All work herein is original Mikhail Tank Soul Work, without AI, and is fully protected by copyright law.
Select Jungian Paper Titles by Mikhail Tank
Capturing Brilliance from the Collective Unconscious (PhD acceptance paper, and possible dissertation title)
The Light and Dark of The Moon
The Archetypal Dionysus
Intersex as a Transcendent Function ~ original presentation & publication at The Art and Psyche Conference in Sicily
The Incomparable Value of Artistic Freedom
It was 2014, October 2nd — that I began a Jungian Psychology PhD program which was bi-coastal (Manhattan, and Santa Barbara). In the beginning - all was fantastic, I was on a partial scholarship, getting high grades, and my entrance paper, as well as the possible future dissertation was titled, Capturing Brilliance from the Collective Unconscious. In 2015, I was a respected student and the only one in my cohort to be invited to present at the exclusive Jungian Conference of the year, Art and Psyche in Sicily, Italy.
My paper, titled Intersex as a Transcendent Function (title variation in the acceptance letter) was published and I had the great honour to present before Andreas Jung (C. G. Jung’s Grandson), top worldwide Jungian analysts and professors, and the privilege to interview Professor Sonu Shamdasani, the premiere publisher of Carl Jung’s exquisite Red and Black Books.
I also had a few great conversations with Ami Ronnberg - then the director of ARAS (image below), and basically had an impeccable time.
For one night only, the night prior to my presentation, I stayed at the beloved Villa Politi, in the very suite where Winston Churchill rested. “The Villa Politi was used as a base by Winston Churchill during the allied invasion of Italy.” - https://www.villapoliti.com/en/history.php
I loved the powerful archetypal energy, as it energized my day, gifting me a sense of inner inspiration ~ in order to make the presentation more empowered.
The experience was full-heartedly extraordinary and I was later invited to present at the Nobel Prize-winning Goethe-Universität
in Frankfurt.
CHANGE & ULTIMATE DECISION
Upon my return to the Santa Barbara-based university, things began to change. The bi-coastal program I signed up for turned into a Southern California-only program, which was a giant un-inspirational bummer, and not what I signed up for. There were several professors who were in relationships with each other, which made everything muddy and non objective. Particularly, there was a lady teacher and her male partner, both my professors at the same time, who began a type of sabotage to my freedom of thinking and expression. I tried to change classes / instructions, but the option was denied. I then realized that my path to individuation, which is, and had always flourished naturally, was curtailed to a belief system which was not true to me, a forced polytheism dynamic, a forced way of reflection, and many other unnatural thought paradigms — I am simply not weak enough to do work that is completely and utterly untrue to my inner being, and with no options provided, my Soul decided that Artistic Freedom was a much greater option.
I found theorists boring, spending their precious time what I call "arguing with dead people” in tedious writings to update mostly liberal, and selfish perspectives, which ultimately lead to a separation of Soul and Self.
I love both Freud’s extensive work (not just sexual in nature) - as well as his premiere student Jung’s. As one can image, Freud was highly and often criticized in this school, his work denounced and refuted, simply due to current day biases. I found this appalling and stupid. As a bonus, please enjoy my interview with his great-grand daughter, the late sculptor Jane McAdam Freud (below). I love this interview and God Bless Jane’s Soul! She loved it too, so she noted.
There are some good and smart people in my life, and in all of our lives who are simply theorists, people who try to prove a hypothesis based on facts. Proving things to anyone is already a tedious task, but a hypothesis is in most cases biased and based on some form of tunnel vision.
I am and have always been an Artist, a PRACTITIONER of Majick, Art, and Archetypal Royalty. Artistic Freedom has always been more important to me than fame, idolatry, and single-lane-thinking. All of these things remove a person from their inner strength, Soul and voice.
Thus I chose Full Artistic Freedom as my Life and Profession, however unsuccessful that may appear to some — and who cares, right?
Please enjoy my presentation, interviews, concept, and additional elements from the Art and Psyche in Sicily Conference.
By the way, I am open to book deal offers, just make sure to value my artistic freedom when presenting an offer.
Soul Blessings to You,
Mikhail Tank
Art image by Paz