History of the Guild of Analytical Psychology and Spirituality
The Guild of Analytical Psychology and Spirituality (GAPS) is a Jungian psychotherapy training organisation based in London. GAPS was founded in 1987 by a group of Jungian analysts, in response to the need for a therapeutic orientation that would place particular emphasis on the religious and spiritual aspects of Jung's works
The theoretical basis was the psychology of C.G. Jung, who emphasised the religious dimension of the psyche which was in contrast to the prevailing attitude in the psychological world of the time. Spirituality is regarded as an integral aspect of the person’s psychological health, having an importance equal to the physical, emotional and mental.
In line with Jung’s approach to psychotherapeutic healing, GAPS affirmed from the beginning the integrity of the psyche in its search for meaning. Psychological health is seen less as a reductive process into causes and origins, but rather as a purposive search for the transcendent meaning of an individual’s life. Read more...
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Work of the Guild of Analytical Psychology and Spirituality
Members of the Guild consist of IAAP members, and graduates of the GAPS training programme. The Guild provides:
- A full training in analytical psychology.
- A forum for discussing and exploring the spiritual dimension of the personality, with particular reference to the interface between analytical psychology and religion. This forum will at times be within the Guild itself, and at times will connect to the general public, in order to deepen the study of the spiritual aspect of Jung’s psychology.
- Therapy, particularly for those individuals who seek a psychological approach that values the centrality of their spiritual life.
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Spirituality and GAPS
Spirituality is a primary psychological orientation, which has fundamental implications for the way that the individual relates to the self, to the other and to the world. The defining feature of the spiritual attitude is the acknowledgement of a dimension to life beyond that of the senses and of the material world. Hence Jung’s emphasis on the aspect of the opus in which spirit must be redeemed from matter.
Furthermore, it is an essential aspect of spirituality that the material world in all its complexity can only properly be understood through its agency. In other words, spirituality is the organ of meaning in the psyche.
There are several indispensable consequences to spirituality in the lived life, in either an introverted or an extraverted manner. Prayer, contemplation and meditation are some manifestations of the introverted way. Ritual practice, and the participation in groups with a shared spirituality manifest the extraverted. It is the continuing incarnation of spirituality in life that affirms meaning.
A second consequence of spirituality is the central experience of relationship. In the first place, this is towards whatever is felt to be the source of meaning. However, implied in this connection is that of a relationship to the cosmos as a whole, and to all humanity in its collective and individual aspects. Read more...
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