Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
A father who is unavailable - whether due to untimely death, a demanding job, family breakup, or simply an inability to step up and meet his children’s needs - may deprive his children of the emotional bedrock they require. They can struggle to access their capacity for aggression and creativity, or to build the self-esteem necessary for successful adult relationships.
As many fairy tales show us, an absent father is sometimes experienced alongside an abusive mother, leaving a complicated legacy of emotional wounding to be worked through. First of all, the abuse must be confronted, and then the failure of the absent parent to witness or protect.
Jung’s life offers us fascinating material with which to explore the impact of the absent father. His father’s powerlessness as an uninspired, struggling pastor planted the seed of Jung’s lifelong quest for the numinous. As a father himself, Jung paid little attention to his children as he developed his life’s work and maintained a relationship with his collaborator Toni Wolff alongside his marriage to Emma Jung.
Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart this week as they explore what it means to be an absent father, and how we might both survive and transcend the legacy of such a parent.
Visit our website to read today’s dream, get more detail on the absent father, and follow up on the resources we mention: thisjungianlife.com/absentfather
GO DIRECTLY TO THE DREAM: 57:39
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Download our free Dream Recall Meditation Guide: thisjungianlife.com
Check out our Dream School: tinyurl.com/TJLdreamschool
Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Patreon channel: tinyurl.com/TJLPatreon
Follow This Jungian Life on Instagram: instagram.com/thisjungianlifepodcast
A father who is unavailable - whether due to untimely death, a demanding job, family breakup, or simply an inability to step up and meet his children’s needs - may deprive his children of the emotional bedrock they require. They can struggle to access their capacity for aggression and creativity, or to build the self-esteem necessary for successful adult relationships.
As many fairy tales show us, an absent father is sometimes experienced alongside an abusive mother, leaving a complicated legacy of emotional wounding to be worked through. First of all, the abuse must be confronted, and then the failure of the absent parent to witness or protect.
Jung’s life offers us fascinating material with which to explore the impact of the absent father. His father’s powerlessness as an uninspired, struggling pastor planted the seed of Jung’s lifelong quest for the numinous. As a father himself, Jung paid little attention to his children as he developed his life’s work and maintained a relationship with his collaborator Toni Wolff alongside his marriage to Emma Jung.
Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart this week as they explore what it means to be an absent father, and how we might both survive and transcend the legacy of such a parent.
Visit our website to read today’s dream, get more detail on the absent father, and follow up on the resources we mention: thisjungianlife.com/absentfather
GO DIRECTLY TO THE DREAM: 57:39
Connect With This Jungian Life
Download our free Dream Recall Meditation Guide: thisjungianlife.com
Check out our Dream School: tinyurl.com/TJLdreamschool
Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Patreon channel: tinyurl.com/TJLPatreon
Follow This Jungian Life on Instagram: instagram.com/thisjungianlifepodcast
![[SUBSCRIBER BONUS] How are Personality, Ego, Psyche, and Self Related?](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CmszNOTVlUc/mqdefault.jpg "[SUBSCRIBER BONUS] How are Personality, Ego, Psyche, and Self Related?
In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber-bonus content, a Patron asks:
In the Jungian model of the psyche, how do you define personality and what is its relationship with ego, psyche, or the Self?
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