Spring 2007 Programming

LECTURE

Although neither traditional nor radically alternative, creative expression in Jungian analysis arises as the third transcendent healing opportunity, completing the dyad of analyst and analysand. This creative third can be a dream or an active imagination, sometimes in the form of a work of art, sometimes not, but always expressing the transcendent function of the Self in its creative play of the tension of opposites. Using examples from clinical cases, social experiments, and excerpts from the films of the Japanese master director Akira Kurosawa, the function of creativity will be explored both on a personal basis and in its larger collective and cultural role in our societies and our world community.

Writing: The Door In

WORKSHOP

Using innovative techniques inspired by Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron in their presentations on creative writing, as well as Tess Castleman’s own approach devised from fifteen years of conducting writing seminars, workshop participants will engage in an experiential writing process drawing upon their inner world. Participants will benefit from giving expression to their own voices, especially if they have been told that writing is not one of their talents or special abilities. (They will not be required to read their writing to the group, but will be given the opportunity to do so if they choose to.) During the day, a series of different exercises will guide us as we travel into the labyrinth of our inner resources to discover potentials that generally are unknown to us and largely untapped in our lives. Please bring journals or notebooks, at least two pens, or a laptop to record the results of our exploration.

TESS CASTLEMAN, M.A., is a Zurich graduate and Jungian analyst since 1989, and faculty and a newly elected member of the Curatorium of the Jung Institute of Zurich. She is author of Threads, Knots, Tapestries: How a Tribal Connection is Revealed through Dreams and Synchronicities and the soon to be published: Sacred Circles: Creating Dreaming Community. She has also completed a novel. She lives in Dallas, Texas, and Zurich, Switzerland, where she practices as an analyst. She leads dream retreats throughout the world. 

LECTURE

The word “hero” is so broadly used in our day that it begins to lose its mythic sense. But the mythic Hero – larger than life and required to accomplish impossible tasks at great risk, bringing hope and redemption to lesser mortals – stands in an important relationship to the Self. Implied in the Hero’s grand mission are ideas of personal responsibility and vocation, two themes we meet frequently in Jung’s theory of individuation but do not often examine. This presentation, illustrated with film clips from the feature film, Seabiscuit, will invite conversation about the collective psychological phenomenon that was a horse named Seabiscuit – a true mythic Hero, and the human partners who engaged with him in a mutual process of transformation.

Many Are Called – But How to Answer?

WORKSHOP

The word “vocation” means “a calling,” experienced as an inner voice that prompts us to follow a certain path in life. But “vocation” is more than an occupational aptitude or career path; it involves a sense of Destiny, of purposefulness – not merely blind Fate –that deepens our sense of self as we grow older. Jung’s theory of individuation suggests that we are each “called” to become distinct personalities, to become conscious of ourselves and our differences, both interpersonal and intrapersonal. But how can we answer this call in a world pressing more insistently for conformity for safety’s sake? What sort of heroism and personal responsibility is required for us to both hear and answer psyche’s call?

LYN COWAN, Ph.D., has been a practicing Jungian analyst since 1980, Director of Training for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts for six years and past president of the Society, held a Professorship for ten years in the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at the Minnesota School for Professional Psychology, and recently concluded two years of teaching and lecturing at the C.G. Jung Center of Houston, Texas. She has frequently lectured internationally and is the author of three books: Portrait of the Blue Lady: The Character of Melancholy, Tracking the White Rabbit, A Subversive View of Modern Culture, and Masochism: A Jungian View. Her passion for horseracing began when she was 11 and continues unabated.

LECTURE

One of the most remarkable capacities of the psyche is its ability to manage traumatic experiences. Taking as examples major innovative works of art from the history of painting and film, Dr. Beebe will illustrate the strategies the psyche adopts when forced to manage its sense of violation and disillusionment through creativity. He will then relate the solutions endorsed by artists in times of cataclysmic social upheaval, with the choices analytic patients sometimes are able to make when faced with overwhelming life events.

How to Recognize the Eight Function-Attitudes — An Approach to Psychological Typing

WORKSHOP

To recognize at first glance the true “psychological type” of a person one is starting to get to know is no doubt a knack, but to be able to identify the particular kind of consciousness that the person is presenting at a given moment of interaction is something that can be learned. The eight-function, eight-archetype model of the types that John Beebe has developed greatly facilitates this learning. With the aid of clips from classic American film, Dr. Beebe will demonstrate how this model can enable us to recognize each of the eight “functions of consciousness” that Jung described in his 1921 classic, Psychological Types. The systematic use of Dr. Beebe’s new model, developing Jung’s theory for our time, is a good way to assess the results of taking an MBTI paper and pencil instrument to see if the test findings really match the conscious orientation of the person.

