| We have to consider the fact that houses are works of people for people. Architecture and psychology are inseparably bound together. If we build a simple little hut in our garden or if we are planning and constructing a complicated building, the psyche of the architect or worker is always involved. The symbol of the house, which contains the real concrete house, the one we can touch, and the spiritual image – the imago of the house – is always connected with the human being – with our body, soul, and spirit.
The fundamental experience that people make houses and houses make people expresses a process moving from the inner world into the outer world, and from there, it reflects back to act again on the inner world of people. This means that people get stamped by architecture, and if we think further, many people can be stamped by one person, namely, by the one who imagines and constructs the building.
This thought alarmed me. I asked myself: Who are these people who build? What image do they have of the people for whom they build? How much do they know about the souls of the people? How much about the interchange between the built outer world and the humane inner world? Are they aware enough of the responsibility they have for people and their environments?
The evening lecture will address the relationship between psychology and architecture, the symbolism of the house, and the inner-outer world process of “making houses.” The workshop will deepen the discussion of these questions and look into the symbolism of the house in our dreams, as well. Slides will be shown at both the lecture and workshop.
Ruth Ammann is a native of Zurich, a Jungian analyst in that city, and a practicing architect. She is a graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute in Kusnacht, where she is now a lecturer and training analyst. She studied with Dora Kalff, the pioneer of therapeutic sandplay, and is a member of the international Society for Sandplay Therapy. She is the author of Healing and Transformation in Sandplay – Creative Processes Become Visible, and The House in Dreams, forthcoming in English.
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