? The road less traveled is really the road traveled time and time again by the feet of ancestors.

‘It is the matrix of all conscious psychic occurrences, and hence it exerts an influence that compromises the freedom of consciousness in the highest degree, since it is continually striving to lead all conscious processes back into the old paths.’

Jung – “The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology” (November 1929).

Really there is no choice to make your collective unconscious will tell you the path to take. That’s if you can take the time to switch off from the conscious.

Urgent Writing from my Shadow

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com


I urgently had to get to the cafe yesterday where I do a lot of my writing. It was busy because the wind outside was cold, the energy inside was enormous! I had no idea which project I was about to embark on as I opened my laptop and took a sip of my warm sweet latte.

I started with S.E.L.F (my writing tool that I have begun) and reread the piece that I wrote whilst on my road trip;

Sharon had been hiding in the cellar, she was petrified that the world would judge her and so she locked herself away. The lack of light had stunted her growth and she had regressed into a little girl, she thought this was her power and so this was the persona she threw out to the world.  However it was time for her to grow up and become a woman and so she decided to open the door from the cellar. As she climbed the thirteen steps the light hit her and immediatly she grew.  Like a new born she couldn’t see properly for a while, it took time for her eyes to adjust to this different perspective. It took months not weeks before she could stand tall again but one day she looked into the mirror and recognised the reflection, she smiled her eyes wider than ever before.

Immediately it evoked huge emotion and I realised that it was time to plan my Sexpo talk. The characters that I arrived at from Jung’s Individuation Process are so dear to me I cannot wait to share them. If just one person at the talk can relate, understand, smile, laugh or even hate one of my characters or me I feel I will have done my job. I just want to entice people’s emotional openness.

As I have said before I have never spoken to more than about ten people in a room so this is going to be an amazing experience.  At first I was nervous but now I can’t wait, it won’t be perfect and I’ll stumble but I’m starting to realise that is my strength. I don’t mind people watching me clown around trying to find my feet if it makes them smile, laugh and feel better about themselves.  I reckon even if people are laughing at me it means they are growing and have taken me into their heart. If they are anything like me, their brain will catch up eventually.

Sharks & Lovers can be downloaded here

S.E.L.F

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com


Just like most writers I have many projects on the go and sometimes find my head spinning with which one to concentrate on. 

I thought I would take a little time to talk about my S.E.L.F book project as this has been left on the shelf for far too long.

When I started writing my novels I used Jung’s Individuation process to breakdown situations from the perspective of Self, Ego, Shadow, Persona and Animas. Then the characters grew and their opinions became stronger. I didn’t realise at the time of writing that even the sub characters fell into these five categories, (they were probably the parts of my self that I didn’t much like!).

Jung has always been my hero and teacher. His philosophies are always where I turn when I feel I am lost and don’t understand. Knowledge surely has to start with your self.

So my theory is that writing using Jung’s process can help gain many perspectives on situations, people and problems. It breaks things down into manageable bite size pieces and gives insights into many views. It really has been therapy for me and if it can help me I’m pretty sure it can help other people too. That is why I have written my S.E.L.F Writing Solution.

Having spoken to my wonderful therapist friend Renate she has given me lots of suggested reading which I cannot wait to start. She always manages to make you look at things differently which is sometimes a welcome relief. So I will be swotting up on Salvador Minuchin, Virginia Satir, Erik Erikson and Irvin Yalom and many more.

Watch this space for a very different book from Frankie, hmmmm now which one is she!?

