Spring 1986 Programming

Lecture: The Spiritual Dimensions of Alcoholism

Alcoholism, like any other disease, has four major aspects: the physical, the psychological, the sociological, and the spiritual. This lecture will address these four pillars upon which the disease of alcoholism rests, emphasizing alcoholism as a disease of the spirit, and will discuss Jung’s understanding of this aspect of the disease. Bill Wilson, the co-founder of AA, considered Jung to be a major guiding influence in the foundation of the AA fellowship. Their correspondence and ist significance for the future of AA will be discussed. We will ask the question: What role does religious experience play in the recovering process of the alcoholic?

Workshop: The Alcoholic Seen Through the Prism of the Eternal Adolescent Complex

It has been proven clinically that most alcoholics have what C.G. Jung called the Eternal Adolescent or Puer Aeturnus complex. This workshop will begin by reviewing Jung’s complex theory, and how it relates to the natural history of alcoholism. The Puer Aeternus complex will be explained as a means to a deeper understanding of the psychological causes and patterns of alcoholism. Finally, the positive use of the Puer Aeternus complex will be viewed as a major path to recovery.

Flying High Again: Steps to Remaining a Grateful Recovering Alcoholic

It is not enough for the alcoholic to just stop drinking. The alcoholic, like Dionysios, Icarus, and Hermes, has a moral obligation to get high again, to get his/her spirit back, to become in-spired, and to celebrate what it means to be free of chemical dependency and its negative psychological consequences. This lecture will concentrate on some of the insights from Jung’s complex psychology which can help the alcoholic develop a more positive Self-Image. The same Puer complex which was a mill-stone for the drinking alcoholic can become a stepping stone for the recovering alcoholic. Jung’s typology will be shown to be a means of understanding the “dry drunk” and getting beyond it. Finally, we will clown around with laughter and meditate on gratitude, the two essential compaions on the road to recovery.

Thomas Patrick Lavin, Ph.D. holds three awards from the United States Army for his work in drug and rehabilitation in Germany and in this country. In addition to his Ph.D. degrees in both Clinical Psychology and in Moral Theology from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, he is a diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich. A Senior Analyst and Faculty member of the C.G. Jung Institute, Chicago, Dr. Lavin is in private practice in Wilmette, Illinois.

Lecture and Workshop: Material presented will include the use of Jung’s ideas and methods as applicable in interpersonal contexts; assessing and handling problems of the ‘mid-life’ crisis; assessing and coping with problems in basic trust and communications (especially non-rational communication) in relationships of couples who live or work together.

Included will be a dramatic representation of the 15th Century story, “The Wedding of Gawain and the Lady Ragnell” as introduction to discussion of a special transition in couple relations: from the loss of basic trust to the revitalization of the relationship.

Polly Young-Eisendrath is a licensed psychologist and Assistant Professor of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College. A candidate to be an analyst in the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, sh has a part-time private practice in psychotherapy in Wynnewood, and is the author of Hags and Heroes: A Feminist Approach to Jungian Psychotherapy With Couples.

Edward J. Epstein is a practicing family therapist and individual counselor at Paoli Community for Human Growth. In addition to his training in social work, he holds a degree in Theatre from New York University, School of Drama. In his part-time practice he specializes in working with men in regard to their relationships.

Together these therapists counsel couples and families using active and imaginative techniques within a Jungian framework.

Lecture: Genesis and Exodus-History and Myth

Workshop: Metaphor as Myth and Religion

This will be an all day seminar, commencing with a lecture and continuing with open discussions of specific metaphors: The Promised Land, Virgin Birth, Resurrection, End of the World, Second Coming, Heaven, Hell, Reincarnation, God, Brahman, Nirvana, etc. Examples from differing traditions will be recognized and compared, the intention being to disengage, in every case, the message from the messenger, the connotation from the denotation of the symbol. In other words, we will make our way toward a clearer understanding of the difference between symbolic and literal meanings of mythic and religious image.

