Description
Part of the symposium Conflict and Collision: The Cultural Complex in Public Life. Purchase the full symposium for 30% off individual titles!
Topics: Complexes & Complex Theory, Eco-psychology, Society & Culture.
Shadow and Healing: The Power of Story
This presentation will consider Shadow in Western Culture’s complex relationship with nature and natives; it will use Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel, Ceremony, to illustrate aspects of the cultural complexes involved and it will consider how these literary works represent healing.
As a literary scholar and not a clinician, I use stories as case studies to provide insights about psychological dynamics. Â I am specifically interested in Eco psychology, or the complex relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world. Â Western culture has developed powerful technologies in part by creating a psychological divide between the human and “nature” which allows us to see other forms of life as resources for our use. Â As a consequence, I believe, we have evolved what I think of as a relatively impermeable membrane between the unconscious and the ego, with a corresponding over-reliance on the reasoning faculty and a distancing from ways of knowing that are more intuitive or feeling. Â Â In this talk I will look at a classic of Western culture and a recent novel by an American Indian (Pueblo) writer to explore areas of cultural complex and some deep similarities. Â If you are interested, you can find some of this material in my book, Out of the Shadow: Â Eco psychology, Story, and Encounters with the Land.
PowerPoint:Â PowerPoint slides are edited into the videos.
Audio:Â This download includes an audio MP3 of each lecture that can be played on smartphones, tablets, and laptops for listening on the go.
Sample
© 2012 Rinda West
â„— 2012 CG Jung Institute of Chicago