This has been a polarizing electoral season in which large numbers of disaffected and angry voters have been galvanized and ambivalence and distrust linger for both major candidates. We have concerns about what is going on in our national soul. How do we distinguish between healthy and unhealthy Presidential narcissism? We have to come to terms with powerful forces no matter what the political outcome of this election. C.G. Jung called these “mythic or God energies.” If we do not face these “dragon energies,” we can be led into acts of inhumanity, bigotry, divisiveness, and violence? How can we find antidotes for such infections within our religious fellowship and spiritual practices?

 

Rev. David J. Dalrymple, Ph.D., is a UU Minister and practicing Jungian Psychoanalyst. His ministry is affiliated with the UU Congregation of Charleston, WV. He has served UU congregations in Seattle and New England, been a Chaplain and Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisor in medical and mental hospitals, and taught in the Religious Studies Dept. of Marshall University. He recently retired as Executive Director of the American Board for Accreditation in Psychoanalysis, Inc.