Discover Your Personal Myth: Ultimate Handbook

Update: March 2024

The listing on this page is the digital edition for the 1st edition of the Personal Myth Guide.

Since 2022, we've had an updated 2nd edition, available in print-only, which you explore here:

https://jungtoliveby.com/discover-your-personal-myth/

Become Who You Are, and "Know Thyself"

For the first time in history, the canon of Freud, Adler and Jung has been distilled into a single, easy-to-read, practical guide for genuine Personal Development.

Uncover the Ariadne's Thread of your life's timeline, and clear away maladaptations and complexes, to distill your true character, and where your destiny - as 'in potentia' in your genome - has always intended to be.

If you feel a true calling towards conscious individuation, then this is the essential foundation.

All Knowledge is Remembering...

This manual is the distillation of over 40 years of front-line clinical work in the psychotherapy service-provision, in the UK's National Health Service and in Private Practice: itself set within the context of a life-time of personal-experience, of the psyche. 

To realize our fullest potential, to ‘know who we are’ and more importantly, ‘who we can become’ has been a goal of the human spirit, from time immemorial. 

People are driven by instinct to create: each act of novelty that brings something new into the world, each new engagement with life, every new horizon sought, every fresh idea, work of art, or endeavour: all of this, is the handiwork, of the very essence of our being. 

But to be the artisan of our own life? 

This drive, too, is innate, and arises, out, from our unfolding genome, across the arc of our life‐span development.

We are a psychic process which we do not control, or only partly direct. 

Consequently, we cannot have any final judgment about ourselves or our lives. If we had, we would know everything‐but at most that is only a pretence. At bottom we never know how it has all come about. The story of a life begins somewhere, at some particular point we happen to  remember; and even then it was already highly complex. We do not know how life is going to turn out. Therefore the story has no beginning, and the end can only be vaguely hinted at”.

Our task here is to offer a practical approach to understanding and working with your own Personal Myth. 

The Individuation Neurosis...

Our unique time in history sits against the backdrop of a culture that is antithetical to the release of full human potential. Oftentimes, it's outright hostile to it.

Anxiety, in any of it's various forms, is near-ubiquitious: whether than be overly worrying about things which never come to pass, so-called 'panic disorder', hypochrondria, or psychosomatic conversion.

The 'Jungian' phenomena of 'loss of soul' is also noticably on the rise: a sense of hollowness, emptiness, poor sense of 'self', and literally a 'lack of animation'.

So too, do many people report engaging in activities they feel conflicts with their innate value-set: the most commonly reported being internet pornography, but also, 'endless' social media scrolling, or 'wasting time' in a plethora of ways.

Relationships, too, have never before had to survive an environment like this - they're commodified via smartphone apps, making it much harder to find a partner, and, when they do happen, it seems Freud and Adler are never very far off, breaking far too many hearts in the process.

These, and everything else that so many people spend years upon years trying to solve through the internet, is near-universally the result of a divergence from the Personal Myth timeline. A disconnection, from 'oneself' - literally, at the psychodynamic level.

Being connected to your own through-line, brings with it a distinct 'feeling' of connectedness - it provides meaning.

This was one of the valuable insights, from Jung: more than anything else, people suffer from a lack of meaning. Steve and Pauline Richards have added further detail, here: people suffer from their unlived potential.

This, Steve and Pauline Richards have called, an individuation neurosis.

The pressure of life - whether that be from parents, school, or the culture - by necessity causes complexes to form. These are, very simply, the adaptations which we acquire across our timeline: not just behaviours or 'habits', but, much more all-encompassing, 'superpositioned' pieces of our identity, which unconsciously direct us down their own path.

Some, are beneficial, like the skills we acquire.

Others, are absolutely and uncompromisingly opposed to the true course of our Personal Myth: adaptations to other people, and the world, which may have once served a function, but now, prevent proper lifespan development.

The deep-structure psyche, has a natural impeteus, via homeostasis, to push - often-times, very hard - for these complexes to be cleared away.

The complexes, working via their own homeostasis, based in their set-up conditions, resist: and symptoms, result.

This 'civil war', is the definition of individuation neurosis: complex, and instinct, vying for their own chosen future.

This current generation, has it harder - in so many ways - than any other in history:

In our digital age, new Darwinian 'niches' have opened up, and predators - in the form of internet gurus, pop-psychologists, and suggestion-ridden forums - offer pseudo-solutions to these problems.

All this succeeds in doing, is keeping the person trapped: locked-into a transference relationship 'through a screen', whilst their suffering grows, and the guru, benefits.

