2008/07/01 by Richard Trousdell · 2 citations
Psychology · Arts and Humanities · #Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications #Jungian Analytical Psychology #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
paper · doi:10.1525/jung.2008.2.3.5
openalex publication_date 2008/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
An early version of this paper was given at the North American Conference of Jungian Analysts & Candidates in 2006 in San Francisco, California, under the title, “Imagining Aeschylus as Clinical Experience.” The paper analyzes the Oresteia trilogy of Aeschylus (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eumenides) as an early model of psychological transformation and healing that prefigures Jung’s individuation process. Background on Greek classical theater, Aeschylus’s dramaturgy, and staging imagery are analyzed both to draw clinical parallels and to show how an overall search for justice in the Oresteia involves the restoration of a sacrificed feminine potential. Each stage of that process is described from the persona level of ego consciousness in the Agamemnon, to the personal unconscious of dreams and prophecy in the Libation Bearers, to the archetypal world of the Eumenides where the reconciling symbol of Athena transforms the vengeful Furies into kindly eyed goddesses of justice.