Marcus West

Jungian analyst and psychotherapist

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Publications

Books

Feeling, Being and the Sense of Self
Feeling, Being and the Sense of Self – a new perspective on identity, affect and narcissistic disorders. Karnac Books 2007.

Understanding Dreams in Clinical Practice
Understanding Dreams in Clinical Practice. Karnac Books 2011.

The first chapter of this book, which gives an overview of the subject of dreams, is available on this website.

Into the darkest places
Into the Darkest Places: Early Relational Trauma and Borderline States of Mind. 2016.

 Into the Darkest Places  
Into the Darkest Places, Russian translation - available at NON Books, Moscow, 2020]

There is also a video-blog about this book by Anna Chuykova, a clinical psychologist living in St. Petersberg; to watch the vlog click here [it is in Russian].

Papers

'Identity, narcissism and the emotional core', The Journal of Analytical Psychology, Volume 49, no 4, pages 521-552, 2004. This paper was joint winner of the Michael Fordham Prize [2004]

'There you are but where did I go? A problem with otherness and a critique of analytical psychology'. Cape Town 2007, Proceedings of the 17th International Congress for Analytical Psychology.

'The narrow use of the term ego in analytical psychology: the 'not-I' is also who I am'. The Journal of Analytical Psychology, Vol 53, pages 367-388, 2008.

'Envy and Difference', The Journal of Analytical Psychology, Vol. 55, pages 459-484, 2010.

'Attachment, sensitivity and agency: the alchemy of analytic work', The Journal of Analytical Psychology, Vol. 56, pages 354- 361, 2011.

'Trauma and the transference-countertransference: working with the bad object and the wounded self', The Journal of Analytical Psychology, Vol. 58, pages 73-89, 2013.

'Defences of the core self: borderline functioning, trauma and complex'; In: Transformation, Jung's Legacy and Contemporary Clinical Work. Eds. Carvalli, Hawkins & Stevns; London & New York: Karnac Books, 2013.

'Trauma, participation mystique, projective identification and analytic attitude'; In: Shared Realities: Participation Mystique and Beyond Ed. Mark Winborn. Fisher King Press, Carmel, Ca., 2014.

'Working in the borderland: early relational trauma and Fordham's analysis of "K"'; Journal of Analytical Psychology, 61: 44-62; 2016.

"A Strange Fire: an exploration of psycho-spiritual development aided by Jungian analysis and Vedanta"; with David Sagar; Journal of Analytical Psychology, 61: 625-646; 2016

"Self-disclosure, trauma and the pressures on the analyst"; Journal of Analytical Psychology, 62: 585-601; 2017

"To the beginning and back again: trauma, splits and confluences", in: Re-Encountering Jung - Analytical Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis; Robin S. Brown (Ed); Routledge. 2018.

'Self, other and individuation: resolving narcissism through the lunar and solar paths of the Rosarium'. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 65, 1: 171-197. 2020. Link to paper click here

Alchemy and the Repair of Dissociation - a Response to William Merdeith-Owen. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 66, 4: 887-906. 2021.

Healthy narcissism and individuation - clinical, cultural and political manifestations. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 67, 1: 345-362. 2022. 

talks

I have given talks in London, Brighton, Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham, Chichester, Leicester, Cape Town, Montreal, St. Petersburg, Kyoto, New York, Dublin, Boston and Chicago on various subjects, including attachment theory, trauma, narcissism, envy, identity, dreams, a critique of Jungian theory, transference and countertransference, self-disclosure, borderline, schizoid and hysterical personality organisations and the experience of being nothing.

I also gave the SAP , entitled: 'Identity in the Consulting Room - the good, the bad and the self', concerning the formation of identity and primitive states of mind as they affect both patient and analyst in the consulting room, and AGIP Annual Lecture in 2016.

teaching

I have taught, given lectures, seminars or workshops at the Society of Analytical Psychology, the British Psychotherapy Foundation, the Westminster Pastoral Foundation, The West Midlands Institute for Psychotherapy, the Association for Group and Individual Psychotherapy, Psychotherapy Sussex, Croydon Association for Analytical Psychotherapy, Essex, Sussex and Leicester Universities, Chichester Counselling Services and Berkshire Counselling Centre, as well as for The Weekend University, Confer and NScience.