Depth psychology in L.C. Music

[artehelia]

I am new here, my name is Angelika and my background is Carl Gustav Jungs depth ps.
So i am a jungian by heart and education and i am interested in the way how LC might have found a way for his own individuation process through his poetry.

As an example for what i mean:

From bitter searching of the heart
We raise to play a greater part...

That is an attitude one has or one can observe when the search for soul starts...
Ps sorry english is my second language...

[LisaLCFan]

Leonard Cohen was a deep guy -- introspective and searching -- influenced by many philosophies and religions. A person can read almost anything into his life and poetry -- if you think that there are elements of Jungian individuation processes being expressed in some of his words, then maybe there are.

I do not think that you are likely to find a definitive answer to your question, for you are asking about another person's personal journey through life -- and a particularly complex and well-read person at that! -- and anything that anybody else thinks or says about it will probably be nothing more than conjecture and speculation.

However, this may be of interest to you, a rather brief discussion on this forum about Cohen and Jung, in which Cohen is quoted as saying, "I don't know Jung's work that well, but I've kept his books as references throughout the years. I know the general Jungian principles."

https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=32031

Cheers!

[artehelia]

Thank you..

[Peter]

Dear Angelika

Your approach sounds very interesting. I’m sure you will find more Jungian than Freudian elements in Cohens work. Of course there is a connection. If you have a look at the cover of his album “New Skin for the Old Ceremony” from 1974, you will find an explanation on the back side:

“Symbolic representation of the coniunctio spirituum, or the spiritual union of the male and female principle, from the alchemical text Rosararium philosophorum (1550), reprinted in Artis Auriferae (1593), Bibliotheca chemica curiosa (1702) and, most recently, Psychology and Alchemy by C.G. Jung (1953).”

So Cohen obviously knew the work of C.G. Jung well and even reprinted a picture from one of Jungs books on this album.

In 2020 Gabriel Gould from the Department of Jungian and Archetypal Studies (Pacifica Graduate Institute) published a very interesting paper: Betraying What is Necessary – A Depth Psychological Interpretation of “The Traitor” by Leonard Cohen. You find a PDF of his article here:

https://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/GGould.pdf

Hope this helps a little bit. I’d love to know about the progress of your studies.

All good things,
Peter

New Skin.jpg (30.85 KiB) Viewed 3023 times

[surrender]

Hi Angelika, welcome to the Forum and thank you for your thoughts.
Just a note - the quote in your first post from Villanelle For Our Time is from Frank Scott (Canadian poet, 1899 - 1985). Leonard Cohen wrote only music by this poem. Anyway, he has interpreted it beautifully.