Lecture and Workshop: When Dr. Lavin presented his Depth Psychology of Alcoholism lectures here in Portland in 1986, he talked about Jung’s understanding that a person who lost contact with her or his inner creative spirit often went on to abuse alcoholic spirits in order to get high and warm again.
In this lecture series, Dr. Lavin will discuss the many forms of spirit and the ways in which twelve-step programs support the rediscovery of the creative spirit both within and without. In their best form, twelve-step programs are meeting places and containers for the ecstasy of Youth and wisdom of the Wise Old Woman and Old Man.
The lecture and workshop will discuss sobriety as a process of remembering one’s Self by loving the body, finding the soul, and accepting the embrace of one’s creative spirit. To grow in sobriety means letting go of dependence and co-dependence and walking a path which liberates the heart.
Thomas Patrick Lavin is an Irish-Catholic Democrat who was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. He received his diploma in Analytical Psychology from the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. he holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a Ph.D. in Moral Theology from the Univerity of Innsbruck in Austria. He is a founder of the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and served as its first Director of Training.
Dr. Lavin has received many awards for outstanding work in the area of alcohol and dug abuse rehabilitation both as chief clinical psychologist for the U.S. Army in Europe and in civilian practice in Switzerland, Germany, and the United States. He now lives and has his clinical practice in Wilmette, Illinois and lectures and consults both in this country and in Europe.