Publications
Circling the Drain: George Carlin and James Hillman on Culture and Language, Book. 2023
One of the best ways to critique a culture is to examine its language. This timely book is the first and only to pair two unconventional thinkers who strove to illuminate the darker corners of our culture: the subversive comedian George Carlin and the renegade founder of archetypal psychology, James Hillman. Its aim is to demonstrate, through the minds of these equally rebellious, unconventional, nonconforming, and controversial men, the effect that language has on our modern culture, and vice versa. Carlin was more than just a hilarious and clever comedian. He deserves to be recognized as an intelligent and subversive thinker who deeply understood the human psyche and modern culture. His style and method of thinking were as penetrating and honest as a skilled psychologist’s. Hillman spent much of his career criticizing the profession of psychology as well as American culture in general. His work is intellectually demanding and the tone is usually serious and often combative.
With a foreword by Carlin's daughter Kelly Carlin.
“The Collective as Aetiology in the Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine”—Journal of Chinese Medicine | Issue 128 | February 2022
This article examines the idea that culture itself may be a contributing factor in individual pathology. A review of the historical understanding of aetiology in Chinese medicine is followed by a discussion of the relationship between the individual and society. How society can make individuals ill is explored in the context of societies’ systems and institutions. The notion that individuals can help heal a dysfunctional culture is also addressed. The final section delves into more practical clinical concerns, including how to converse and work with patients regarding collective sickness.
Comedian George Carlin: Thinking Like an Archetypal Psychologist through His Critique of Language—Psychological Perspectives #63-3-4: In Relation, 2020.
George Carlin was more than one of the most successful comedians of the 20th century. This article examines Carlin’s work and considers his style of comedic thinking to be in alignment with the methods of archetypal psychology. Carlin’s subversive thoughts on language—especially euphemisms in America—are explored and shown to reveal shadow qualities of the individual and collective psyche. Following the ideas of archetypal psychologists Hillman, Berry, and Cowan, this article suggests that Carlin’s mode of seeing through common ideas and challenging the status quo has important cultural implications. In doing so, the article takes a fresh approach by pairing a comedian with deep psychological thinking.
“Chinese Medicine and the Splitting of the Doctor-Patient Archetypes”—European Journal of Oriental Medicine, 2019 Vol 9 (3)
This article explores the dual nature of healer and patient that exists in each person, proposing the idea that a doctor has an ‘inner patient’ just as the patient has an ‘inner doctor’. These basic principles form what are called archetypal patterns. In a clinical setting, these patterns can become "split" through the denial or repression of one side of the archetypal pair, with consequences for both doctor and patient, and the efficacy and outcome of the treatment. This process is discussed, with some suggestions of ways in which the practitioner may minimise its occurence, particularly in the context of TCM treatment.
Smell Your REflections: on the soul’s meaningful scent images
To complete my PhD in Depth Psychology with an emphasis in Somatic Studies, I published my dissertation on the topic of meaningful aromas.