Depressed people are often marked by sadness, inactivity, difficulty concentrating, disrupted appetite and sleep, feelings of dejection and hopelessness.
Jung recognized depression as an unconscious compulsion, like anxiety states and obsessive thinking. It is characterized by a state of reduced adaptation due psychic energy that had fallen into the unconscious.
Rather than try to eliminate symptoms, Jung said we should listen to the unconscious—the depressed person should look not outside, but inside.
He saw depression as an introverted condition, a life situation that demanded a turning within.
Jung suggested the sufferer should be working with fantasies, images and symbols. These arrive when the patient gave himself/herself over to painting, drawing, sculpting, carving, moving or writing.
In this way, the libido or psychic energy that had been withdrawn from the unconscious world can be converted into conscious content and made available to the patient.
Jung recognized the state of depression was a challenge for the patient, and finding out the cause was not as important as knowing what to do. That meant understanding the purpose or goal of it.
Aspects such as guilt, shame, pain or negative memories need to be brought up to consciousness and dealt with so it can be released.
With some patients, Jung also saw depression related to age--hitting in some men around age forty, for some women, a few years before this, the classic mid-life crisis
During this important transitional phase in life Jung felt that depression was often the result of trying to carry youthful attitudes over into the new phase, when such attitudes were inappropriate.
Jung responded to some patients whose depression was caused by the death of relatives or an important person in their life. I a reply he wrote, “I am sorry you are so miserable. Depression means being forced downwards. I would seek out one or two people who seemed amiable and would make myself useful to them….
…I would raise animals and plants and find joy in their thriving. I would surround myself with beauty, no matter how primitive or artless, objects, colours, sounds….
….I would eat and drink well. When the darkness grows denser, I would penetrate to its very core and ground, and would not rest until amid the pain a light appeared to me and nature reverses herself. I would turn in rage against myself and with the heat of my rage.”
Jung also suggested we focus on the healing effect that beauty can have on the soul.
This video has a good philosophy and features examples of beauty.
