From Career to Calling:

A Depth Psychology Guide to Soul-Making Work in Darkening Times

by Suzanne Cremen

1st Edition, 2020, Routledge - available now.

Finalist in the Australian Career Book Award, supported by the Royal Society of Arts Oceania.

Finding and following an authentic calling challenges us to bridge both the intuitive, soulful and the hard-edged, material dimensions of everyday life. From Career to Calling: A Depth Psychology Guide to Soul-making Work in Darkening Times opens new avenues for vocational exploration and career inquiry in an imaginative way.

This unique book draws on insights from the field of Jungian and archetypal psychology to re-imagine our attitudes and approaches to work, money, vocational guidance and career development. As people find themselves disillusioned with or disenfranchised from capitalist notions of work and career, Suzanne Cremen’s interdisciplinary approach illuminates how a creative, meaningful and influential work-life can emerge from attending to the archetypal basis of experience. Interweaving elements of her own journey, Cremen connects individual experience with the collective in an original way, spotlighting depression in the legal profession, marginalization of the feminine principle in work environments, and how understanding the roots of our cultural complexes can spark personal callings which facilitate collective transformation.

Blending compelling real-life stories with robust scholarly analysis and reflective activities, this book will help practitioners to support individuals to develop a sense of their soul’s calling and offer guidance on creating an authentic vocational life within the constraints of the contemporary era. Additionally, it will be invaluable to those in career transition, re-discovering their purpose at the end of a career, or commencing work-life.

Blending compelling real-life stories with robust scholarly analysis and reflective activities, this book will help practitioners to support individuals to develop a sense of their soul’s calling and offer guidance on creating an authentic vocational life within the constraints of the contemporary era. Additionally, it will be invaluable to those in career transition, re-discovering their purpose at the end of a career, or commencing work-life.

About the author

Suzanne Cremen worked in over 25 occupations including lawyer, screenwriter, conference producer, publisher and career counsellor before earning her PhD in depth psychology. She serves as faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute (USA) and founded the Life Artistry Centre for Archetype, Imagination and Vocation (Australia), where she teaches and consults.

contents

Acknowledgements
Preface Career as a journey of spirit or of soul — Darkening times are soul-making times — Cultivating soul in our work and our world
Chapter 1: Job, Career, or Calling? Perspectives on work, career and vocation — The quest to accommodate a calling in a life matrix — Invitation to reflection and journaling
Chapter 2: A Very Brief History of Approaches to Vocational Guidance and Career Development The traditional approach to career choice and development — Benefits and limitations of the traditional approach — New directions in career development — Invitation to reflection and action
Chapter 3: Vocation as Soul’s Opus: A Symbolic Perspective The meaning of soul — Beyond literalism: seeing through metaphor and symbol — Vocation from a symbolic perspective — Invitation to reflection and journaling
Chapter 4: A Short Interlude on the Relevance of Psychological Type The basics and evolution of Jung’s theory of psychological type — How we perceive and process the world in different ways — A vocational approach that appeals to Intuition — Suggestions for reflection and exploration
Chapter 5: A Jungian Understanding of the Psyche and Vocation A Jungian model of the psyche — The unconscious and the archetypes — Individuation and the Self — The psyche and vocation — The role of dreams in vocational guidance — Suggestions for research and reflection
Chapter 6: The Abduction from Career to Calling Encountering the shadow — Listening to the symptomatic psyche — Depression in the legal profession — Midlife’s assault on the monarchical ego — Wearing masks, playing roles — In the belly of the whale — Invitation to reflection and journaling
Chapter 7: Undercover Shamans at Work The initiation into vocation — Annabella’s story — A Copernican revolution of the psyche — Invitation to reflection and journaling
Chapter 8: Loving our Fate so Deeply it Transforms into Destiny Embracing our weirdness — Invitation to reflection and journaling
Chapter 9: A Rough and Uncommonly Devious Footpath: Complexes as Pathways to Vocation Skeletons in the cupboard — Childhood wounds — The danger of possession by a complex — The wounded researcher — Invitation to reflection and journaling
Chapter 10: Unfinished Business: Callings Arising from Ancestral and Cultural Wounds Mending ancestral patterns — Callings arising from histories of colonisation, war and exile — Cultural complexes — The orphan archetype within Australia’s cultural complexes — Invitation to reflection, conversation and journaling
Chapter 11: Money and the Dark Side of Vocation Vocation and privilege — The nature and mythic origins of money — Money as a motivator and a complex — The shadows of vocation — Money and values — A shifting paradigm: decoupling work and money — The metaphor of flow — Invitation to reflection and journaling
Chapter 12: Living on the Edge Between Worlds Engaging mythos and logos perspectives — Waiting in the midst of ambiguity — Dancing with the psyche — Repairing the world — Invitation to reflection, conversation and creative practice
Glossary of Jungian Terms
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

