I initially encountered Don’s work through his first book, The Inner World of Trauma: Archetypal Defenses of the Personal Spirit, and felt his Jungian psychoanalytic and spiritual lens provided a profound and enlivening contribution to the traumatology literature, adding a missing perspective that fostered a deeper, more complete understanding of the subject. I met Don during seminars that were part of my analytic training. Later, we participated together in presenting at a benefit conference, Transforming Trauma: Psychological and Spiritual Pathways to Healing. The following interview occurred on October 4, 2012, via a long distance phone call to his home in Newfoundland. As I reflect upon some main ideas in this interview—relationality, ensoulment, beauty, and connection—I recall how our time was briefly interrupted by a local Newfoundlander who knocked on Don’s door to sell him fresh vegetables. There was a poignancy and beauty at that moment in their exchange—its simplicity yet its depth; their shared, engaged, and embodied humanness; its receptive, nurturing, and nourishing feeling. My image of their exchange feels like it has become a synchronistic and symbolic expression of our exchange as well—fertile food for thought.
Between the Worlds—Healing Trauma, Body, and Soul: A Conversation with Donald Kalsched
