Living in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and the Challenge of Healing Trauma

This book addresses the evolution of Western consciousness and describes the emergence of the 'Borderland,' a spectrum of reality that is beyond the rational yet is palpable to an increasing number of individuals. Building on Jungian theory, Jerome Bernstein argues that a greater openness to transrational reality experienced by Borderland personalities allows new possibilities for understanding and healing confounding clinical and developmental enigmas. There are many people whose experiences of reality is outside the mainstream of Western culture; often they see themselves as abnormal because they have no articulated frame of reference for their experience. The concept of the Borderland personality explains much of their experience. In three sections, this book examines the psychological and clinical implications of the evolution of consciousness and looks at how the new Borderland consciousness bridges the mind-body divide.