Tarot and Psychology

Mythic Silence

Greetings!

I've finally gotten over my timidness with posting (at least for today) to approach the community with a project that I've been working on. Please allow me to explain.

After graduating from college with a BA in English and a BA in art, I struggled to find myself a decent job. Therefore, I've returned to school to get another degree in Psychology with hopes of doing counseling or art therapy. Needless to say, there are many papers to be done, and I've been very interested in Tarot's potential applications for Psychotherapy.

My professor is very supportive of the idea, so my hunt for applicable sources has begun. I've had my nose in Arthur Rosengarten's book, Tarot and Psychology: Spectrums of Possibility. This has been a fascinating read, and so have the more general Psychotherapy sources I've found.

I was just curious to see what others around here might have to say about the topic. As excited as I am about it, I don't have too many people to share my enthusiasm with, so I thought maybe folks around here would have some opinions or experiences to share. If you know of any current literature on the subject, that would be wonderful as well, but this thread is in no way a "go do my assignment for me" thread. ;) I'm just interested in stimulating some discussion. ^_^

(I hope this goes here and not in Tarot books since this is a discussion about Psychology and Tarot and not the books specifically, but if I am wrong I do apologize.)

Thank you for reading and have a great day!
 

MareSaturni

Hi Mythic Silence!

Welcome to AT! :)

I will not really tell you about my personal experience with working with tarot and psychology together, because I have never done it, even though both subjects interest me a lot. I have thought many times about studying psychology (I am graduated in journalism but I actually hate it, lol!), but so far I haven't had the courage to get started in this path.

There's a bit of discussion here about how useful tarot actually is for psychology. It is known that Jung studied it for a while, but it also known that he left it because he did not find the tarot archetypes as enriching to his theories as he thought they would be. Still, many people agree that tarot is a very powerful psychological tool (in fact, some reader use tarot just for that, and do not use it for divination).

Here you can find two discussions about it, very interesting:

They read fortunes with airs of analytical psychology

Understanding the human psyche, the Tarot, psychology, and mysticism

Personally, as much as I love psychology, I am still inclined to use tarot more as a divination tool. I think that both divination and psychology can overlap, they don't have to exclude each other. At one point, I think it's wise to decide which is going to be your focus, because it ends up determining your basic framework. :)

Hope this is helpful! Please, share your own experiences with us! :)
 

Elendil

Hi from me too.

Although I teach Modern Foreign Languages (French and German) I also have a Masters Degree (Grad. Dip) in Psychology.

As background material for your project Carl Sargent's Personality, Divination and the Tarot might make interesting reading.

Elendil.
 

GryffinSong

I don't have any specific book recommendations, but I applaud your focus. I have degrees in fine arts and computer science, with minors in philosophy and psychology. I've found tarot to be an excellent tool for personal growth, and for an aid in exploring issues with friends. I wish you the greatest of luck in your chosen path.
 

Mythic Silence

Thank you for your responses!

It looks like there is a lot of wonderful content for me to browse through here on the forum. Thank you for the links.

I've been reading some works by Jungian psychologists that have continued to pursue and expand upon Jung's interest in the archetypes in relation to tarot, which has proven to be quite interesting. Rosengarten has also discussed some Humanist approaches to tarot in his book that I think have a good deal of merit. He describes tarot as "intuitions of human possibility" which dovetails nicely with the humanist concept of self-actualization.

Rosengarten discusses the term "Divination" in this section as well, and invites the reader to consider it in a psychological context as "empowered randomness." He relates it to Jungian Synchronicity, which I will be reading more about in the next chapter. I agree with your comment that there are similarities, differences and overlaps in regards to psychology and divination. I will definitely be keeping this in mind when I read the "synchronicity" chapter of the book today.

Thank you, Elendil for the book suggestion - I'm definitely going to see if I can get a copy for my research. :)
 

Zechariah13

I truly appreciate you bringing this up! Before i got seriously into Tarot, i really thought of it as a psychological tool.

The biggest danger i can see as far as using it for therapy includes two things:
first and most ideallogically important: People may attribute any change in themselves to the cards themselves, and that typically wont help with healing, only foster dependance on something.

Second and most realistically important: im pretty sure that if you are doing a therapy plan, you have to show your plan to the Insurance company to see if they will cover it. The likelihood of insurance covering Tarot Card Therapy (albeit TCT sounds official) is slim to none, making it essentially non-viable for most clients.

i'll come back with more positive input when im not at work :)
 

The crowned one

Call it "Art therapy" or a "Modified Thematic Apperception Test" Anything really.

I could see tarot being a tool in your tool box for therapy and would be effective with some people and not with others. One problem with it in therapy is it comes with a preconceived notion as many members here can contest to in day to day interactions and reactions to friends, family and strangers finding out they read with tarot. They are not neutral cards, they "force a response". Even new-age let it come from your angels type readers seem to come consistently pretty close to the typical Rider Waite definitions as near as I can see.

I think if you know the response expected you could see how far they deviate from the expectation? I am way over simplifying, but it is just to get a single idea across.
 

Haizea

I don't remember having seen an example of a reading that was purely psychological. I've been reading the other threads linked, but as this is the new one, I ask here: if any of you know where I can find some Reading Exchange, or any reading that was only psychological, tell me where it is, please.
 

vee

I do some tarot work with my therapist. :) It's my initiative, not hers. I was having troubles keeping focused in my sessions and I asked if I could draw a card to help. She's not familiar with Tarot but she asks me questions based on the card I pull like "What do you see in it? What's grabbing you? What feelings or memories are coming up? What does this card say to you?" Sometimes it is very useful, other times not. We don't do it every session. I do consider tarot to be an important component in my treatment. (I have ADHD and am prone to depression, most recently dealing with post partum depression) It keeps me focused and grounded.
 

Morwenna

I have a friend who uses Tarot as a tool in her counseling practice, but I don't know the details. But I myself, though never having formally studied psychology except for a couple of survey courses, have always been fascinated by the subject, especially the Jungian and its spinoffs. In fact all the readings I do for myself are analytical ones, and one of my pet spreads is one based on Jungian functions. I'm also very interested in the Myers-Briggs testing system and Keirsey's as well, and I find that Tarot works very well with these concepts.

In fact I'll be watching this thread to see what books others recommend! :)