Robert L. Moore (psychologist)

Last updated

Robert Louis Moore (August 13, 1942 - June 18, 2016) was an American Jungian analyst and consultant in private practice in Chicago, Illinois. He was the Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Spirituality at the Chicago Theological Seminary; [1] a training analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago; [2] and director of research for the Institute for the Science of Psychoanalysis. Author and editor of numerous books in psychology and spirituality, he lectured internationally on his formulation of a Neo-Jungian paradigm for psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. He was working on Structural Psychoanalysis and Integrative Psychotherapy: A Neo-Jungian Paradigm at the time of his death.

Contents

Beginning in 2014 he had experienced a series of mini strokes and was subsequently suffering from vascular dementia. The reporting of his death in 2016 suggested that he may have shot his wife and then himself, but the forensic report concluded that gunshot residue from a fired gun was only found on the hands of his wife, Margaret Shanahan. [3] The news report was disputed by his niece, Marina Moore Weems, in a 2022 interview in which she provided the forensic report and pointed out inconsistencies in statements about what was observed at the scene. [4]

Life and career

Robert Louis Moore was born on August 13, 1942. His parents were Golden Franklin Moore Sr. and Margaret DePriest Moore. Moore has characterized his roots as "Cajun Catholic, Russian Jewish, and Scotch-Irish Protestant".[ citation needed ] He was married to Margaret Shanahan and lived in Chicago.

He earned a B.A. in Religion/Behavioral Science (1964 , Hendrix College), an M.Th. in Psychology and Theology (1967, Southern Methodist University), an M.Th. in Counseling Psychology and Religion (1968, Duke University), followed by a M.A. and Ph.D in Psychology and Religion (in 1970 and 1975, University of Chicago). He earned certifications in Adlerian Psychoanalysis (1983, Adler Institute) and Jungian Psychology (1987, C. G. Jung Institute). Moore was deeply impressed with three University of Chicago professors, Mircea Eliade, Victor Turner, and Paul Tillich.[ citation needed ]

His employment history shows that he found a home at the Chicago Theological Seminary: 1973-1977: Western Illinois University, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies; 1977-1979: Chicago Theological Seminary, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Religion; 1979-1982: Associate Professor of Psychology and Religion; 1982-2005: Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and Spirituality; 2005–2016: Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and Spirituality.

He was also employed from 1973 to 2016 in the private practice of psychotherapy; and from 1983 to 2016 in the private practice of psychoanalysis and as a consultant in organizational development and leadership and personal coaching.

Contributions in perspective

Introduction

As a psychoanalytic scientist, Moore worked on decoding and mapping the deep structures of the human self. His work on ritual process and the masculine psyche is today in the forefront of theory in masculine psychology, spirituality, and initiation.

The men's movement in the United States received a certain amount of notoriety for the practice of drumming. This practice is understood in terms of ritual processes. Many of our human ancestors worked out ritual processes, some of which did involve drumming and dancing and singing. From his cross-cultural study of ritual processes, Moore became convinced of the value of ritual process in actuating human potential. More specifically, he became convinced that ritual processes at their best can provide liminal experiences for certain participants that are instrumental in enabling those participants to actuate the potential of archetypal sources of energy (that is, sources of energy at the archetypal level of the human psyche).

Moore's views regarding ritual processes can be found in the transcribed lectures and essays published in The Archetype of Initiation: Sacred Space, Ritual Process, and Personal Transformation (2001), discussed below.

In addition to writing and editing numerous books, Moore frequently gave short courses at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago, many of which are available from the institute on audiotapes.

Five key books

Moore is probably most widely known as the senior author, with Douglas Gillette, of a series of five books on the in-depth structure of the male psyche, drawing on the account of the archetypal level of the human psyche developed by C. G. Jung.

  1. King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine is an introductory overview of four key sources of energy at the archetypal level of the human psyche.
  2. The King Within: Accessing the King in the Male Psyche centers on the most important and most difficult source of energy for men to access.
  3. The Warrior Within: Accessing the Knight in the Male Psyche centers on the source of energy that boys and men usually learn how to access relatively early in life, but it takes time and effort to learn how to access the optimally mature form of this source of energy in the human psyche.
  4. The Magician Within: Accessing the Shaman in the Male Psyche centers on another form of energy that boys and men usually learn how to access at a relatively early age, but, once again, it takes time and effort to learn how to access the optimally mature form of this source of energy in the human psyche.
  5. The Lover Within: Accessing the Lover in the Male Psyche centers on a very tricky source of energy in the human psyche.

