This Jungian Life Podcast How to Work with Denial: A Jungian Guide to Facing Reality
Dec 11, 2025
Denial is explored as a primal defense mechanism that regulates overwhelming reality. The hosts discuss its connection to trauma, addiction, and how it manifests in the body. They highlight the role of art and dreams in revealing denied experiences, emphasizing the importance of symbolism for healing. Examples from relationships illustrate the gradual nature of everyday denial. The discussion extends to denial's influence in addiction recovery, community support systems, and its paradoxical comfort in avoiding difficult truths.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Denial As An Automatic Protective Shield
- Denial is an instant, non-reflective defense that makes intolerable events unthinkable and unavailable to consciousness.
- It operates pre-verbally to titrate overwhelming experience and protect the emerging ego.
Trauma Needs Symbol, Not Just Memory
- When traumatic material isn't symbolized it 'marauds in the flesh' and creates somatic symptoms.
- Jungian symbol-making restores containing images so the nervous system can hold reality.
Big Fish Broke Through Grief
- Joseph Lee couldn't access grief after his father's sudden death and described being emotionally empty for years.
- Watching the film Big Fish provided a symbolic frame that released an hour-long cathartic wail and restored grieving.
