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Individuation Hijacked: Persona and Hero in an Evolving Universe
October 16, 2020 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PDT
“The energy of the central point is manifested in the almost irresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is, just as every organism is driven to assume the form that is characteristic of its nature, no matter what the circumstances.”
Jung believed that we have a compulsive urge toward individuation, an irresistible drive to become whole. We tend to identify this urge primarily with the realization of our authentic, true self, free of external interference. But another essential aspect of individuation, our need for connection, community and service, requires us to use a persona, a mask representing a limited part of the true self. The capacity to create and use persona is sometimes hijacked to prove our worth in the world, to avoid feelings of shame and insecurity. The original intent, engagement with community, is lost.
This talk will explore what true individuation requires of us in terms of persona: that we return to the original intent of the mask, discern what we’re called to cultivate in our personality, and what role we play in an evolving and self-organizing universe.
Related Workshop: Individuation Hijacked: Persona and Hero in an Evolving Universe
Gary Trosclair, DMA, LCSW, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City and Westchester County, New York. He is President of the New York Association for Analytical Psychology and serves on the faculty of the Jung Institute of New York. He is the author of I’m Working On It In Therapy: How To Get The Most Out Of Psychotherapy, and of the blog The Healthy Compulsive Project. His new book The Healthy Compulsive: Healing Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder and Taking the Wheel of the Driven Personality describes the hijacking of the urge to individuate and a return to an authentic and meaningful life.