The Seba library treats Threshold in 9 passages, across 8 authors (including Jung, Carl Gustav, Peterson, Cody, Giegerich, Wolfgang).
the idea of a threshold presupposes a mode of observation in terms of energy, according to which consciousness of psychic contents is essentially dependent upon their intensity, that is, their energy.
Jung establishes the threshold as an energic concept: contents cross from unconscious to consciousness only when their charge exceeds a minimum intensity, making the threshold a quantitative boundary rather than a spatial one.
, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960thesis
the passage of the threshold [into the temple] is a form of self-annihilation… the threshold guardians to ward away all incapable of encountering the higher silence within.
Drawing on Campbell, Peterson articulates the mythological threshold as a site of ego-death guarded by terrifying figures, entry through which constitutes a form of self-annihilation prerequisite to renewal.
, The Shadow of a Figure of Light, 2024thesis
assigning to the former the place after the threshold and to the latter the place before it… Being the edge of a sword or having settled on the very threshold implies to also be on the other side of the threshold.
Giegerich reconceives the threshold as the dialectical cutting-edge within psychological discourse itself, the boundary that divides daimon from ego and that genuine psychology must not merely approach but inhabit from both sides simultaneously.
, The Soul’s Logical Life Towards a Rigorous Notion of, 2020thesis
The width of a window of tolerance is directly related to how much stimulation is required to elicit the ‘threshold of response.’ When the threshold is low, a person’s nervous system is aroused with very little input; when the threshold is high, more input is required.
Ogden recasts the threshold in somatic-clinical terms as the neurological tipping point governing arousal response, arguing that trauma pathologically narrows or widens this threshold with determinative consequences for functioning.
, Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy, 2006thesis
unconscious ‘thoughts’ and ‘insights’ lie close beside, above, or below consciousness, separated from us by the merest ‘threshold’ and yet apparently unattainable.
Jung evokes the paradox of the threshold: contents may lie infinitesimally close to consciousness yet remain inaccessible, underscoring that nearness in psychic space does not ensure crossing.
, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960supporting
no break qualitatively differentiates the various parts of its mass… no qualitative differentiation and, hence, no orientation are given by virtue of its inherent structure.
Eliade’s analysis of homogeneous profane space implicitly defines the threshold negatively: it is precisely the qualitative break that sacred space introduces, the rupture that constitutes orientation and makes threshold-crossing meaningful.
, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, 1957supporting
120 mins contact with nature per week may reflect a kind of ‘threshold’, below which there is insufficient contact to produce significant benefits to health and well-being, but above which such benefits become manifest.
White adapts the threshold concept empirically to dose-response ecology, identifying a temporal minimum below which nature contact yields no measurable psychological benefit—a quantitative threshold analogous to Jung’s energic model.
, Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing, 2019supporting
The narrative structure of this journey is best described by Joseph Campbell in his classic work, The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
Frank’s invocation of Campbell’s hero-journey as the organizing template for illness narratives implicitly positions the threshold-crossing as the structural inflection point of quest stories about sickness.
, The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics, 1995aside
a significant change of sensitivity for the sensory inflow being received through one sense modality… is found to occur when the stimulus being presented through another modality is changed from an emotionally arousing one to a neutral one.
Bowlby’s perceptual-defense research implicitly engages threshold dynamics by demonstrating that emotional valence modulates the sensory threshold at which stimuli are consciously identified.
, Loss: Sadness and Depression (Attachment and Loss, Volume III), 1980aside