Dionysophy

An integrative approach to symbolic affects through the wisdom of depth psychology.

From Separation to Integration.

At the crossroads of analytical psychology and Internal Family Systems, Dionysophy is an experiential approach to understanding affects that are directed towards symbols.

Any uncontrollable attraction towards a symbol is a confession that something valuable is being released by the presence of the symbol. As long as the purpose behind this fascination is not understood, one remains helpless under the spell of compulsion.

As a solution, Dionysophy proposes a set of methods for the individual to understand the nature of his or her symbolic fixation. Behind every captivating symbol, behind every overpowering affect, self-knowledge can be found.

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“[S]elf-restraint is healthy and beneficial; it may even be a virtue… [but] it may become as injurious as the personal secret ...
The affect withheld is likewise something we conceal, something we can hide even from ourselves – an art in which men particularly excel, while women, with very few exceptions, are by nature averse to doing such injury to their affects. When an affect is withheld it is just as isolating and just as disturbing in its effects as the unconscious secret, and just as guilt-laden. ...

It seems to be a sin in the eyes of nature to hide our inferiority—just as much as to live entirely on our inferior side.”

Carl Jung, Problems of Modern Psychotherapy, Collected Works 16, par 130-132

Symbols and Affects

The Road Not Taken.

A journey to the unconscious

We are not transparent to ourselves.

Every phenomenon that we cannot get rid of carries a secret intention that nature has hidden for us, waiting for the right time to be revealed to ourselves. As long as its secrecy is veiled by unconsciousness, it is experienced as an open wound that cannot heal.

Nature seems to hold a grudge when we attempt to cut ourselves off from accepting this inferiority. Any attempt to bypass the self-discovery process that is laid out in front of us is met with more obstacles. Everything we staunchly withhold from ourselves will meet us back as a foe.

In such conditions, when the will fails to make any progress, when consciousness cannot overcome its own condition, one has to open the door to the unconscious and its guiding symbols.

Dionysophy proposes that the individual is contained by a system of symbols that one cannot live without, whose origin is the unconscious. It's in the nature of symbols to be blindly compelling and to trigger affects. And when the affect becomes a source of distress, an integrative process can take place.

Hi, I'm Axel Perruchoud

Initially working towards an engineering career in Switzerland, life pulled the rug from under my feet, forcing me to reevaluate all my priorities. After an intense period of therapeutic effort, a new way forward announced itself: I abandoned my prospective career, moved to Australia, found a family, and launched a project around depth psychology.

In 2020, I started Dream Sanctuary. I spent my time and effort writing content around dream interpretation, analytical psychology, anything related to the writings of the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.

Strongly committed to understanding my dreams and helping others to understand theirs, working daily through dreams made me develop somewhat accidentally a psychologically informed symbolic worldview. In every piece of media that I come across, I no longer see characters but symbols acting out patterns of development between ego-consciousness and the unconscious.

Four years later, the necessity for a new project crystallised dramatically. I realised that people (myself included) rarely live in the world as such but orient ourselves through a system of symbols. And, within a society slowly coming out of materialistic torpor, overwhelming emotions caused by symbols are seen as a pathology that is impossible to understand. Dionysophy is the resulting proposition to address the psychological suffering caused by symbols.

Overview of Current Undertakings

Projects

Dionysophy is committed to bringing to the public practical guidelines to deal with unconscious phenomena.

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Community

The heart of Dionysophy is to be found in its community. Daily exchanges and monthly gatherings will shape the future of Dionysophy.