Evocations of Absence: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Void States - Softcover

If absence is the most compelling form of presence, then emptiness is pregnant with fullness, and the Void is not a place of darkness, but of potentially healing light. That is the unifying theme and underlying message of this wide-ranging collection of essays, brought together in this volume. The essays are drawn from fields as diverse as music, art, poetry, religion, neurobiology, dance/movement therapy, and philosophy, and many are written against the backdrop of Jungian psychotherapy. While each of the contributors brings his or her own unique perspective-and, in some cases, personal experience-to bear on the painful experience of the void state, they unanimously strike a note of unqualified optimism that we can, if we embrace that pain, return from the abyss transformed.

PAUL W. ASHTON is a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst living in Cape Town, South Africa. He has lectured widely and written on mythology, art, and psychology, and has a special interest in the Void. His latest book is entitled From the Brink: Experiences of the Void from a Depth Psychological Perspective (2007). His articles and book reviews have appeared in the Jungian journal Mantis and The San Francisco Jung Library Journal.