We find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic with great loss and tremendous suffering. We fear for our safety and wonder what the future will bring? When will we get back to ‘normal?’ Do we want to return to business-as-usual? The pandemic has derailed our lives in so many ways and ever present is the continued threat of climate disruption. What does Jungian psychology have to teach us in these troubling times? Carl Jung also lived through troubling times. He recognized the importance of living both in the spirit of the times as well as the spirit of the depths, for soul dwells in both of these worlds. In this presentation, we explore how Jung viewed world threatening situations that penetrated the psyches of individuals. We dive down into the spirit of the depths to uncover the root cause of our imbalances in the world, be it pandemic or environmental destruction. We consider how Jungian depth psychology can bring a sense of meaning and order to what is happening in the world. We also consider how we can use Jung’s ideas to help us work with and through these troubling times.
Jung had a deep interest in how modern science related to psyche. He worked closely with physicist Wolfgang Pauli to explore how psyche and matter are interconnected, in particular with regard to synchronicity. The discoveries of quantum physics, relativity theory and complex systems theory have radically revised how we see and know our world. We will explore the essential dimensions of the ‘new’ sciences and how they intersect with Jungian psychology. We will consider how life is rich in potentialities and parallel possibilities. We then discuss how synchronicity arises in our lives, and how the unconscious dwells in a realm outside of time and space. Film stories will be used to explore these various concepts.
Jeffrey Kiehl, Ph.D., is a Diplomate Jungian Analyst and senior training analyst for the C.G. Jung Institute of Colorado and the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. He has an M.A. in psychology. He worked as a climate scientist for forty years and held faculty positions at a number of institutions including UC Santa Cruz and Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is the author of
Facing Climate Change: An Integrated Path to the Future and numerous Jungian articles on the intersection of depth psychology and the environment. Jeffrey has presented on various Jungian topics at national and international conferences. He lives in Santa Cruz, CA.
Oregon Friends of Jung, in partnership with The Pacific Northwest Society of Jungian Analysts, continues our series of seminars designed to deepen your knowledge of Jungian psychology. You’ll have an … Continue reading Character, like a Photograph, Develops in Darkness: Views from the Shadow – Fall Analyst Seminar →
“The energy of the central point is manifested in the almost irresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is, just as every organism is driven to assume the form that is characteristic of its nature, no matter what the circumstances.”
Jung believed that we have a compulsive urge toward individuation, an irresistible drive to become whole. We tend to identify this urge primarily with the realization of our authentic, true self, free of external interference. But another essential aspect of individuation, our need for connection, community and service, requires us to use a persona, a mask representing a limited part of the true self. The capacity to create and use persona is sometimes hijacked to prove our worth in the world, to avoid feelings of shame and insecurity. The original intent, engagement with community, is lost.
This talk will explore what true individuation requires of us in terms of persona: that we return to the original intent of the mask, discern what we’re called to cultivate in our personality, and what role we play in an evolving and self-organizing universe.
TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE (even though it may say “This event has passed below”). Click here to register.
Building on the Friday evening lecture, the Saturday workshop will explore what happens when the archetype of the hero is hijacked and unhealthy compulsion takes the wheel. The compelling urge to achieve and master, so characteristic of heroes and heroines, may be used to avoid shame or insecurity. The original intent of heroic energy is then lost and the personality becomes rigid, controlling, and work-obsessed. This leads to the illness of our times, an unhealthy and compulsive pursuit of status and achievement, often to the destruction of individuals, families and communities.
Understanding the teleology, the original intent of the heroic and compulsive urge to individuate, can help us to channel this energy into more satisfying and meaningful ways of living that accord with true self. This presentation will help clinicians in their work with compulsive, perfectionist, and workaholic clients; individuals who struggle with those tendencies; and partners of individuals whose personalities have become rigid and difficult to live with.
TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE (even though it may say “This event has passed below”). Click here to register.
