Mitchell Lynn Walker (born 1951) is an American gay activist and Jungian psychologist who has written many influential articles and books on gay-centered psychology.

Biography

Walker enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles where he saw a therapist who tried to persuade him to not be gay. Although Walker rejected the therapist he did get "an invaluable introduction to inner work, to the techniques of dream analysis, and to other tools of psychological investigation." Walker transferred to the Berkeley campus and majored in psychology. He became more outspoken on gay issues and became one of the first to join the

Berkeley Free Clinic The Berkeley Free Clinic is a non-profit community clinic located in Berkeley, California, US. It is operated as a worker-run collective by more than 100 volunteers. It has provided free medical care since opening in 1969. History The Berkeley F ...

's Gay Men Collective. After graduation he worked on a master's-level in psychology at San Francisco's Lone Mountain College focussing on same-sex love from Jung's "archetypal perspective" using the basis that archetypes are "primal indwelling sources after which behavior is patterned and images are perceived." In 1974 Walker had a realization that same-sex love was archetypal, not "a mere accident or adaption," answering the question if one was born gay or does gayness come from social experience. His revelation led to his master's thesis "discussing the then unheard-of topic of gay depth psychology." Walker was the first openly gay writer to be published in the formal Jungian literature, for his paper, "The Double: An Archetypal Configuration," appeared in Spring in 1976. followed by "Jung and Homophobia," published in Spring in 1991. He is also the author of ''Men Loving Men: A Gay Sex Guide & Consciousness Book'' (Gay Sunshine Press, 1977/1994) - which was involved in an obscenity-importing case in England and Canada – and ''Visionary Love: A Spirit Book of Gay Mythology and Transmutational Faerie'' (Treeroots Press, 1980). In 1979, Walker co-created with activists

Harry Hay Henry "Harry" Hay Jr. (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) was an American gay rights activist, communist, and labor advocate. He was a co-founder of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States, as well as ...

, John Burnside, and Don Kilhefner the first gay-centered spiritual movement, the

Radical Faeries The Radical Faeries are a loosely affiliated worldwide network and countercultural movement seeking to redefine queer consciousness through secular spirituality. Sometimes deemed a form of modern Paganism, the movement also adopts elements from an ...

, a loosely affiliated, worldwide network and counter-cultural movement seeking to reject hetero-

imitation Imitation (from Latin ''imitatio'', "a copying, imitation") is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. I ...

and redefine

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

identity through

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

. In 1982, after he quit the Radical Faeries, Walker and Don Kilhefner founded Treeroots, a non-profit educational organization to address the psychological dimension of gay liberation. The organization has sponsored workshops and lectures, and most recently, the Institute for Uranian Psychoanalysis, which provided training in gay-centered psychological theory and practice. In 1987 Walker received a PhD in psychology with the dissertation, ''A Uranian Conjunction: The Individual Model of C. G. Jung as Applied to Gay Men.'' He has continued lecturing, teaching and running a private practice in Los Angeles.

Selected works

* ''The Uranian Soul: A Gay-Centered Jungian Psychology Of Male Homosexual Personhood For a New Era of Gay Liberation Politics With Universal Implicational Import'' * "Gay-Centered Inner Work." '' White Crane'': A Journal Exploring Gay Men's Spirituality, 48, Spring 2001. * "Disclosing Shadow to Self: The Next Stage of Gay Liberation." ''White Crane'': A Journal Exploring Gay Men's Spirituality, 41, Summer 199

* ''The Revolutionary Psychology of Gay-Centeredness in Men: Three Short Essays.

* "The Archetype of Gay-Centeredness." ''White Crane'': A Journal Exploring Gay Men's Spirituality, 37, Summer 199

* "Coming out inside: An interview with Mitch Walker." In M. Thompson (ed.), ''Gay Soul: Finding the Heart of Gay Spirit and Nature.'' * * "Jung and Homophobia." ''Spring 51, A Journal of Archetype and Culture,'' 1991. * "Gay Soul Making: Coming Out Inside." In M. Thompson (ed.), ''Gay Spirit: Myth and Meaning. '' * "Visionary Love: The Magickal Gay Spirit-Power." In M. Thompson (ed.), ''Gay Spirit: Myth and Meaning.'' * ''Visionary Love: A Spirit Book of Gay Mythology and Transmutational Faerie'' * "The Double: An Archetypal Configuration." ''Spring 1976: An Annual of Archetypal Psychology and Jungian Thought

References

External links

The Center for Gay Self-Realization and Uranian Psychoanalysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Mitch American psychology writers American male non-fiction writers Writers from California American gay writers 1951 births Living people Radical Faeries members LGBT psychologists