I don’t usually post public criticism. It’s just not really my mode. I’m far more interested in dialogue, curiosity, and building ideas than tearing other people’s work apart.
But in this episode, I reflect on why I found a recent Jungian podcast on polyamory genuinely disappointing—not simply because I disagree with its conclusions, but because I expected more depth, more reflexivity, and more psychological subtlety from a tradition that prides itself on precisely those things.
I explore the limits of how polyamory was framed in that conversation, including the use of straw-man arguments, the assumption that sexuality is fundamentally about attachment, and the tendency to psychologize or spiritualize lived relational realities into “inner” symbolic processes. Along the way, I ask a deeper question: if we’re going to analyze the unconscious motivations of people who practice polyamory, are we also willing to examine our own unconscious reactions against it?
This is not an episode defending or promoting any particular relationship structure. It’s an invitation to take depth psychology seriously—especially when it becomes morally or emotionally charged—and to ask whether suspicion, discomfort, and archetypal loyalty are being mistaken for psychological insight.
In other words: what happens when a depth tradition stops turning its tools back on itself?