The Psychology of The Wounded Healer

The wounded healer refers to the capacity to be at home in the darkness of suffering and there to find germs of light and recovery. It is the archetype at the bottom of all genuine healing procedures. As long as we feel victimised, bitter and resentful towards our wound, and seek to escape from suffering it, we remain inescapably bound to it. This is neurotic suffering, as opposed to the authentic suffering of the wounded healer which is purified. The wound can destroy you, or it can wake you up.  As Carl Jung wrote, "The doctor is effective only when he himself is affected. Only the wounded physician heals."

📨 ⁠Subscribe to newsletter⁠
☕ Donate a coffee
⭐ Support on Patreon

✉️ Send me anything you like to my mailing address:

Eternalised
P.O. Box 10.011
28080 Madrid, Spain

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction: The Wounded Healer
(1:39) Chiron: The Wounded Healer
(4:03) Asclepius: The Greek God of Healing
(6:13) Asclepieia: Healing Temples
(11:12) The Importance of Death
(15:06) The Wound as Initiation: Hero’s Journey
(17:30) The Sacred and The Profane
(19:59) The Wound as Initiation: Shamanism
(21:49) Compensatory function
(22:51) Repetition Compulsion
(23:32) Pharmakon: Poison and Cure
(24:26) Therapist as Wounded Healer
(29:49) Conclusion

Thank you for your support.