In our dreams we participate in a drama that comes from within us but we do not consciously construct. We appear in our dreams as well as observe them. Who is dreaming the dreamer? Who gives us the roles that we play in our own dreams? What is the meaning and goal of the personal drama of dreams?
Season: Fall 1988
The Archetypal Self: Intimacy and Transcendence
While the ego is the center of consciousness, the actual center of the entire psyche is the Archetypal Self, the Central Archetype of Order. The Self is perhaps Jung’s most central, yet most mysterious concept. This seminar will examine the meaning of the Archetypal Self using both mythological and clinical examples.
Participants can acquire a deepened understanding of the Self, that mysterious archetype that is on the “near side” of all of our experience and yet can appear so far away as to assume the imagery of God.
Revelation in a Modern Dream: A New Image of the Divine
Manifestations of the Self are experienced as ongoing revelations within the individual psyche. In the dream to be explored, a woman’s image of God is transformed, her acceptance of aging and death was radically enhanced, and light is shed on the androgynous nature of divinity.
Jungian Psychology and Kohut’s Self Psychology
This workshop will compare and contrast Jung’s theory of the Self with recent in developmental psychoanalytic self psychology, particularly those of Kohut. In certain areas, self psychology is rapidly replacing both classical psychoanalytical drive theory and ego psychology as the major conceptual modality of practicing analysts. Kohut’s theory bears several important similarities and differences from Jungian theory which will be explored in depth. No prior familiarity with Kohut will be assumed, but a working knowledge of traditional psychodynamic psychology will be helpful for participants.
The Religious Function of the Psyche
The Transpersonal Self incarnates into personal self. The relationship between Self and self is a crucial factor in psychological and spiritual development. Recent developments in self psychology cast some new light on these processes. Individuation, or incarnation, occurs in response to the pressure of the transpersonal spirit experienced within the individual soul. The resultant images and suffering are the source and medium of religious experience. The workshop will focus on the importance of such material for the development of an individual spiritual path.
Beyond Survival: Heart Surgery and the Psyche
I think heart surgery and heart trouble is becoming increasingly common in the second half of life; if we’re not ourselves involved, we certainly have a family member who has been (or may be).
I had coronary bypass surgery in January 1987 and survived-I want to talk with you about the changes in the psyche, conscious and unconscious; how the psyche helped me decide what to do, how to deal with the pre- and postoperative anxiety. That is to talk about death and rebirth concretely, in detail, in myself and in my clinical practice.
Mother Complex, Obesity, and Exercise
This is a workshop taking weight gain and loss from the standpoint of analytical psychology, that is from the source of the problems, the unintegrated mother complex.
We will not be talking about calories, cholesterol, behavior modification, nor will you need loose-fitting clothes for exercise. We will be taking obesity up as depth psychology, that is the events in the psyche.
The Salem Witchcraft Trials: An American Shadow
In search for the foundation of the American character, its consciousness, its archetypes, the psychologist is bound to look into the Salem witchcraft trials, an event that took place almost 300 years ago. “Witch Hunt” has become a part of our American vocabulary, a fact that attests to the continuing occurence of witch hunts in our nation. The lecture will seek to find the roots of the Salem witchcraft trials in the Puritan New England unconscious and the historical context of those times. Finally, America’s “witch hunt” shadow will be brought up to date with a look at its current manifestations.
One’s Own Witch Hunt: The Shadow from the Personal Side
This Centerpoint Workshop will use materials from the new Vantage Point Course-The Nessus Shirt which leads from one’s exploration of identification with the persona to the results in the shadow.