Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

Meaning & Individuation: Modern Research through Positive Psychology

Although Jung frequently points to two stages of psychological development with somewhat different goals; his theory of individuation is ultimately aimed at the discovery of meaning. Jungian scholar Steven Herrmann says that “meaning took on absolute significance in his hypothesis of individuation.”

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Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

Technology, Cognition and Meaning-Making: A Psychoanalytic Framing of Technology in our Virtual World

How does the psychology of humans interact with the technologies we have developed? Technologies like Artificial Intelligence have risen in prominence in the past years with the promise of ever more scalable ways for humans to meet an increasingly complex world. This paper will review the interaction of these developments with human psychology in the areas of cognition and meaning-making using a psychoanalytic theoretical frame. The human race has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, and technology must be seen in this evolutionary context. Humans developed incredible cognitive skills as well as relational and meaning-making skills to navigate the world and our place in it. However, with today’s technology, we meet challenges to meaning-making due to our relationship with technology, increased technological scaling, cognitive offloading, and reduced metacognitive skills. While technology offers immense opportunity for efficiency, it may impact humans’ ability to create meaning and thus result in reduced well-being due to the experience of meaninglessness.

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Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

Ego Strength and Ego Flexibility

Jung posits that we must learn to discriminate between “intentional and unintentional contents of the mind.” This paper will focus on the work surrounding ego development and differentiation as a part of individuation from a Jungian perspective.

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Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

Integration and Reintegration

Over the past three years, a series of images and abstract symbols have taken root in my mind. I have been working on a project to bring them into some sort of sequence.

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Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

Yellowing: The Snake

Over the past few weeks I’ve been contemplating the symbol of the snake, the “yellowing” alchemical process and the integration of both “parts” of the personality: masculine and feminine.

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Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

The Whale: The Self-Injuring Behaviors We Choose

This semester in my Masters of Psychology program at Columbia, I dove into Adult Psychopathology (as defined by the DSM). My focus was on Charlie, the main character from the 2022 movie, The Whale.

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Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

Trust yourself.

Listen to that voice inside of you. Trust yourself. You often doubt or need affirmation of your own feelings, intentions, longings, ideas or instincts.

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Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

I am here for you.

You have been reaching out to others: helping them, doing your duty; but no more…

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Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

A personal statement…

"To create beauty in the world and in others…" This was my aspirational personal mission statement as I completed my undergraduate studies in architecture and moved into the working world.

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Michael Headrick Michael Headrick

Shallow Waters

...no longer am I swimming in the frigid depths, but I float among thriving coral reefs full of wonder and life.

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