May 14-15, 2004: Joan Choadorow

LECTURE: EMOTIONS AND THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGINATION

This lecture will look at the nature of the emotions as they have evolved and continue to develop, from the primal, untransformed depths toward the highest values of human culture. The tendency in recent decades toward deconstruction of values may potentiate a compensatory development as individuals in many walks of life seek a differentiated experience of affects and their symbolic expression, shaped by eternal ideals that appear to be wired into the psyche.  Lecture includes slides to illustrate. 

WORKSHOP: ACTIVE IMAGINATION AND THE LIVING BODY

By using the body to access and express the imagination, individuals may discover experiences that bridge the realms of body and psyche, instinct and spirit, affect and image, memory and emergence. 

This one-day workshop will introduce movement as a form of active imagination. Sometimes called "authentic movement" or "movement in depth"; we focus attention on bodily sensations, images, and feelings, which are then allowed to develop into spontaneous movement. The mover works with eyes closed, in the presence of a witness, whose task it is to hold and contain the experience of the person moving.   Morning and afternoon sessions include lecture, discussion and movement experience, with special attention to the inner experience of the mover, the inner experience of the witness and the dynamics of their relationship.  Participants are invited to bring journals and/or art materials. 

Joan Chodorow, Ph.D. is an analyst and faculty member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco.  Publications include Dance Therapy and Depth Psychology‹The Moving Imagination (Routledge 1991), C. G. Jung on Active Imagination (Princeton University Press, 1997), and the forthcoming Active Imagination:  Healing from Within (TAMU Press).  She lectures and teaches internationally as well as closer to home.

Emotions and the Archetypal Imagination