According to Moore and Gillette, for each optimal orientation for each of these four key sources of energy, there are two corresponding "shadow" forms of the source of the energy—two ways for each of them to be misdirected for only one healthy or optimal way for each of them to be oriented. Just as the authors have given four key sources of energy in the human psyche very colorful names that seem to personify each source, so too the authors give each of the bipolar "shadow" forms very colorful names that seem to personify them.

Even though Moore stresses the positive potential of the archetypes of maturity, as he styles the healthy forms of the archetypes (as distinct from the "shadow" forms), he also stresses that archetypes are not friendly. By this he means that they can be dangerous because they can take over a person. So they are best approached with caution.

Moore has also noted that various forms of masculine behavior are immature, and so he thinks it is important for men today to develop guidelines for directing their own personal development and decision making.

Three recent books

The 21st century has seen the publication of three new books by Moore that carry forward certain dimensions of his thought:

Publications

Books by Moore

Book with J. Gordon Melton

Books with Douglas Gillette

Books edited by Moore

Moore also edited, or served as series editor of, a number of books in the Jung and Spirituality Series published by Paulist Press.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Jung</span> Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (1875–1961)

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. He was a prolific author, illustrator, and correspondent, and a complex and controversial character, presumably best known through his "autobiography" Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

The concept of an archetype appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.

Collective unconscious refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts. It is generally associated with idealism and was coined by Carl Jung. According to Jung, the human collective unconscious is populated by instincts, as well as by archetypes: ancient primal symbols such as The Great Mother, the Wise Old Man, the Shadow, the Tower, Water, and the Tree of Life. Jung considered the collective unconscious to underpin and surround the unconscious mind, distinguishing it from the personal unconscious of Freudian psychoanalysis. He believed that the concept of the collective unconscious helps to explain why similar themes occur in mythologies around the world. He argued that the collective unconscious had a profound influence on the lives of individuals, who lived out its symbols and clothed them in meaning through their experiences. The psychotherapeutic practice of analytical psychology revolves around examining the patient's relationship to the collective unconscious.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analytical psychology</span> Jungian theories

Analytical psychology is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" of the psyche. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their seven-year collaboration on psychoanalysis was drawing to an end between 1912 and 1913. The evolution of his science is contained in his monumental opus, the Collected Works, written over sixty years of his lifetime.

A complex is a structure in the unconscious that is objectified as an underlying theme—like a power or a status—by grouping clusters of emotions, memories, perceptions and wishes in response to a threat to the stability of the self. In psychoanalysis, it is antithetical to drives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Hillman</span> American psychologist (1926–2011)

James Hillman was an American psychologist. He studied at, and then guided studies for, the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich. He founded a movement toward archetypal psychology and retired into private practice, writing and traveling to lecture, until his death at his home in Connecticut.

The anima and animus are a syzygy of dualistic, Jungian archetypes among the array of other animistic parts within the Self in Jungian psychology, described in analytical psychology and archetypal psychology, under the umbrella of transpersonal psychology. The Jungian parts of the Self are a priori part of the infinite set of archetypes within the collective unconscious. Modern Jungian clinical theory under the analytical/archetypal -psych framework considers a syzygy-without-its-partner to be like yin without yang: countertransference reveals that logos and/or eros are in need of repair through a psychopomp, mediating the identified patient's Self; this theoretical model is similar to positive psychology's understanding of a well-tuned personality through something like a Goldilocks principle.

Depth psychology refers to the practice and research of the science of the unconscious, covering both psychoanalysis and psychology. It is also defined as the psychological theory that explores the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious, as well as the patterns and dynamics of motivation and the mind. The theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Alfred Adler are all considered its foundations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self in Jungian psychology</span> Psychological concept

The Self in Jungian psychology is a dynamic concept which has undergone numerous modifications since it was first conceptualised as one of the Jungian archetypes.

