Living in the Borderland:The Evolution of Consciousness and the Challenge of Healing Trauma

by Jerome S. Bernstein

Living in the Borderland addresses the evolution of Western consciousness and describes the emergence of the ‘Borderland,' a spectrum of reality that is beyond the rational yet is palpable to an increasing number of individuals. Building on Jungian theory, Jerome Bernstein argues that a greater openness to transrational reality experienced by Borderland personalities allows new possibilities for understanding and healing confounding clinical and developmental enigmas. There are many people whose experiences of reality is outside the mainstream of Western culture; often they see themselves as abnormal because they have no articulated frame of reference for their experience. The concept of the Borderland personality explains much of their experience. In three sections, this book examines the psychological and clinical implications of the evolution of consciousness and looks at how the new Borderland consciousness bridges the mind-body divide. Subjects covered · Evolution of the Western Ego · Transrational Data in a Western Clinical Synchronicity · Trauma and Borderland Transcendence · Environmental Illness Complex · Integration of Navajo and Western healing approaches for Borderland Personalities. Living in the Borderland challenges the standard clinical model, which views normality as an absence of pathology and which equates normality with the rational. Jerome S. Bernstein describes how psychotherapy itself often contributes to the alienation of Borderland personalities by misperceiving the difference between the pathological and the sacred. The case studies included illustrate the potential this has for causing serious psychic and emotional damage to the patient. This challenge to the orthodoxies and complacencies of Western medicine’s concept of pathology will interest Jungian Analysts, Psychotherapists, Psychiatrists and other physicians, as well as educators of children. Jerome S. Bernstein is a Jungian Analyst in private practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2005

Reviews

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, mostly because it provided a structure for which to understand myself. It was very healing to feel mirrored for the first time. There were parts of this book that did not resonate with me. The Native perspective was very nice to read, and I can resonate with it as I have Native blood in my not so distant lineage. However, there are other indigenous experiences that people of the diaspora have and it would have been nice to have had a way of decoding those stories and the parallels drawn. Of course, the author can't do all of the work. I love this book. I feel less alone because of it.

[Nik Maack · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish it, giving up on page 126.

The book is dry, academic, and boring to read. On top of that, it is often hard to take seriously. One chapter is devoted to a deep dive of Genesis, because the author wants to show us that the "post-Genesis" western mind is devoted to the idea of controlling nature. Whereas, he claims, the indigenous mind sees everything as alive and as one with nature. I don't think we need an entire chapter on Genesis to get this idea across.

Another section discusses how a therapist might have a psychic patient, and the challenges that come from a patient bringing psychic material to a session. For example, what if a patient uses their psychic powers to access information about a therapist's home life? How to handle that? This is just casually brought up like, we all know what psychic powers are, and they're totally real, and this happens in therapy all the time.

Does it?

I was in therapy for ten years. I loved it. And lately I've been thinking about reading more on the topic. So I thought I'd start with Jungians. That led me to a podcast, which led me to this book.

The thing I'm realizing is I really hate Jungians. The line between Jungian theory and new age madness is very thin. Hearing Jungians just casually talk about astrology, flying saucers, divination, and other topics is bizarre. And they drop these topics like, yup. Jungian. That's all Jungian.

Bernstein talks about "borderland" people who have one foot in our world and another on a mystical indigenous nature world. He says this has to do with indigenous nature ideology. And he says (with no evidence) that our (western) culture is evolving towards a more feminine, intuitive, natural, indigenous way if thinking.

Does that sound like we're evolving towards a "new age"? Because we were promised one the 1960s, 70s, 80s. And so on. It never seems to arrive, does it?

Bernstein presents all of this like it all makes perfect sense and no one has ever predicted this change before. And he presents it in dense, barely readable academic prose, which lends it an air or seriousness that it does not deserve.

I really like the idea of a "crazy" person having wisdom in their madness, and that we should take that wisdom seriously. I don't see why this has to be limited to nature, indigenous thinking, or necessarily have anything to do with evolution.

I put the book down. I walked away from it. And I've ordered a book called "The Jung Cult" because I suspect Jungians worship a dead Swiss dude. They talk about him like he was an enlightened master and they are all his students. At least Freudians have moved on, and call themselves psychoanalysts, and not Freudians.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains some interesting and important concepts, and is a worthwhile read. However, I found the book to be flawed and unsubstantiated in some areas. As a whole, it did not "hang together".

[Katrina Dreamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended to me by a friend for my final project, this book will be an instrumental piece of my research. I am so grateful to Jerome Bernstein for his work.

[Karen Hyatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A seminal book on Environment Illness. Erudite and challenging.