The Four Quadrants

I am a depth-oriented therapist, with roots in Jungian therapy. I have been particularly influenced by Robert Moore, who, along with Douglas Gillette, came up with an archetypal model of human development, outlined in their seminal book, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover.

This model works for women as well as men -- women have a Queen archetype instead of the King archetype, and we all have inner resources drawn from the opposite sex, which Jung called the anima or animus. As I sank deeper into this model, I began to see echoes in other therapeutic approaches. For example, Carl Jung's four functions -- thinking, feeling, sensing, intuiting. Or the four alchemical elements -- earth, air, fire, water. Or Irvin Yalom's four existential truths.

The quaternity is a symbol of wholeness in many cultures, from the Native American medicine wheel to Tibetan and Indian mandalas. Jung has explored this symbol deeply. Frequently, it is represented as a circle divided into quarters. The circle contains and integrates the whole.

There are many layers, each with their own four quadrants. I will explore a few of the more important ones here.

While I draw from the works of others, all ideas expressed here are mine. In some cases, I have changed or expanded on the original ideas. It is important to acknowledge my sources, but the synthesis represented here is my own.