In this series, I've explored why Jung is resonating with a new generation and examined both the genuine insights and problematic mystifications in his work. Now I want to sketch what a grounded depth psychology might look like—one that honors the hunger for meaning while staying anchored in what we actually know about how minds work.

A naturalized depth psychology starts with a simple recognition: Much of our mental life operates outside conscious awareness. This isn't mystical; it's how brains work. Neural systems learn patterns and then run them automatically, freeing conscious attention for novel challenges.

Think about driving a car. When you first learned, every action required conscious attention. Now, if you're an experienced driver, you can navigate complex traffic while carrying on a conversation. The driving has become automated—unconscious in the functional sense.

The same process applies to psychological patterns. We learn how to relate to others, how to manage emotions, and how to think about ourselves. These learned patterns become automated. They feel like who we are rather than what we learned. And crucially, much of this learning happens in early childhood, before we have the cognitive capacity to evaluate what we're absorbing.

Here's where depth psychology becomes necessary: The patterns we learned before we could think critically about them may not serve us well. A child who learned that expressing anger leads to abandonment may, as an adult, automatically suppress healthy

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