In Depth Sport Psychology

In Depth Sport Psychology: Reclaiming the Lost Soul of the Athlete is a unique exploration of the vital archetypal elements and themes that emerge when considering elite sportssport psychology through a depth psychological lens. It provides athletes, young people, coaches and clinicians with ways to harness the self, placing athletes on a path towards personal growth and sporting excellence by reconnecting their spirit to their sport.
Burston's multidisciplinary and inclusive approach details the importance of spirituality and other unmeasurable factors, such as emotional recovery, when investigating sporting potential. Incorporating research from classic mythology and the Greek sports academies, he traces sport back to humanity's animalistic and traumatic origins, explores the rise of the Olympic movement, and compares archetypal identities that are shared with athletes today. Relating this to today's financially driven and technological sporting climate, he considers the roots of play, examines the difference in the psyche of team sports and individual players, discusses the crucial, clinical welfare of young people, and dedicates a section to sportswomen. In Depth Sport Psychology emphasises how awakening an athlete's unconscious spirit can positively improve their performance, and offers an applicable methodology for athletes and teachers to use to better understand themselves and achieve brilliance.
Uniquely exploring the connection between Jungian depth psychology and sports, the accessible tone of In Depth Sport Psychology will be key reading for analytical and depth psychologists in practice and in training, sports psychologists and other professionals working with athletes. It will also appeal to athletes and sportspeople interested in exploring a new perspective on sporting excellence.

David Burston, PhD, M.F.T., is a psychotherapist in Los Angeles, USA, spending part of his time working as a UK chartered clinical and sport psychologist consultant with a Premier League football club in London. Initially a professional actor, 15 years ago David began using his experience to help athletes, integrating those ideas with Jungian depth perspectives.

Prologue Before the Beginning, meet depth sport psychology My handshake with you, before the whistle blows The Beginning. Chapter 1. 'The knowledge'; stone tools to video chat in 30,000 years The ages of animism and scientism Women are top cats The new knowledge; the star The new male gods of the sky The first ever Brexit Chapter 2. The Greek legacy of Sport The Axial Age and the birth of a sporting world The birth of science as we know it Harmonia, the Olympic love child of the shotgun wedding The Deal; Do the Gods or the gods will do you The lost soul of the performer Part-animal, part-computer Vive la France plus Coubertin Chapter 3. Sports, here and now The modern global plume of sport Cultural pioneers or the road to perdition and abuse Reconnecting with the soul of sport Psychosocial Stages and thoughtful cultures in sport Futures markets in sport Chapter 4. Don't play at your peril Playing for peace Play and player are the same Immersion and being in your body Finding your senses Does the music play us? Principles important for play The Middle - Performance and dealing with opposition. Chapter 5- Dealing with the opposition The Shadow force of competitive edge Meet your inferior relative The positive path for our Shadow worker Zeus energy Post match interview and analysis Finishing off the Shadow Chapter 6. Women's sports Creating epoche Lilly Par the woman history could not forget The archetypal lineage of the female archers The four trials of psyche The current generation of female archers Chapter 7 - Numbers, Phases and Myths that speak to Sport Mental fitness, archetypal phases, threats and opportunities Lucky number seven and sports Myths that speak to sports Japan: The Magnificent Seven (as we know it now) USA: Mickey Mouse, 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' Greece: 'Atalanta and the Golden Apples' Germany: 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' The Kalahari: 'The Young Man and the Lion' The seven deadly sins for the elite athlete The end. Chapter 8. Repair, the return to Freud Good stress or bad stress in the twenty-first century Now the contest is over Emerging voices from the depths of psychology Chapter 9. Freudian depth sport psychology Tom Ferraro Case study 1. 'The injury-prone perfectionist', working with a harsh superego: 16-year-old, highly ranked male tennis player Case study 2. The false-self in a football player Case study 3. The use of transference in the case of a professional golfer Case study 4. Wrecked by success: the case of an All-American football player Epilogue Bibliography Index