Taking us into his cinematic workshop, Dr. Beebe will share with us how he determines that one function-attitude and not another is being presented to us on the screen at a particular moment. He will show how he then goes about assessing that consciousness using Jung’s typology. He will present some telling examples of how particular archetypes colors the presentation of a particular function, such as feeling, thinking, intuition, or sensation, and its attitude, extraversion or introversion, often so much as to make it seem like some other function and attitude. The goal of this daylong event is to sharpen the audience’s talent for type recognition.

JOHN BEEBE, M.D., a Jungian analyst and psychiatrist in practice in San Francisco, is a past President of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. An internationally recognized clinical teacher of Jungian psychology, he has lectured on topics related to analytical psychology throughout the world. His writings on dreams, psychological types, and masculine psychology have appeared in the Chiron Clinical Series, The Journal of Analytical Psychology, Psychological Perspectives, The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, Spring Journal, and other Jungian publications, and in many collections of papers edited by Jungian analysts. Dr. Beebe is the author of his own book, Integrity in Depth, which is a study of the archetype of moral wholeness, and he has pioneered the use of Jung’s typology to gain insight into our effects upon others, for good and ill. As a lover and recognized critic of film, he frequently draws upon movies to illustrate how various styles of consciousness interact to produce the stories of our lives that Jung called individuation.

LECTURE & WORKSHOP

Jung began to examine astrology as early as 1911, when he mentioned his inquiries in a letter to Freud. That interest gradually developed into a major focus of investigation, and in his later years Jung devoted himself with considerable passion to astrological research. “Astrology,” he stated, “represents the sum of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity.” Insights from these studies influenced many of his most significant formulations in the final, extraordinarily fruitful phase of his life’s work, including archetypal theory, synchronicity, and the philosophy of history. Since his death, reports from his family and others close to him have revealed that in his last decades Jung came to employ the analysis of his patients’ astrological charts as a regular and integral aspect of his clinical work.

Yet astrology runs so directly counter to the long-established cosmology that encompasses the modern world view that one can appreciate Jung’s reluctance to make public the extent of his use of astrology, and the resistance of many Jungian analysts to further explore the astrological direction their founder had pursued. However, recent research by Richard Tarnas and Stanislav Grof gives new support for Jung’s intuition of the value of astrology and of the trans-psychic (or “psychoid”) nature of the archetypes. These observations suggest the existence of an extraordinarily consistent synchronistic correspondence between planetary movements and the archetypal patterns of human experience, reflecting something like a cosmic anima mundi in which the human being participates.

On Friday, Dr. Tarnas will summarize this evidence, discuss the new light it sheds on the human psyche and the unfolding drama of history, and explore the implications it holds for Jungian psychology. Saturday will be devoted to a more in-depth survey of the observed archetypal correlations, the relevant principles of astrological analysis, and the new horizon of possibility this perspective opens up for facilitating both individuation and collective self-awareness.

RICHARD TARNAS, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he teaches archetypal studies and the history of Western thought and culture. He was the founding director of the Ph.D. and Master’s program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. He also teaches on the faculty of the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. He is the author of Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View (Viking, 2006).

LECTURE

For each of us there are energies, motives, agendas which operate outside our conscious control and sometimes are contrary to our professed values. These energies, which Jung collectively identified as the Shadow, might best be defined not as evil, but as that which makes us uncomfortable with ourselves. Such energies represent an enormous invitation for greater consciousness, for living more ethically, and whose integration brings a greater possibility of wholeness. This program will define and illustrate the many ways in which the Shadow operates in personal and social life.

Engaging the Personal Shadow

WORKSHOP

What is our personal Shadow? How may we come to know that which is by definition unconscious within us? A series of exercises and questions will help provide greater self-awareness. Our learning objectives will be to explore:

What is meant by the concept of the Shadow?

• How does the Shadow show up in personal, psychological life?
• How does the Shadow manifest collectively in social settings?
• How does one gain a greater awareness of the personal and the collective Shadow?

Please bring a pen and journal for these exercises.

JAMES HOLLIS, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center of Houston, the co-founder of Philadelphia Jung Institute, and author of twelve books, the latest being, Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding our Darker Selves. He graduated as an analyst from the Zurich Jung Institute in 1982. His other books include : The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning at Mid-Life, Under Saturn’s Shadow: the Wounding and Healing of Men, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life from Dismal Places, and Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life.