Modern Psychology and Tarot – Strange Bedfellows

Reading through the meaning of each Tarot card, it is common to wonder where the Tarot interpretations originated from. While earlier Tarot decks may have been influenced by folklore or oral traditions of the time, newer Tarot decks, especially those created in the last century have meanings linked to psychology. Not too Freudian, thank goodness!

Popular psychology is present in many definitions but more specifically, Jungian psychology has highly influenced the Tarot meanings. Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), was originally a student of Freud, but moved away from Freud’s psycho-analytical approach to develop a rich system of symbols entirely his own.

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The Psychology of Desire

On the three different types of desire and the need for progeny, power and purpose

Desire is a very intriguing subject to poets, philosophers, psychologists and to every inquisitive human. Desire is shaped by several factors which could have physiological and endocrinal explanations, psychoanalytic, sociological and philosophical explanations. Desire is a fundamental force of human existence and the primary manifestation of sexual energy and is present in all human beings without which survival would be meaningless. Although desire can have negative connotations with societal pressures on controlling desire, desire is largely positive and constructive although aggressive impulses lead to destructive desires as well.

Desire is the root of all human activity from creative pursuits to business pursuits and we are all motivated by one form of desire or another and these may be a desire for fame, desire for benevolence, desire for money, desire for admiration and popularity or even desire for power. Of course this is not an exhaustive list of desires and the range of desires could vary according to the range of human emotions and experiences. The manifestation of desire could be largely restricted by society and there is a huge difference on how society perceives desire in men and women. Society still remains hypocritical as far as sexual desire is concerned and sex or sexual desire is not talked about freely. In fact negative perceptions about sex are rather widespread in which men are considered as sexual predators and women are the victims. At best sexual desire in men is still accepted although sex desire in women is still perceived with certain skepticism. This would not be the right kind of perception as both men and women should have a healthy sexual drive and negative perceptions in society are detrimental to one’s moral and sexual development.

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The Psychology of Communication

On the limits of the process of communication and the central role of interpretation

Communication is about using symbols and in case of humans, using language, to convey meanings and ideas between individuals and it involves the act of evoking reactions from other individuals. Human communication is marked by intention and anticipation of the reactions and communication in humans can be verbal when mediated by language or non-verbal when no language is involved. Communication can also be direct when a certain pattern of behavior evokes a particular type of response or subtle and indirect when behaviors are not predictable or ambiguous and not even completely comprehensible. Thus communication is separated into certain distinct categories such as:

1. Direct and Indirect communication

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