Joy, Inspiration and Hope
Author: Verena Kast
Translated from German by Douglas Whitcher
1994, Texas A&M University Press, 175 p.p.

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“We risk our lives in order to feel alive” states Swiss Jungian psychotherapist, author and professor of psychology at the University of Zurich, Dr. Verena Kast. Proposing a new approach to healing, she suggests we not painfully track our devastation. Instead, we are to ask ourselves: How can I get my joy back? How do I retrieve this biogenetic inheritance, intrinsically mine?

This book reminds me of a story of a young woman who escaped a terrible trauma in the southern U.S. which hurt her so badly that when she staggered into a New York bus depot she collapsed and was taken to hospital. She could barely speak for weeks. Her psychologist employed a technique of which Dr. Kast would heartily approve: she asked her client to name one thing that made her feel happy…just one. The young woman replied that she knew for certain that she liked chocolate. Her love of chocolate then, became the foundation for her on-going recovery.

Dr. Kast suggests that it is the search for joy that both motivates and sustains us despite the traumas of life. She says this search “…is based in the realm of the nurturing mother archetype” (in contrast to that of the father archetype where we minutely analyze our difficulties in order to be more conscious of them.)

The argument of this analytical text is that “we are not only flung into life, as the emotion of anxiety suggests, but we are also carried by life.” In tracking our lost joy we must steadfastly avoid alluring imitations that ultimately disappoint, such as the ecstatic yet brief burst of joy gleaned from dependencies on drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, competition, power, control and prestige. These escapes establish further sub-dominances of cruelty such as sadism. Kast describes a subtle avoidance of joy:

"Many people say ‘Do I have the right to rejoice when everything is so bad in the world?’
I have also heard this subtle form of sadism expressed in a slightly different way: ‘Not only do you speak about joy; you even take shameless delight in it. Meanwhile, the world is coming apart at the seams.’ Less subtly stated, a sadistic commandment lurks in the background: “Thou shalt not rejoice” as if to imply that only a disgraceful human being is capable of rejoicing. When we think of how vitalizing joy actually is, this prohibition of joy because of the terrible state of the world proves to be sadistic.  We are outraged by brutal sadists, but we need to keep an eye out for the subtle sadists as well."

Kast explains that in order to steadfastly pursue joy, and keep it, we must employ hope. The way to contain our joy over the long haul involves a willingness to behave as though there is, in fact, something better.This  better is what Kast believes to be holiness and she names it ‘hope’.

The author explains the important difference between hope and expectation and cautions that the latter is a trap:  rigid and controlling, expectation insists upon the manifestation of a particular, pre-formed picture that, if unrealized, disappoints. Hope has no such defeat because, undefined, it is open to surprise. A hopeful individual simply continues to do the ‘next right thing’ and patiently waits to see what gift emerges out of that steadfastness. “To learn to hope,” says Kast, is to discover the not-yet conscious.”

Kast frequently refers to the work of German psychoanalyst and phenomenologist Ludwig Binswanger, who contends that joy can become hollow if, Icarus-like, it is too high flown. A vertical line of exciting ideas, great plans and wonderful dreams needs to be balanced, he contends, with a proportional horizontal line transforming idea into physical life. This involves working through an insight and then living it out in our lives. In a particularly informative chapter entitled “Feelings, Affects and Moods”, Kast details Binswanger’s thesis that ungrounded joy causes mania.

Binswanger sees the heart of the maniacal form of life as a “festive, unreflective joy in being” unrooted in history and terribly angry is opposed. He describes mania as “uncommitted joy.”

Ever know someone could always be counted upon to spoil any special occasion such as a birthday, anniversary or holiday time? Kast says it is interesting to note how many depressing things happen when manic individuals participate in a celebration. Because mania is unable to sustain joy, happy events are threatening and often result in disintegration and complete immobility.”

To protect ourselves against the perpetual decline and fall of joy, Binswanger advocates rootedness, the kind brought about by consistent, relaxed routine. Discipline is a unifying principle that bridges ideas into physical existence and counteracts the tendency, described by Kast, “to lie in a stupor of postponed reality.” Not doing anything about our aspirations can leave us depressed and bogged down by our burden of unrealized ideas.

The author suggests a few ways of learning to be a hopeful person:

• Admit dissatisfaction and reject deficiency. Revolt against bad experience!
  

• Pursue the daydreams and imaginary worlds that point the way to change.
  

• Find good people and talk to them regularly and sincerely – open up about confusion, problems, dreams, and talents. Listen to what others have to share about their lives.
  

• Live a disciplined, gentle routine that constructs a reliable bridge for inspiration and joy to cross over into sustained, tangible reality.

One can be taught to hope, says Verena Kast and it is in our best interest to learn the art of being hopeful. This text offers a fresh therapeutic approach to restoring joy.