The Value of Longing E-Book

Jörg Marxen

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 32

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Lecture in February 2020 at the symposium »Alexa - still' meine Sehnsucht« [Alexa – still my longing] in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany, on the functional and dysfunctional cross-cultural effects of longing as well as the ways in which phenomena from the field of longing can be used constructively.

Leseprobe

Joerg Marxen

The Value of Longing

Toward a mature perspective

Lecture given on February 8, 2020 at the symposium"Alexa – still’ meine Sehnsucht"[Alexa – still my longing] held from February 7 – 9, 2020 in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany

Copyright: © 2020 Joerg Marxen

Editing: Erik Kinting - www.buchlektorat.net

Cover and typesetting: Erik Kinting

Cover photo: © Joerg Marxen

Translator: Alison Mally – www.mally-fachuebersetzungen.de

Publisher: tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg

978-3-347-14839-0 (paperback)

978-3-347-14840-6 (hardcover)

978-3-347-14841-3 (eBook)

ISBNs of the German edition:

978-3-347-14836-9 (paperback)

978-3-347-14837-6 (hardcover)

978-3-347-14838-3 (eBook)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be re-produced, translated, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher and author.

The symposium entitled Alexa – still’ meine Sehnsucht [Alexa – still my longing] was organized by Median Klinik am Park Bad Oeynhausen in conjunction with the Weiterbildungskreis Psychosomatische Medizin und Analytische Psychotherapie e. V. and the Psychotherapeutisches Lehrinstitut ZAP GmbH, a state-approved training center for psychological psychotherapists and child and youth psychotherapists.

Joerg Marxen is a registered psychological psychotherapist and coach (depth psychology, hypnotherapy, value system analysis and corporate development theory).

Author:

Joerg Marxen

Am Neuen Petritore 7

38100 Braunschweig

Germany

[email protected]

Foreword

In 2011, the American Psychological Association published an article entitled "Is Longing Only for Germans? A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Sehnsucht in Germany and the United States". The authors (Scheibe, Blanchard-Fields, Wiest & Freund, 2011) emphasize that despite all the differences longing is of importance in both cultures and can have functional and dysfunctional effects in both cultures.

I have repeatedly witnessed the phenomenon that longing can be an existential blessing for one person and a devastating catastrophe for another. This made me look at the factors that make the difference, that allow us to make beneficial use of phenomena from the field of longing.

Joerg Marxen

Table of Contents

Foreword

Table of Contents

The field of longing

The compass function of longing

The unattainability of longing

The struggle for maturity

The value of longing

Using the value of longing maturely

Maturity and respect for what we do not understand

A surprising patient concern

Outlook

Bibliography

Sources:

Additional literature:

Appendix

Excerpt from the lecture on Counter-transference on October 24, 2001

The field of longing

Longing has a function.

Longing springs from a source.

Longing has an effect.

Longing can have a very destructive effect.

Longing can, however, also have an exceptionally

constructive effect.

Longing and how we deal with it are in play as an effect but also as a cause, for example when relationships fall apart or when relationships, our attitude to life, our capacity for pleasure and our performance capability develop more favorably or less favorably. They are in play when a happy couple is expecting a child and then during the pregnancy or after the birth of the child the partner falls in love with another woman, or at least begins a sexual relationship with someone else. Longing can lead us into new situations against, through or even despite great reservations, in which we encounter new people and new challenges and in which we first have to reorient ourselves.

In the field of religiosity, spirituality and transcendence, too, it is usually very much about longing and how we deal it.

Longing constantly affects our lives in many areas.

The German dictionary of the Brothers Grimm (1971) devotes a long paragraph to the phenomenon of longing [German: Sehnsucht] and its facets with numerous statements, one of which is that we can understand longing as being …

… a high degree of intense and often painful desire for something, particularly if there is no hope of attaining what is desired, or when its attainment is uncertain, still far away.

Dictionary of the Brothers Grimm (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W., 1971)