"Give me a place to stand, and I will move the world..."

Our psychobiology is governed by the principle of homeostasis: a completely natural process of self-regulation, orchestrated by the genome.

The only thing that complexes are capable of doing, is modifying the expression of genomic intent - they have no power, control or authority on their own.

Thus, as per true Depth Psychological work, the solution to an individuation neurosis is not to be found in our ego - with it's ideas, thoughts and cognitions - but in our deeper-structure psyche: that part of us, nested within genomic intent, which has the capacity to restore self-regulation.

Completely untouched, and incorruptible, your genome is where your Personal Myth 'in potentia', currently lies.

The goal of the Personal Myth process, is to access it's intentionality, through consciously distilling your personal identity.

Some of your genome's intentionality, will be shared in common with everyone: these are the so-called 'archetypes', or meta-instincts - the scenario-based anticipations for the human lifespan.

Other aspects of genomic intentionality - and, their specific emphasis - will be uniquely your own:

• Your innate character and value-set
• What career you are built for
• Your identity, independent to the influence of your parents, teachers and the culture
• The purpose behind your libido flowing towards your favourite TV shows, movies, video games, and other hobbies
• Your natural personality type
• The specific forms of creativity you're built for
• The 'meaning' of your life's work and experience

Complexes disturb their manifestation, prevent them from activating, or bring to the fore adapatations that are not 'supposed' to be within you.

From the perspective of the ego, discovering your personal myth this is a little like a puzzle to solve: all the pieces are there - your ongoing experience, affective states, memories, and dreams. 'Beneath' these, providing the meta-structure for their placement within your core identity, is the deep-structure psyche, rooted in genomic intent.

When approached in the right way, the pieces 'spontaneously' slot together, orchestrated by this deeper process, and meaning results - no matter the experiences along your timeline, your genome has practically limitless capacity to conjoin memory and lifespan intent together, into your Personal Myth.

This, is what a properly integrated Personal Myth, is.

On the surface, it will appear to be the 'true' account of your life's story, without complexes distorting the narrative, and interpreting it for you. One level deeper, it will be reveal the meaning this has, specifically for you, and 'who you are'.

To have discovered your Personal Myth, is the solution to this famous quote from Carl Jung:

"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

All this means, is:

"Until you discover your personal myth, your complexes will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

What's inside this book?

Part 1:

Your journey begins, and ends, here.

Summarized into 12 key points that can be referred back to once the deeper theory and practical skills in the later sections have been absorbed, this section is your constant companion to navigating every...

• Memory (from your earliest, through to your current ongoing experience)
• Interest (movie, video game, music, school subject, professional field)
• Experience
• Relationship (your upbrining, through to friends, bosses, 'crushes', and romantic relationships)
• Character Trait (both the good, and, the things you wish were not there)

... that mark your timeline, as waystations which, once 'understood', point towards 'who you are'.

Part 2:

Everything from the theory which you will need, to discover your Personal Myth.

This requires deep and contemplative study - the foundation, for everything that follows.

Allow yourself to take your time with it. Pressure-test everything you read within, so that everything becomes personal and bespoke, to you. Truly be a pioneer, into yourself.

The full listing of all the theory in Part 2 of this guide, is as follows:

• The (Jungian) Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche
• The Psycho-Systems Continuum/Biopsychosocial Model
  • The essential scaffold for linking physiology, instinct, complex, psyche, and relationships together
• The Genomic Self
  • Jung's Self archetype, within the framework of modern genetics
• The 7 basic drives of human psyche
  • Prof. Jaak Panksepp's 7 Basic Emotional Systems, from Affective Neuroscience, equivalent to the 'basic' instincts which must be met with, in all mammals
• How Personality develops over Lifespan development
• The Persona
  • The specialised complex through which you 'automatically' relate to the world; becoming as conscious as possible of this, provides psychosocial adapatability
• The Ego
  • Including Ego Strength, the sine qua non for working with the psyche
• Projection
  • 'Seeing' your own psychodynamics 'out' in someone else
• Introjection
  • 'Downloading' someone else's psychodynamics, so that they essentially become a complex within yourself
• Identification
  • Unconsciously extending your sense of 'self' out onto someone else
• Transference
  • Unconsciously transferring a wound from the past onto someone else, so that your 'archetypal intent' utilises them as a object of projected potential solution
• Inflation
  • The Ego expanding beyond it's proper experience and development, under 'archetypal' presure from the genome
• Internal Projection
  • Failing to recieve the 'unconscious' properly, due to internally 'expecting' what you might find
• The Shadow
  • What it is, in precise detail
  • How to 'integrate' it (in Jungian terms, albeit, significant nuance is added here)
  • The equivalent structure in Psycho-Systems Analysis: the Alter-Ego, as homeostastic balance for the Ego
• Tracing your own Shadow across time
  • The interplay between Anima/Animus and Shadow, from early childhood until the present
• Moral Complex
  • The equivalent of Freud's superego, left out of Jung's original model, though upon recommendation from Dr. Anthony Stevens, it is included in Psycho-Systems Analysis, in dynamic balance with the Ego and 'Shadow'
• Anima/Animus
  • Often very misunderstood, this is simply the 'Relating Function', as Jung himself said it was
• Tracking your Anima/Animus across your life, and in real-time
• Distilling your Anima/Animus type
  • Jung stated that everyone has a unique Anima or Animus 'Type': systematically uncover your own, using your entire timeline of memories and experiences
• Pseudo-Androgyny
  • A psychodynamic term with a very specific use, for a specific predatory persona/anima/animus combination
• Typology, in the context of the Anima/Animus
  • Jung's original Typological model (Collected Works 6), used as the basis for the MBTI, minus the pop-psychology, so that it remains true to Jung's original
  • Learn how to 'chase' your own negative Anima/Animus down the Typological stack, in real time, from dominant to inferior function
• Complexes
  • An introduction to their presentation, and mind-body transductions
  • Prof. Ernest Rossi's State-Dependent-Memory-Learning-Behaviour (SDMLBs)
  • Capnography as a diagnostic measure for Complexes/SDMLBs
• Mother Complex
• Father Complex
• Dialectical Syncretism
  • Take your core model of the world - whatever unique blend of ideas it contains - and learn how to pressure it to the highest degree, to incorporate material from vastly different fields, without it losing its core identity
• Creativity
  • What exactly it is, using the case study of Steve Richards' Lilith story, now in pre-production as a major motion picture

Part 3:

“What is it, about you, that when you look inside, you could not give up, without giving up being 'you’?”

- Steven T Richards​

​This part of the guide is the centrepiece: the full Personal Myth process, step-by-step.

It takes everything you've learned so far, and applies it to the lifespan trajectory model (i.e. the intentionality of the genome) - broken down into its Freudian, Adlerian, and Jungian elements and stages - to either work with your katabasis (enforced descent) or begin your anabasis, through anamnesis, all in a paced process, to discover 'who you are'.

This is where you are very likely to spend the most time - progressively working through each step.

Part 4:

Even the man who started it all: Carl Jung - author of over 20 volumes of psychological research - had his own personal myth.

​In fact, he stated right at the start of Memories, Dream, Reflections that his whole life, and all his work, was his Personal Myth.

Jung's mother and father; his wife, Emma, and his so-called 'soror mystica', Toni Wolff; his relationship with Freud, his clinical work in the Burghölzli... all shaped the course of his life, revealing - piece by piece - what his true nature, really was.

This, is exactly same, with you - however different your journey may appear to be, from Carl Jung's.​

We should not copy him - instead, we should be directed by his living example, so we can do the same, for ourselves.​

Your upbringing, your relationships, your interests, your experiences - all of these, and how they've interacted with your innate identity - are puzzle-pieces that, when looked at through the means in this handbook, reveal the clear outline, of 'you'.​

In stark contrast to Jung, we also include the Personal Myth of arguably the most accomplished man in history: Alexander the Great. This is both as inspiration - a true role model of spirit - and, to show how different this is to Carl Gustav Jung.​

Your story, is yours. It must always be yours, and no-one - not via cultural pressure, nor transference onto internet guru personas - should be allowed to that away from you.​

Finally, the guide closes up with an essay by James P Dowling: a personal journey, in many ways, represented by a psychodynamic study of Jung's Aion. Once trapped by it - something which is no secret to the 'Boyos' - this short closing piece was written in a creative burst, as a farewell to that stage of his own Personal Myth, and in the hopes that it could offer a highly relatable bridge, for anyone else who was with him, in the 'Boyo days'.

Become Who You Are

In Arthurian legend, the Grail Knight is asked a simple question:

"What is the secret of the Grail?"

The answer?

"You and the land are one."

The Personal Myth, and the Grail Quest, are one in the same.

We really hope you enjoy our flagship handbook -

All the very best, and with our respect,

Steve, Pauline and James (Jung To Live By Team)