Gary Trosclair, DMA, LCSW, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City and Westchester County, New York. He is President of the New York Association for Analytical Psychology and serves on the faculty of the Jung Institute of New York. He is the author of
I’m Working On It In Therapy: How To Get The Most Out Of Psychotherapy, and of the blog
The Healthy Compulsive Project. His new book
The Healthy Compulsive: Healing Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder and Taking the Wheel of the Driven Personality describes the hijacking of the urge to individuate and a return to an authentic and meaningful life.
This talk will review how some of Jung’s ideas (mis)represented Native cultures. The notion of the “primitive,” participation mystique, dreams, and animals will be explored. Two psychic paradigms, dominion and reciprocity, will point to important differences between Indigenous and Western cosmologies and may offer a path away from our current trend toward self-destruction.
This workshop will introduce participants to the Menominee origin story and the important relationship Native people have with spirit beings. Specifically, we will learn how human-animal transformation in story is integral to establishing a reciprocal relationship with land, animals and all spirit beings.
Jeanne A. Lacourt, MS, LPC, NCC, Ph.D., is a Professor of American Indian Studies at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, a faculty member of the Minnesota Seminar in Jungian Studies, and a Jungian Analyst in private practice. She has authored a book on traditional Indian Education, edited a book on racial issues in the United States, and her articles in
Spring Journal focus on the intersections of Indigenous and Jungian Studies. She is most intrigued with the theme of human-animal transformation in Indigenous origin stories. Her home community is with the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.
A journey through the Tarot cards is primarily a journey into our depths providing a bridge to the mysteries and ancestral wisdom of our innermost selves. These powerful images stimulate the imagination, tell a symbolic story of meaning, and connect us to our creative souls.
The Tarot is evocative and like our dreams brings symbolism alive. According to C.G. Jung, symbols and archetypes are the means by which the psyche/soul speaks. The tarot has 78 cards with correspondences to astrological glyphs, Hebrew mysticism, numerology and mythological and alchemical imagery. Each card stimulates our imagination in complex and multilayered ways. The cards provide a non-verbal language through which we can find universal as well as personal, social, cultural and collective meaning.
During the Friday night lecture the Tarot cards connected to the current conjunction of Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn and the tremendous challenges, upheavals and disruptions in our world we are currently facing will be explored. By engaging with images and symbols from the Tarot, we will explore this dark, black, nigredo we are living through and use it as a source of guidance and inner wisdom as we struggle to find a new authority in these uncertain times. The Tarot will be used to understand Jungian psychology and depth spirituality.
Decks to be used: Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Deck and the Rider/Waite Deck
A journey through the Tarot cards is primarily a journey into our depths providing a bridge to the mysteries and ancestral wisdom of our innermost selves. These powerful mages stimulate the imagination, tell a symbolic story of meaning, and connect us to our creative souls.
The Tarot is evocative and like our dreams brings symbolism alive. According to C.G. Jung, symbols and archetypes are the means by which the psyche/soul speaks. The tarot has 78 cards with correspondences to astrological glyphs, Hebrew mysticism, numerology and mythological and alchemical imagery. Each card stimulates our imagination in complex and multilayered ways. The cards provide a non-verbal language through which we can find universal as well as personal, social, cultural and collective meaning.
On Saturday through didactic, experiential and meditative encounters with the cards, different aspects of the Self and primordial archetypes will be revealed. Archetypal patterns from the collective unconscious will be studied regarding how they connect us to new understandings found in older esoteric knowledge. The Tarot will be used to understand Jungian psychology and depth spirituality.
Decks to be used: Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Deck and the Rider/Waite Deck
Maria Ellen Chiaia, Ph.D., M.F.T., is a child and adult Jungian psychoanalyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She teaches/consults internationally and has authored many articles and book chapters. The focus of her work revolves around the relational field, the experience of nonverbal states, the imagination, and finding meaning and spirit in our journey as humans.
