Lecture: Jackal and Hide: On Splits, Oppositions, Compensations, Schizophrenias, Divided Selves, and So Forth
Since one side of the spirit is usually highly visible and troublesome, the temptation is to add a generous dose of its opposite. A more therapeutic approach is to cultivate, strengthen and articulate the troubling split-off fantas, while at the same time attending its tandem. The valuable treasures in a split pattern are often hiding within the symptoms. To get rid of the symptoms is to lose the treasure.
“Man has come to be man’s worst enemy. It is a clash between man and God, in which man’s Luciferan genius has produced in the H-bomb the power to destroy more effectively than any ancient god could. We must begin to learn about man until every Jekyll can see his Hyde.”
C.G. Jung, The London Daily Mail, 1955
Workshop: Opposites and Coupled Fantasies
This workshop will be a true “working” of the problem of opposites in daily life, in therapy, and in society. We will look closely at dreams presented by participants for signs of splits and compensations. We will consider some further literary and mythological images of opposites. We wil browse through the daily newspaper for concrete instances of schizoid thought and behavior. A workshop is a shop where the participants work on the issues presented; so it will be a genuine group activity. A workshop is also, alchemically, the place where the Opus is carried out-the Work of ensoulling life and thought.
Thomas W. Moore, a fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, was educated at DePaul University (music theory and composition), University of Michigan (musicology), the University of Windsor, Ontario (theology), and earned his Ph.D. from Syracuse University in religion and psychology. He has published in Spring, Parabola, Journal of Education. He has also written The Planets Within: Ficino’s Astrological Psychology, Burknell University Press, and Rituals of the Imagination, The Pegasus Foundation. He is in private practice in Dallas.