Joseph Cambray, Ph.D. is President of the International Association of Analytical Psychology; He is the former US Editor of the Journal of Analytical Psychology. He is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Psychiatry Department, and adjunct faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute. His publications include the book of his Fay Lectures: Synchronicity: Nature & Psyche in an Interconnected Universe, and a co-edited book Analytical Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives in Jungian Psychology as well as numerous articles. Joe is a Jungian analyst with practices in Boston and Providence, RI.
Check out the following Psychology CE Courses based on listening to Shrink Rap Radio interviews:
Jungian Psychotherapy Part 1 (6 CEUs)
Jungian Psychotherapy Part 2 (7 CEUs)
Jungian Psychotherapy Part 3 (7 CEUs)
Jungian Psychotherapy Part 4 (6 CEUs)
Jungian Psychotherapy Package of the Four Above (26 CEUs)
Wisdom of The Dream (4 CEUs)
Positive Psychology (6 CEUs)
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I very much enjoyed Joseph’s viewpoint, and his controlled avoidance of the “wow factor”. Synchronicity is something people assume to be automatically good and helpful, but it’s not always the case, so I was really glad to hear that comment at the end. Jung’s paper was nicely balanced with a level-headedness that Joseph’s conversation shared, but I find most conversations on synchronicity tend to throw caution to the wind with more of a new age “wow factor” to them, so this more balanced view was very refreshing.
One of your best interviews on synchronicity.
Jung seemed to enjoy mysteries and sacred secrets. He fortunately had a synchronous mating with someone who had the wealth to indulge his desires.
I love seeing Jung DE-mystified. Dr. Cambray does an excellent job of suggesting possible causes of what is referred to as synchronicity. It is at least a random event to which we add meaning. Chaos, emergence, randomness are all part of the natural world and seem to be sufficient to explain the incredible.
I have the same problem with synchronicity as I do with THE SECRET.
Crap happens. All the time. One man’s crap is another man’s treasure.
As the old blues singer laments “if it weren’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have any luck at all.”
There DOES seem to be plain old ordinary luck.
Synchronicity is simply luck. Any of us who are alive are here by extraordinary odds. Maybe that’s bad synchronicity because if we weren’t here we wouldn’t have to suffer and eventually die.