Publications by Dr Dale Mathers.

 An introduction to meaning and purpose in analytical psychology

London : Brunner - Routledge (2001)

 The question of meaning is central to analytical psychology.  Human suffering results from meaning disorders both at an individual and a cultural level if we fail to find meaning through religion or philosophy.  How can analytical psychology help us find individual meaning and social purpose?  This book is a critique of fundamentalism in analytical theories.  It includes insights from disciplines such as cognitive psychology, developmental theory, ecology, linguistics, literature, politics and religion. 

 By achieving a sense of individual meaning, it becomes possible for us to find our  creative purpose.  I present  basic insights from analytical psychology as a set of useful tools to help us answer fundamental questions about meaning, illustrated with a wide range of clinical examples.  This study is intended to be used by those working in psychoanalysis, therapy, counseling and psychiatry as well as those involved in religious explorations and with concerns for society and social change.

Karma and individuation: the boy with no face

in

Awakening and insight :Zen Buddhism and psychotherapy,

edited by Polly Young -Eisendrath and Shoji Muramoto London, Routledge (2002)

 This is a paper I gave at the first Kyoto Conference on Buddhism and Psychotherapy in 1999. It describes work with a young Japanese boy, born with a bilateral cleft palate, who, because of his ugliness believed his ‘karma' was to be bad, and a failure. It describes how, through a long analysis, his understanding of his own religion (Zen Buddhism) changed, and he was able to undergo major facial reconstruction, and so, then ‘face the world'.