Joseph Campbell is a pre-eminent scholar of mythology and a prolific writer and lecturer on the relevance of myth to modern culture. Among his many works are Hero With A Thousand Faces: The Masks of God; The Mythic Image; and more recently, The Way of Animal Powers, Vol I of the Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Works in progress inlcude the second volume of the Atlas, The Way of The Seeded Earth, and the soon to be published Inner Reaches of Outer Space.

Lecture: The Analytical Psychology of War 

Analytical Psychology is not just a technique for individuation or the treatment of psychic dis-ease; it is the study of human nature. the archetypes crucial to the survival of our species are those which govern the relations between groups of human beings, yet politicians and generals are as ignorant of these as are the great mass of the world’s populations. What are the primordial principles determining the warlinke and peaceful intentions of human communities? And how may consciousness of them contribute to the salvation of our planet?

Workshop: The Archetypes of Conflict

Life without conflict is inconceivable. The strident clash of opposites goes resounding down the passages of time. Conflict between species, conflict between nations, conflict between generations, conflict between the political left and right, and conflict within the individual psyche-soma: all are subject to the same principles of dynamic opposition, homeostasis and enantiodromia.

The material used Friday and Saturday will examine conflict in the light of biology (Darwin), depth psychology (Freud and Jung), modern neurology and ancient Chinese philosophy. Special consideration will be given to the development of techniques of conflict resolution.

Anthony Stevens, M.D. a graduate of Oxford University in Medicine and Psychology, is in private practice as a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst in England. He is the author of Archetypes: A Natural History of the Self and The Story of Withymead: A Jungian Community for the Healing Arts and at present is working on the book, The Archetypal Foundations of War and Peace. In 1985 Dr. Stevens was the special guest lecturer for the C.G. Jung Foundation in New York.

Lecture: The Cry of Gaia: Death Into Life

For men and women in modern America, Mother’s Day can conjure up a mixture of feelings: sadness, resentment, contempt, grief as well as warmth, happiness, nostalgia, longing, and genuine appreciation and love. The emotional experience each individual has of “mother” is far reaching and complex. In view of Jung’s discovery of the deeper archetypal unconscious, we have much to reflect upon as we seek to be more aware of and to honor the reality of the mother. The longstanding neglect and rejection of the full feminine principle in our culture has shaped the nature of mothering and the consciousness we do or do not have of the Great Mother, the archetypal feminine.

In Friday evening’s lecture, “The Cry of Gaia, Death into Life”, Dr. Wagner will focus on the often neglected spiritual dimension of the personal mother and of the archetypal mother. Material from Jung’s own life will be presented. Particular emphasis will be placed on the experience of the death of the mother and on the role the Great Mother plays in experiences of death. Considerations on the nature of the return into modern consciousness of the Great Mother will be given.

Workshop: Experiencing the Mother: Her Light/Her Darkness 

This time will be spent in a more free flowing interchange between Dr. Wagner and participants. Dr. Wagner will present material to futher amplify the nature of the archetypal mother in her light and dark nature as she manifests in the lives of modern individuals. Time for questions, discussion, and comments from others will be taken. Individuals are invited to bring brief versions of dreams, personal anecdotes, poems, comments, and questions to share with the group.

To close the session on Saturday, Dr. Wagner will invite participants in meditative exercises aimed at deepening awareness of the suffering and grief, as well as the joy and compassionate love inherent in the nature of the mother.

The purpose of Saturday’s work will be to deepen our awareness and strengthen our ability to connect to the deeper unconscious in a living, ongoing way. This brings us to wholeness in our own individual natures and it also helps us to meet the critical challenge to the survival of all live on planet earth which we now face.

Joining the Saturday afternoon session will be Oregon poet Michael Riley

Suzanne Wagner earned her doctorate at UCLA. Currently she is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Malibu, California adn a member of the Society of Jungian Analysts of Southern California. She shared in the work of the film, Matter of Heart, a documentary undertaken by the C.G. Jung Society of Los Angeles

Michael Riley describes himself as a “nature poet”. A landscape designer, he lives on the coast north of Gearhart where he has the opportunity to observe, and write about the images and ideas derived from the natural environment. Press 22 has published his folio “Into the Foxgloved Night”. Currently he is preparing a new book for publication.

Lecture

Lecture