Archetypal psychology was initiated as a distinct movement in the early 1970s by James Hillman, a psychologist who trained in analytical psychology and became the first Director of the Jung Institute in Zürich. Hillman reports that archetypal psychology emerged partly from the Jungian tradition whilst drawing also from other traditions and authorities such as Henry Corbin, Giambattista Vico, and Plotinus.

The mythopoetic men's movement was a body of self-help activities and therapeutic workshops and retreats for men undertaken by various organizations and authors in the United States from the early 1980s through the 1990s. The term mythopoetic was coined by professor Shepherd Bliss in preference to the term "New Age men's movement". Mythopoets adopted a general style of psychological self-help inspired by the work of Robert Bly, Robert A. Johnson, Joseph Campbell, and other Jungian authors. The group activities used in the movement were largely influenced by ideas derived from Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, known as Jungian psychology, e.g., Jungian archetypes, from which the use of myths and fairy tales taken from various cultures served as ways to interpret challenges facing men in society.

John Beebe is an American psychiatrist and Jungian analyst in practice in San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychodynamics</span> Approach to psychology

Psychodynamics, also known as psychodynamic psychology, in its broadest sense, is an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. It is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation.

The Jungian interpretation of religion, pioneered by Carl Jung and advanced by his followers, is an attempt to interpret religion in the light of Jungian psychology. Unlike Sigmund Freud and his followers, Jungians tend to treat religious beliefs and behaviors in a positive light, while offering psychological referents to traditional religious terms such as "soul", "evil", "transcendence", "the sacred", and "God". Because beliefs do not have to be facts in order for people to hold them, the Jungian interpretation of religion has been, and continues to be, of interest to psychologists and theists.

The idea of polytheistic myth as having psychological value is one theorem of archetypal psychology as defined by James Hillman, and explored in current Jungian mythology literature. According to proponents of this theory, polytheistic myths can provide psychological insight.

<i>Two Essays on Analytical Psychology</i>

Two Essays on Analytical Psychology is volume 7 of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, presenting the core of Carl Jung's views about psychology. Known as one of the best introductions to Jung's work, the volumes includes the essays "The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious" and "On the Psychology of the Unconscious" (1943).

Jungian archetypes are a concept from psychology that refers to a universal, inherited idea, pattern of thought, or image that is present in the collective unconscious of all human beings. The psychic counterpart of instinct, archetypes are thought to be the basis of many of the common themes and symbols that appear in stories, myths, and dreams across different cultures and societies. Some examples of archetypes include those of the mother, the child, the trickster, and the flood, among others. The concept of the collective unconscious was first proposed by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

Archetypal pedagogy is a theory of education developed by Clifford Mayes that aims at enhancing psycho-spiritual growth in both the teacher and student. The idea of archetypal pedagogy stems from the Jungian tradition and is directly related to analytical psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. Michael Smith</span>

C. Michael Smith is a clinical psychologist and scholar whose medical anthropological and theoretical work has focused on the study of healing systems across cultures. He holds that study of indigenous healing systems can help clarify the strengths and weaknesses of our own modern health care systems.

Stanton Marlan, Ph.D., ABPP, FABP is an American clinical psychologist, Jungian psychoanalyst, author, and educator. Marlan has authored or edited scores of publications in Analytical Psychology and Archetypal Psychology. Three of his more well-known publications are The Black Sun. The Alchemy and Art of Darkness, C. G. Jung and the Alchemical Imagination, and Jung's Alchemical Philosophy. Marlan is also known for his polemics with German Jungian psychoanalyst Wolfgang Giegerich. Marlan co-founded the Pittsburgh Society of Jungian Analysts and was the first director and training coordinator of the C. G. Jung Institute Analyst Training Program of Pittsburgh. Currently, Marlan is in private practice and serves as adjunct professor of Clinical Psychology at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

References

  1. "Robert Moore". Archived from the original on 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2011-09-01.
  2. "C G Jung Institute of Chicago". jungchicago.org. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  3. "Colleagues shocked as noted psychologists die in murder-suicide". suntimes.com. 23 June 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  4. "The shocking truth of Dr. Robert Moore's death (clearing his name and legacy)". YouTube . Retrieved 11 March 2022.