I did not watch all the video but I did attend an Intensive Journal workshop many years ago. It did not seem like "identity manufacture" as much as identity exploration. There is also The Practice of Process Mediation. I will have a look at that also. But I read the book, get the idea and then do it myself. Not the recommended approach but works for me.
Hmm, that is an old post from me from back when I was still in secular college, which I found to be miserable and was looking for any insult to throw at professors to explain or justify my intense feelings of pain and suffering. “identity manufacture” sounds like one of those. I was suffering from CPTSD at the time, so
.
The point of using Progoff's method in literary school is as a starting point to produce creative work such is poetry, characters/settings for stories, and personal opinions for which essays can be founded on. Because the secular environment of state college rejects the Christian identity outright, it definitely felt like I was manufacturing an identity that they could agree with. Not to mention the fact that they rejected the output of my mental illness as wrong and terrifying. I was pretending to be someone that I was not, and I was not doing a very good job at it, or rather negotiating constantly with my professors as to how much of my true self I was allowed to express and still pass their class.
However, in spite of situational foibles, there is a spiritual caution here, starting with the Goodreads page for
The Practice of Process Mediation.
I’m going to cite this page as evidence that Ira Progoff is an analyst of Jungian psychology, which is considered the basis for valid literary ideas. The most obvious example of this is the Hero’s Journey, which is commonly known even outside literary academia. The professor in the video two posts up explains the connection between the Jungian ideas and the journal prompt method, however (30:47) : the idea with the timer is to break through the layers of conscious mental processing to the subconscious to evoke creativity and creative processes. What "wells up" when you are focused on a prompt is useful; it’s supposed to jailbreak through mind’s tendencies to conformity, routine, and sin to look at the world in a new way. (Technically, I have a bachelor's degree in English now and am thus professionally qualified to assert that Progoff's Journal method is a reflection of Jungian psychology without citing the other professor, but fair's fair for Dr. Abrogast.)
Except, it’s all a lie because Jungian psychology is based on the lie that man is basically good. The idea is that, if we dig into the subconscious mind, we’ll find good stuff in there. Lifesaving innovations! Fantastic works of art and cultural significance! Improvements to the human quality of life! Higher profit margins!
This is not what Christianity teaches. It teaches that human beings are basically evil, and the only thing you’re going to find down there in subconscious land is a bunch of lies and sin nature garbage.
The problem is, for someone just doing Progoff or any journaling method, you will get results, but the answer is not because Jung is right, it's because of the Holy Spirit. When you dig the garbage out of your subconscious mind, the Holy Spirit can use the power of Scripture to deal with it. Therefore, ironically the journal methods are in obedience to Philippians 2:12 even though they don't technically work as intended. Evaluate any new ideas against Scripture (or other Catholic sources, in your case) before concluding that they are good; don't fall for the trap of concluding that garbage is roses like many of my fellow students did in college.
Generally speaking, innovative ideas do not come from journaling alone; they come from work, progress, and external evaluation by your fellow Christians. It's allowing the Holy Spirit to show you things as you move through the world.
