Soul by any other name

Over the years, the idea of soul became the property of many disciplines: religion, philosophy, medicine, technology and psychology. For example, the word that I so often use – psyche -- refers to our psychology but it also means soul.

Descriptions of soul include many difficult to understand details, such as soul accompanying a person into death and beyond. Soul is often considered different than a person's body. It is often described in terms of spirituality and the essence of life. Returning to psychology, if psyche means soul, then maybe our psychology is soul. Let me be more specific.

Psychological experiences of soul capture the depth of human nature, which is more meaningful and accompanied by more knowledge than we typically experience in everyday life. It is a feeling experience often described as spiritual, but we know that this feeling experience extends from the human psyche. This means that unconscious elements of the psyche (our hidden psychology) influence our conscious psychology (awareness). Psychological elements such as the masculine and feminine sides, the shadow and the Self, all introduced in previous articles, make-up the soul.

Psychological soul is experienced when we listen to, or read, something that "carries soul" -- expressions of deep, substantial meanings about life, love and human nature that extend from beyond a person's ego (values and identity). For example, if we read books from Renaissance authors, or books written during the Middle Ages, we can experience incredibly meaningful and substantial expressions.

As an example, here are a few sentences from Hermann Weyl, a mathematician, writing in the 1930s. The feeling experience is obvious as we read the author's words.

"The application of mathematical construction to reality then ultimately rests on the double nature of reality, its subjective and objective aspect: that reality is not a thing in itself, but a thing appearing to a mental ego."

A lack of soul in our everyday experiences is certainly a problem, a collective problem. Unfortunately, today, we seldom find soul being expressed in books, and certainly not in technology. Nor can the soul's depth of meaning and feeling be experienced viewing reality television. The absence of soul is similar to the absence of drinking water, resulting in a flat, dry life that is barely sustainable, leaving many people depressed.

It is important, therefore, for all of us to find ways to meet our psychological souls in order to live and contribute to life with vitality and meaning. This can be done by engaging our unconscious psychology and demanding that life experiences be more substantial.