Renate Hoffmann can also be found on LinkedIn. Thank you Renate

The Shifting of Persona

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com

When deciding to start writing and to delve deeper into who I am, there were many strange occurrences.  I was realising what made me tick and the parts of me I didn’t like.  I stopped drinking wine during the week and then Feb Fast came along and I decided to give alcohol a miss for the whole month!  If I was trying to find the real me, there was no point masking it with alcohol. I also stopped eating sugar, the highs and lows weren’t helping.  I would wake in the middle of the night from a lucid dream and quickly start writing at my laptop, almost sleep writing.  Sometimes it would be from the characters and sometimes just whatever I needed to get out of my head.  It was all useful.  At the end of February I was skyping my parents and my mum said,

‘You look younger every time we skype’

“I feel it!’ I replied

The paring back of my persona was actually changing my appearance, or was it just the lack of sugar and alcohol? I did notice the corner of my eyes widen.  I then noticed my friends and family were either showing me another side to themselves, or I was becoming more aware of them.  I felt huge guilt at being so blind to these vulnerabilities of the people I love.  Had I spent such a long time not understanding myself, that I didn’t understand anyone else either.  Peoples faces started to look different to me, softer.

I have always had a lot of energy, somewhere along the road I think I trapped it inside, afraid of what it could or would do if I let it out.  It was time to find that energy, I knew exactly where it was.  It was a place I didn’t particularly want to go but we all have to face our demons at some point!

I am standing at the top of the stairs that lead down into the dark cellar.  I am petrified, this is where my fear comes from.  The huge heavy door that I have managed to open is behind me.  I need someone to hold my hand, or at least tie a rope around me so that they can pull me back if I get lost.  Jung did say not to enter into this individuation process alone, now I know why!

I phone a friend and explain that I am standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the dark cellar.  The heavy door that I have opened is behind me.  Luckily my friend is even crazier than me, completely understanding my frustration at the situation. He says,

‘Find the bloody light switch’

My book Sharks & Lovers is available to download here:

Amazon       Kobo       iTunes

In Training

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com

Training – Psychology

Ten years ago, I started a psychology degree at The University of East London; I didn’t exactly fall easily back into education, I was in training. Holding down a full-time job in the city at the same time wasn’t easy.  I seemed to spend most of my waking hours on the cramped London Underground scribbling down experimental ideas and endings of essays.  I did however fall in love with the work of Carl Gustav Jung.  In February this year when I found myself contemplating life and the universe I decided to get back to Jung.  Drawing on his teachings, I started my own individuation process and what came out of it was the beginning of a book. Characters that have obviously been living in my wildest imagination, I love spending time there so it’s not surprising I have made some friends along the way!

For those not familiar with Jung’s ‘individuation’ it is self-exploration.  Looking into your persona, your self, your ego and your shadow, don’t worry the shadow I’ll save for a rainy day!  Finding what lurks in your subconscious is not always pretty.  Paring back past the persona that I project into the world, I started to look behind my eyes at my self.  I needed to deal with some huge feelings of guilt and loneliness, love and hate, self-doubt, confidence and power.

Training – Body

Starting  a new fitness regime called Tough Training; exercise for me had always been about losing fat not building muscle.  I was drawn to the name because I knew I needed to be tough again. The advert of the muscly trainers was very impressive.  At the end of my first session I couldn’t believe how mentally exhausted I was after an amazingly physical workout.  After stumbling back to my car my face was still a shade of crimson.  I sat there looking down at my feet and could not remember which pedal was the accelerator and which was the break.  How can I forget something that I do everyday? Surely, this skill is ingrained in my sub-conscious, never mind my consciousness.  Then of course, I needed to decide which foot to use.  What a metaphor of my life, I had forgotten when to accelerate and when to slow down and even how to do it.  I then realised I had been driving an automatic car for nearly 2 years now.  Could the lack of physically changing gear be decreasing my mental ability to shift gear?

As the weeks went by and I delved deeper into my psyche I lifted weights heavier than I ever thought possible. Training was developing new skills to deal with my emotional state, not just my physical well-being.  I was learning when to reset, accelerate, focus, and recognising when to catch my breath. These invaluable tools were making me mentally not just physically stronger.

My book Sharks & Lovers is available to download here:

Amazon       Kobo       iTunes