Conscience of a conservative psychologist: Return of the mysteriously illusive psyche

 

 

George Kunz

 

 

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ABSTRACT

Psyche, the daughter of a Greek king, was so beautiful that people stopped worshipping Aphrodite; instead they turned their adoration to the girl who modestly rejected any divine honours. Aphrodite, enraged, sent her son Eros to contrive a spell to make this beautiful maiden fall in love with an ugly creature, Seeing her, however, Eros fell in love and could not obey his mother, Short version: Aphrodite, jealous, tried to sabotage Psyche with impossible tasks. After great struggle, Psyche escaped the traps with the help not of the gods but of the creatures of nature, finally, Eros appealed to Zeus to set her free. With his consent the happy couple married on Mount Olympus celebrated by all the gods including Aphrodite, Psyche bore a daughter, Voluptas (better known as Pleasure), and so goes this great myth.

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About the Author

 

 

George Kunz is currently Professor Emeritus in the Psychology Department at Seattle University where he has taught since 1971. He obtained his PhD from Duquesne University in 1975 with a dissertation on Perceived Behaviour as a Subject-Matter for a Phenomenological Based Psychology. With Steen Halling, he founded the MAP programme in Existential-Phenomenological Therapeutic Psychology in 1981. He also founded and directed nine annual seminars on the Psychology for the Other, a modest conference of international psychologists discussing the importance of the thought of Emmanuel Levinas for understanding pathology and therapy.

In addition to several articles, keynote addresses and conference papers mostly on that topic, his publications include The Paradox of Power and Weakness: Levinas and an Alternative Paradigm for Psychology (SUNY Press, 1998). He also served as co-editor with Del Loewenthal for the special March-June 2005 edition of the European Journal oof Psychotherapy, Counselling and Health, having as its focus "Levinas and the Other in psychotherapy and counselling", and hosted the North American Levinas Society conference in 2008. Prof Kunz's academic career further includes guest lectureships at the University of Pretoria in 1998, Trinity Western University in 2002, the University of Wisconsin Parkside in 2004, Duquesne University in 2004, and Vaxjo University in 2007. E-mail Address: gkunz@seattleu.edu