‘This new work by Suzanne Cremen challenges us to stretch our imagination and consider new perspectives on the making of career and vocation through calling. The pathway to this new understanding is through a reconsideration of basic principles and concepts from depth psychology. While one might question some of the underlying assumptions, this is a journey that is well worth the effort! The book is creative, stimulating and well written. It also has broad application to many of our current psychological and ecological challenges.’
Norman Amundson PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia, Canada, author of Active Engagement, Essential Elements of Career Counseling, The Physics of Living, Career Pathways and Guiding Circles

‘The achievement of Suzanne Cremen’s book is to bring into conjunction two areas of study which had not previously been linked with confident knowledge and understanding of both. Traditionally, vocational or career advice focused on the practical matter of finding and improving the individual’s employment in the material world. In contrast, analytical psychology tended to concentrate on the state and development of the individual’s psyche, so that the inner or non-ordinary world takes priority. This book, in addition to being authoritative, is a delight to read, advancing a rational case with the passion due in explorations of the psyche. Dr Cremen reaches out tactfully to her readers with an impressive blend of analytical rigour and enthusiastic commitment to her topic.’
John Izod, Emeritus Professor, University of Stirling (UK), author of Cinema as Therapy: Grief and Transformational Film and Screen, Culture, Psyche

‘Many people struggle deeply with allowing and listening to the deeper call of the psyche in relationship to work and career path.  Suzanne Cremen writes on the subject of vocation in a way that is clearly connected to her own vocation. Her passion for the subject is evident. Her work demonstrates strong scholarship and engaging writing.  A distinctive feature of this book is the gripping, raw and honest examples of individuals’ descents into their personal nekyias which opened them to new life and vocational paths. Adding weight is that the author is willing to tell her own story.  Exercises at the end of each chapter help the reader to take the ideas further and personalise them.  Highly recommended for anyone who suspects there is much more to life and work than traditional outdated modes of career and success.’ 
Dr Ana Mozol, depth psychoanalyst, author of A Re-Visioning of Love: Dark Feminine Rising, founder and director of Dreamwork Theatre Inc. in Vancouver BC 

‘From Career to Calling is engaging, alive, filled with clear explanations of concepts used, stories that illustrate the issues at hand, and a vulnerability from the author in sharing her own stories.  The book is grounded, drawing on more orthodox career guidance foundations, but goes deeper, bridging into the field of depth psychology. It is also distinctive, bringing theory, concepts and story together in a way that is rich, practically helpful and challenging. As we enter an age of anxiety around the future of work, this timely book is profoundly relevant.  I couldn't put it down.’ 
Peter Westoby PhD, Associate Professor in Social Science & Community Development, QUT, Australia, author of Soul, Community and Social Change

‘Many readers will discover new hope with this book: for the professional, something akin to “this new process will really help Client X” and for the layperson, “At last, here is a new way of understanding myself and the work that I am called to do”.  The author’s personal accounts, extensive excerpts from interviewees, the pertinent reflective exercises and the depth of academic rigour make this a robust and engaging resource.’
Michelle Mearns, Career Transition Coach, New Zealand

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