Fall 1992 Programming

Lecture: In this lecture Ruth Ammann will explore with us the meanings and nature of the house as symbol in dreams. She brings to this subject a knowledge of space and design as a practicing architect as well as an analyst. 

Ruth M. Ammann, a native of Zurich, is a Jungian analyst with a private practice in that city. She is a graduate of the C.G. Jung institute in Kusnacht, where she is now a lecturer and training analyst. She studied with Dora Kalff, the pioneer of therapeutic sandplay, and is a member of the International Society for Sandplay Therapy. Frau Ammann is also a qualified and still practicing architect. She is the author of Healing and Transformation in Sandplay-Creative Processes Become Visible, published by Open Court Publishing Co. in 1991. She is also the author of The House As A Symbol in Dreams, a book published in Swedish and German. 

Lecture: Seasons in the Garden

If we were truly moved by the beauty, we would honor the earth in a profound way. 

–Thomas Berry

Through pictures, mythology and dreams, this lecture will guide us through reflections on the significance of our gardens. 

Workshop: Introduction to Sandplay: the Transcendent Function in Pictures of a Woman and Boy

Sandplay is a powerful method of psychotherapy, based on practical, creative modeling-literally a “hands-on” approach to healing the whole person. Sandplay has both diagnostic and therapeutic value for adults and children. Since there are no preconceived ideas about “art” in sand, there is a wonderful freedom and flowing spontaneity in using sand creatively. Sandplay allows expression of the intuitive and non-verbal layers of the psyche. Through pictures of the work of a woman and a boy, Frau Ammann will show us how the opposites are engaged and the process heals and transforms. 

Ruth M. Ammann, a native of Zurich, is a Jungian analyst with a private practice in that city. She is a graduate of the C.G. Jung institute in Kusnacht, where she is now a lecturer and training analyst. She studied with Dora Kalff, the pioneer of therapeutic sandplay, and is a member of the International Society for Sandplay Therapy. Frau Ammann is also a qualified and still practicing architect. She is the author of Healing and Transformation in Sandplay-Creative Processes Become Visible, published by Open Court Publishing Co. in 1991. She is also the author of The House As A Symbol in Dreams, a book published in Swedish and German. 

Lecture: This slide/lecture describes briefly twelve archetypes which can act as guides on the journey of individuation. This journey has three parts. Preparation for the journey involves developing ego strength and becoming properly socialized for one’s society. The Journey itself is an initiation into the mysteries which help us give birth to the Self. The Return provides the opportunity for wholeness, as we learn to express our uniqueness in the world and tolerate differences from others. 

Workshop: This experiential workshop allows participants the opportunity to identify heroic archetypes active in their lives. Through myth, story, fantasy, movement, and sharing, participants can celebrate their own journeys and the archetypes which are, or have been, active in them. Most important, participants will be encouraged to identify their own “great story”, the myth that can energize and enliven their lives now and in the future. 

Carol S. Pearson, Ph.D., is the President of Meristem, a non-profit organization for training and consultation in professional development and personal growth. She has served as Dean and Vice President of Goucher College; and Director of Women’s Studies at University of Colorado, Boulder, and later at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has been a tenured faculty member at each of these colleges and universities. She is the author of six books, including Awakening the Heroes Within. She has a forthcoming book, Magic at Work: Thriving With Integrity in Today’s Changing World of Work. She received a Ph.D. in English from Rice University in 1971 and postgraduate training in Personal Mythology and Jungian psychology. 

Lecture: Individuation Through Marriage: The Revolution in Love Relationships Between the Sexes

Relationship problems form the main content of most analytic hours. Because intimate relationships reactivate archaic levels of the psyche, notably our childhood woundings, therapeutic efforts rightly center upon the healing of those wounds through the application of consciousness. But Jung reminds us of what ancient medicine knew and modern medicine has largely forgotten: that when a personal disease is raised to a higher, impersonal level there is a curative effect. This lecture will attempt to understand the crisis in love relationships not so much as the sum of personal problems, but as a collective, cultural movement of the spirit.

Workshop: Depth Psychological Prayer: Meditations on Jung and the Bible

The reality of the psyche is perhaps Jung’s most important discovery but it is easy to lose sight of it living in the most extroverted society the world has ever known. With the declining influence in our lives of religion, only depth psychotherapy remains as an institution that can keep us in touch with our souls (psyches). But we need something to supplement depth psychotherapy and reminds us on a daily basis of the existence of an inner world which compensates for the overwhelming power of the collective.

Lawrence W. Jaffe, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Berkeley and a member of the faculty of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. He is the author of Liberating the Heart: Spirituality and Jungian Psychology (1990) and editor of Edward Edinger’s Transformation of the God-Image: An Elucidation of Jung’s “Answer to Job” (1992). He was also interviewer and co-producer of the video series An American Jungian: Edward F. Edinger in conversation with Lawrence Jaffe (1991). 

Lecture and Workshop: The needs for attachment and autonomy are as natural to our psychic life as the need for food and water is to our physical life. And yet, the recent plethora of writings about co-dependency frightens a confused reading public who wonder if they are doing it “right” in their relationships. Simple human yearnings have become labeled disease, while estrangement and alienation have become normalized when called “detachment”. Relationship boundaries advocated by authors of co-dependency books tell us where we leave off and the other person begins. But they cannot begin to tell us where we meet-where we are one. 

This lecture, and the seminar that follows, will look at what the experts call “hostile-dependent” relationships from the perspective of depth psychology, and at how the individual develops in these marriages. 

John A. Desteian, J.D. is a Diplomate Jungian Analyst, Licensed Consulting Psychologist, and the author of Coming Together-Coming Apart: The Union of Opposites in Love Relationships (1990). He is in private practice in St. Paul, Minnesota.