ABSTRACT
Ian Alister sees popular culture as growing out of the structures of the personal and collective unconscious and as central to a Jungian view of the psyche’s capacity for self-healing. He shows how, in an analytic setting, a highly organised cultural system such as team sport can provide the symbolic language for a therapeutic relationship hindered by problems in the transference. Alister considers the archetypal elements in the game of football and how the ball functions as a medium of co-operative activity. Aware of the symbolic significance of the game and the ball, he is able to use the patient’s devotion to football as a meaningful metaphor which gives access to deeper unconscious levels.
