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The Archetypal Dynamics of Relationships
February 18, 2000 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm PST
How is it that relationships, which bring us the greatest joy in life, also confront us with the greatest difficulties? Why do so many of us simply give up in the face of the humiliating hurts that relationships engender? Well, acording to Jung, it’s all in the service of our individuation. The more conscious we are of the dynamics at work in relationships, the less turbulent will be their effects on us. In a little-known section of Volume VII of the Collected Works [para 374-406], Jung speaks of the “mana personality.” This archetypal element holds the key to understanding why relationships can become problematic. This weekend we shall look at the dynamics of relationship. We shall focus particularly on the anima and animus, those bridge dynamics that connect the ego with the Self.
Friday night we’ll review Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, which can either be read in book form or seen in the movie (currently in release). What can we learn from a man’s encounter with the Self, as facilitated by his anima, which is fixated on a woman with whom he is having an affair?
Related Workshop: Anima, Animus and the Ego-Self Axis
John Van Eenwyk, PHD, is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. His teaching career began at Harvard University, where he was a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Social Relations. He has taught psychology at Northwestern University and at the C. G. Jung Institutes in Zurich and Chicago. Currently, he is a Clinical Instructor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a Senior Analyst at the Pacific Northwest Society of Jungian Analysts.