The Dynamics of Hope: Perspectives of Process in Anxiety and Creativity, Imagery and Dreams

Psychotherapist Progoff for nearly 40 years has been concerned with what he calls the "opus," or the work of each individual life. He has always emphasized that the meaning of any given life cannot be evident in the beginning it "unfolds as the life proceeds . . . . it fills in its content as the events of the life take place" (p. 9). In this book he develops the theme that it is "in the back and forth movement between hope and anxiety [that] the personal relationships and the work involvements that comprise a life are formed" (p. 9). Progoff has been involved in learning how to study life processes, both conceptually, one could say generically, and practically, that is, in the individual life his own and that of others. The former consists of the form of depth psychology Progoff has worked out and the latter has developed through the practice of the Intensive Journal process. This volume brings together his papers that have primarily been "devoted to building the conceptual framework that underlies the practical work of the Intensive Journal process" (p. 11), especially two long papers originally given at the Eranos conferences, in 1963 (Part 1) and 1965 (Part 2). Part 3 consists of some later papers and current thoughts on the process involved in the dialectic of human growth. In the Prologue, footnotes, added material, and in Part 3 Progoff brings to full development the seminal ideas he developed in the lectures from the 1960s.

[The importance of Progoff's work for parapsychology is that first, he provides a theoretical underpinning that enables one to view an entire human life as a cyclic process, with emphasis on the felt experience of that life. A longitudinal idiopathic view may be necessary to make sense of the role psi can play and may play in the life of an individual. And perhaps only when we understand its role at the individual level can we begin to understand its possible role in groups and in society as a whole. Second, Progoff's Intensive Journal process and his work with imaging may provide practical aid in understanding psi. Progoff's writings on the cyclic nature of the human growth process may help parapsychologists by providing meaning to a context now viewed as irrational, chaotic, and meaningless.]