Dr Matthew Bennett
@drmatthewbennett.bsky.social
Licensed psychologist, director of the Aion Institute, professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute, author of "Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom abd Dignity."
Introducing the Aion Institute, a psychotherapy training institute years in the coming, designed for psychodynamically inclined psychotherapists who miss the rigorous and gravitas of graduate school but not the orthodoxy of psychoanalytic or Jungian training institutes.
aioninstitute.com.
aioninstitute.com.
August 17, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Introducing the Aion Institute, a psychotherapy training institute years in the coming, designed for psychodynamically inclined psychotherapists who miss the rigorous and gravitas of graduate school but not the orthodoxy of psychoanalytic or Jungian training institutes.
aioninstitute.com.
aioninstitute.com.
The psychoanalytic literature describes counterphobic defenses which take on basic anxieties by approaching them head head-on (Fenichel, 1945), and these appear to be common and highly characteristic qualities of the histrionic personality (McWilliams, 20202011).
July 27, 2025 at 2:42 PM
The psychoanalytic literature describes counterphobic defenses which take on basic anxieties by approaching them head head-on (Fenichel, 1945), and these appear to be common and highly characteristic qualities of the histrionic personality (McWilliams, 20202011).
In a real sense, the depressive solution invokes the same challenges and themes of the narcissistic arc, which is not surprising because the depressive node and the narcissistic node represent the two poles of the axis of introjective self, also representing Logos (thought).
July 22, 2025 at 5:30 AM
In a real sense, the depressive solution invokes the same challenges and themes of the narcissistic arc, which is not surprising because the depressive node and the narcissistic node represent the two poles of the axis of introjective self, also representing Logos (thought).
Complex Adaptive Systems evolve through the breakdown of symmetry. Breakdown of symmetry actually reflects the attempts of the psyche to represent crucial inner truths (and desires and goals related to those truths) while also making inferences about how successfully those goals are being met.
July 19, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Complex Adaptive Systems evolve through the breakdown of symmetry. Breakdown of symmetry actually reflects the attempts of the psyche to represent crucial inner truths (and desires and goals related to those truths) while also making inferences about how successfully those goals are being met.
Manic defenses, viewed through the lens of the Kleinian model, are designed to counter depressive guilt and shame through flight into compensatory action and omnipotence. Manic energy is therefore shimmering and effervescent, distracting and intoxicating.
July 18, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Manic defenses, viewed through the lens of the Kleinian model, are designed to counter depressive guilt and shame through flight into compensatory action and omnipotence. Manic energy is therefore shimmering and effervescent, distracting and intoxicating.
Any therapist whose idea of "therapy" is a manualized ABC checklist can and will be replaced with AI. Psychotherapists who provide relational psychodynamic, humanistic, and existential psychotherapy will continue to flourish, because they base the work on their own humanity.
June 18, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Any therapist whose idea of "therapy" is a manualized ABC checklist can and will be replaced with AI. Psychotherapists who provide relational psychodynamic, humanistic, and existential psychotherapy will continue to flourish, because they base the work on their own humanity.
Psychotherapy is a way of saying: I do not need to simplify you to love you.
June 15, 2025 at 5:32 AM
Psychotherapy is a way of saying: I do not need to simplify you to love you.
One of the higher, but usually unspoken, goals of psychotherapy is to remoralize.
June 8, 2025 at 1:42 AM
One of the higher, but usually unspoken, goals of psychotherapy is to remoralize.
Maybe the highest art of the psychotherapist is to stay, even when the staying doesn't soothe.
Maybe the worst mistake of the psychotherapist is to promise fulfillment when only presence is possible.
Maybe the worst mistake of the psychotherapist is to promise fulfillment when only presence is possible.
June 6, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Maybe the highest art of the psychotherapist is to stay, even when the staying doesn't soothe.
Maybe the worst mistake of the psychotherapist is to promise fulfillment when only presence is possible.
Maybe the worst mistake of the psychotherapist is to promise fulfillment when only presence is possible.
One of the primary challenges in psychotherapy with borderline states is to distinguish ordinary, forgivable human empathic failures from actual sadistic, cruel, exploitative, or abusive behavior.
June 3, 2025 at 8:16 PM
One of the primary challenges in psychotherapy with borderline states is to distinguish ordinary, forgivable human empathic failures from actual sadistic, cruel, exploitative, or abusive behavior.
From the depressive point of view....
Love is a loss that hasn't happened yet.
Love is a loss that hasn't happened yet.
June 2, 2025 at 8:39 AM
From the depressive point of view....
Love is a loss that hasn't happened yet.
Love is a loss that hasn't happened yet.
Depressive people have trouble loving themselves, so they rely upon others to do it for them.
May 31, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Depressive people have trouble loving themselves, so they rely upon others to do it for them.
Loss must be loved to be named grief.
May 25, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Loss must be loved to be named grief.
Curiosity is emotionally and cognitively dangerous, and it is the sign of a psyche in motion.
— Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity, Chapter 17
— Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity, Chapter 17
May 12, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Curiosity is emotionally and cognitively dangerous, and it is the sign of a psyche in motion.
— Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity, Chapter 17
— Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity, Chapter 17
Attachment isn not simply about feeding or comfort; it is the art of building a sanctuary within where others can dwell. When this sanctuary is empty, we are haunted by absence. When it is filled with warmth, we call it love.
Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity, Ch 4.
Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity, Ch 4.
May 10, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Attachment isn not simply about feeding or comfort; it is the art of building a sanctuary within where others can dwell. When this sanctuary is empty, we are haunted by absence. When it is filled with warmth, we call it love.
Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity, Ch 4.
Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity, Ch 4.
While academic psychology debates whether archetypes exist or not, despots cheerfully harness them to fuel massive social movements, justify war, and strangle democracy.
-Integrated Analytical Psychology, Chapter 14.
-Integrated Analytical Psychology, Chapter 14.
May 7, 2025 at 3:56 AM
While academic psychology debates whether archetypes exist or not, despots cheerfully harness them to fuel massive social movements, justify war, and strangle democracy.
-Integrated Analytical Psychology, Chapter 14.
-Integrated Analytical Psychology, Chapter 14.
The schizoid personality is best understood not as fragile, but as mythic. Like ancient initiates passing through the Sidpa Bardo, they emerge into this life with thin skin and wide eyes, startled by incarnation itself. To pathologize this response is to misunderstand it.
May 6, 2025 at 7:07 AM
The schizoid personality is best understood not as fragile, but as mythic. Like ancient initiates passing through the Sidpa Bardo, they emerge into this life with thin skin and wide eyes, startled by incarnation itself. To pathologize this response is to misunderstand it.
The depressive personality carries grandiose responsibility without the reward of omnipotence. They go on, not for salvation, but out of a strange fidelity to the world.
From Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity.
From Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity.
May 5, 2025 at 7:07 AM
The depressive personality carries grandiose responsibility without the reward of omnipotence. They go on, not for salvation, but out of a strange fidelity to the world.
From Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity.
From Integrated Analytical Psychology: Return to Freedom and Dignity.
As a psychologist, it seems to me that the bottom is falling out of the Anerican psyche right now. Private practice has never been this challenging.
February 4, 2025 at 1:14 AM
As a psychologist, it seems to me that the bottom is falling out of the Anerican psyche right now. Private practice has never been this challenging.
Psychoanalytic resistance to mysticism recapitulates an unconscious cultural tendency to relegate the symbolic function to the feminine and therefore to dismiss it.
Integrated Analytical Psychology, p. 39
Integrated Analytical Psychology, p. 39
January 15, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Psychoanalytic resistance to mysticism recapitulates an unconscious cultural tendency to relegate the symbolic function to the feminine and therefore to dismiss it.
Integrated Analytical Psychology, p. 39
Integrated Analytical Psychology, p. 39
Coming soon...
December 23, 2024 at 10:51 PM
Coming soon...
The depressive arc has a peculiar, end‑of‑the‑line feel to it, which accounts for much of the melancholy ultimately underlying and underwriting the Fourth Quadrant, which could be symbolized by the Winter Solstice, or the Uttermost East.
December 19, 2024 at 6:20 PM
The depressive arc has a peculiar, end‑of‑the‑line feel to it, which accounts for much of the melancholy ultimately underlying and underwriting the Fourth Quadrant, which could be symbolized by the Winter Solstice, or the Uttermost East.
Sartre depicts sex as a “double reciprocal incarnation,” an attempt to reach a harmonious mutual recognition through intimacy of body. Ultimately, sex is therefore an attempt to become more real through shared manifestation and the magical gestures of intimacy (kissing and stroking, and whatnot).
December 17, 2024 at 1:30 AM
Sartre depicts sex as a “double reciprocal incarnation,” an attempt to reach a harmonious mutual recognition through intimacy of body. Ultimately, sex is therefore an attempt to become more real through shared manifestation and the magical gestures of intimacy (kissing and stroking, and whatnot).
Let us name the pachyderm in the room: Narcissism and sociopathy are endemic in men, for complex reasons. The Second Quadrant is fertile ground for the kind of
“toxic masculinity” that has long challenged the boundaries of the social contract.
“toxic masculinity” that has long challenged the boundaries of the social contract.
December 11, 2024 at 4:24 PM
Let us name the pachyderm in the room: Narcissism and sociopathy are endemic in men, for complex reasons. The Second Quadrant is fertile ground for the kind of
“toxic masculinity” that has long challenged the boundaries of the social contract.
“toxic masculinity” that has long challenged the boundaries of the social contract.
The early transit of the Second Quadrant can be narrated as a discovery and fascination with dark magics, invoking legends of the dark sorcerers of Atlantis whose pursuit of forbidden knowledge doomed their civilization.
December 10, 2024 at 2:32 AM
The early transit of the Second Quadrant can be narrated as a discovery and fascination with dark magics, invoking legends of the dark sorcerers of Atlantis whose pursuit of forbidden knowledge doomed their civilization.