CATEGORY: MORE PORT TOWNSEND

A Jungian psychologist, Janet Dallet, moved to Port Townsend.  I met her through friends.  I had read a fair amount of Carl Jung over the years: enough that Janet and I were able to have an interesting conversation.  Although I did not know her very well, she recommended me to a friend of hers, Dorothy Adams , who had moved from California to Sequim, bought a piece of view property and was looking for someone to design her house.

Dorothy was a “Devout Jungian.”  She was not a therapist as was Janet, but a patient.  Her whole life had been turned around by Jungian psychology.  She had been struggling, both with her health and with poverty.  She was now healthy, very wealthy and to me, really wise..  She recorded all her dreams and had sessions with her psychologist in California via phone regularly.  I not only designed her house, but she and I became friends.

One day, due to my own carelessness, my house caught on fire.  I was able to put it out but it damaged my kitchen and especially a painting that I valued.  I was appalled at my own numb headedness that had allowed it to happen.  A few days later I had lunch with Dorothy and told her about it. Instead of clucking and saying “what a shame,” she got a very serious look on her face.  She told me to run, not walk, to the nearest Jungian psychologist: namely Janet.  She said this was just a warning.  The next time I really would burn my house down.

So I took her advice and went to Janet.  After telling her about the fire, she asked me if I had any strong desires at that time.  I told her I wanted to travel.  She asked why I wasn’t doing it.  I told her I was in the process of remodeling my house and couldn’t possibly leave until it was finished.  She explained that our subconscious wants us to be happy.  If we do not “make the subconscious conscious,” it will go about making us happy in any way it can, albeit irrationally, because the subconscious is not rational.  She said, “If your house is standing in the way of something you really want to do, your subconscious will get rid of it.  It’s as simple as that.”  She said that if I couldn’t go on a long trip right now, to go on a short one.  I did what she advised. My house is still standing.  

Then she told me she wanted a new house and wanted me to design it for her.  Her house and Dorothy’s turned out to be two of the most interesting houses I ever designed.  I always worked in close collaboration with my clients, so guess who really designed these houses!  I believe it was the collective unconscious of the three of us.