Paul Ashton is a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst living in Cape Town. He is a father of three daughters and has two granddaughters. Having completed a circumnavigation in a self-built yacht he has now developed a passion for the mountains and bush (flora and fauna) of Southern Africa; a passion he shares with his wife Helise. He has published review articles on books by Lyn Cowan and Rose-Emily Rothenberg and delivered lectures on 'Medea and Filicide', the sculptors 'Hepworth and Moore' and 'The Art of the Void'. He has a deep interest in literature, art and music.

This book describes some of the defences employed against experiencing the void and suggests ways of helping ourselves decrease the rigidity of those defences so that we can encounter the void and in that process engage with it progressively.

Introduction -- The Territory -- On the territory of the void -- A walk on the wild side: connecting "the void" with people -- Primary or secondary? -- Psychotherapy and spirituality -- ORIGINS of the VOID EXPERIENCE -- Introduction to ORIGINS of the VOID EXPERIENCE -- Empty of oneself -- The void in psychogenic autism -- Another "black hole" -- Memory within the Borderline condition -- Trauma as a void experience -- Amplifications -- Myths and legends of the Creation -- Dimitri's void -- The King's sacrifice -- The "Birthday Present" -- The dark night of the soul -- Treatment -- Introducing the management of void states -- Aspects in the treatment of void states -- Connections, walls, and windows -- On active imagination -- Individual Experiences -- Void as a gender experience -- Void as a gender experience