Community News

Book Release | Will the Future Like You: Reflections on the Age of Hyper-reinvention by Patricia Martin

February 11, 2026

What if the harms of living an increasingly digital life go beyond undercutting our attention spans or blunting our social skills? What if it cuts deeper, to the core of who we are and who we know ourselves to be?

Patricia Martin, author, researcher, and host of the Jung in the World podcast, explores the challenges that tech and the internet impose on the human psyche. In Will the Future Like You? Reflections on the Age of Hyper-Reinvention, she argues that 24/7 online connectivity reshapes not only our sense of self, but erodes our very ability to form our identities.

Weaving together memoir, depth psychology, cultural criticism, and reportage, Martin guides readers through the hidden processes that form identity — and reveals how digital life is quietly dismantling them. At once a rigorous inquiry and a deeply human one, Will the Future Like You? asks what it means to hold onto a coherent self in an era designed to keep us endlessly reinventing. Releases March 5, 2026; Karnac Books UK. Available for pre-order on Amazon.

“Courageous, urgent, and deeply necessary.” 

–James Hollis, Jungian analyst, author of Swamplands of the Soul and Living with Borrowed Dust, and 22 other books.

About the author:

Patricia Martin writes about the intersection of culture, psychology, and technology. A graduate of the JSP and a professional affiliate at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago, where she hosts the popular podcast Jung in the World. She spent the last decade researching digital culture’s impact on the psyche. The author of four books, her work has been featured in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post and Psyche Magazine. Learn more: www.patricia-martin.com

The Explorer Poet Podcast | Unconscious Beliefs and Dark Religions with Vladislav Šolc (Audio)

January 21, 2026

Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts member Vlado Solc appeared on the Explorer Poet Podcast. From the episode description:

In this conversation with Vladislav Šolc, we explore the intersection of Jungian psychology and religion, discussing personal journeys through faith, the concept of dark religion, the importance of self-knowledge, how unconscious beliefs shape our understanding of reality, the role of symbolism in religion, the psychological implications of conspiracies, the quest for consciousness, confronting our inner darkness to achieve personal growth.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

In Memoriam: Patricia Greer

September 3, 2024

Patricia Taylor Greer, poet, author, and psychotherapist, passed away at her home in Wheaton, IL, on August 15, 2024 surrounded by her adoring husband Carl Greer and her three loving children.

Sophisticated, intellectual, loyal, and protective, Patricia was born in Queens, New York City, and grew up in Mt. Vernon, New York, and Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, before attending Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in English literature. A lifelong student and learner, Patricia also received a Master’s degree in English (Loyola University of Chicago), a Master’s in Marriage, Family and Child Therapy (California Family Study Center), a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology (Pacifica Graduate Institute), and a diploma in Analytical Psychology (C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago).

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In Memoriam: Tom Lavin

August 30, 2024

Dr. Thomas Patrick Lavin, 82, of Wilmette, Illinois, passed away on June 3, 2024, at home with his best friend and partner of 55 years, Dr. Mary Ellen O’Hare Lavin at his side.

Tom was challenged by numerous health issues over the past decade, facing them with grace, grit, warmth and Irish humor.  A devoted husband, father and grandfather, Tom’s twinkling eyes, quick smile, adventurous spirit and love of life will leave a void in the lives of his loving family, his dear friends and those he served in his decades in the practice of analytical psychology.

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In Memoriam: Shirley M. Fontenot

March 20, 2024

Shirley M. Fontenot was born on May 25, 1935, to Curtis and Marie (Ortego) Fontenot in Villa Platte, Louisiana. She was one of the youngest of six children. She lived in University City, MO, with her long-term partner, Rose.  Shirley was a “small” extraordinary woman. She became a Catholic nun, entering the convent immediately after high school.  She taught first grade for 16 years and often said her finest education came by way of the many children who passed through her classroom. During her time in the convent, she also earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education.  

Shirley left the order after 26 years and moved from Louisiana “Cajun Country” to Chicago to pursue her interest in Jungian Psychology.  During the next 20 years, she completed master’s degrees in both Pastoral Studies and Divinity, as well as a doctorate in ministry, and worked as a psychotherapist. In 1993 she earned a diploma as a Jungian Analyst and enjoyed this profession for nearly 30 years. She was engaged in some form of formal education for one-third of her life. She semi-retired at age 87.

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Book Release | Monsters in Life and Literature by Peter Demuth

January 8, 2024

Before becoming a Jungian analyst, Dr. Peter Demuth spent decades as a Forensic Psychologist, studying, evaluating, and treating violent criminals.  In this book, he brings his forensic experience and Jungian depth training to the analysis of famous literary monsters.

In Monsters in Life and Literature Dr. Demuth takes the reader on a journey into the world of the forensic psychologist, tasked with understanding the most extreme forms of what is usually referred to as the human capacity for evil. Demuth joins his long experience with the inhabitants of this world with his training as a Jungian psychoanalyst to cast light in the darkness through his theoretical reflections and his detailed examination of monsters found in myth and literature. The book is essential reading for anyone concerned with understanding these regions of darkness in the human condition.

—George Hogenson, Ph.D.
Senior Training Analyst at the C G Jung Institute of Chicago and the author of Jung’s Struggle with Freud—A Metabiological Study (2013)

Learn More
Order from Amazon

In Memoriam: Don Troyer

November 27, 2023

Don L. Troyer, M.D. died on November 11, 2023 at his home in Three Rivers. He was born on January 13, 1949 to Dana O. Troyer, M.D. and Verna (Burkholder) Troyer in Dhamtari, India, where they were serving as medical missionaries. He grew up in Goshen, Indiana where he graduated from Goshen High School and Goshen College with High Honors. During medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland he married Verna Hostetler on August 27, 1972. After completing a residency in Family Medicine at Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1978, he and Verna moved to Paoli, Indiana to join Comprehensive Health Care, a medical group dedicated to serving one of the most medically underserved counties in southern Indiana.

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In Memoriam: James Wyly

November 15, 2023

Remembrance by Mary Wyly

Jim on his 84th Birthday

James Wyly was born in Kansas City Missouri. His mother came from an old family in St. Joseph, Missouri. His father from a family of Presbyterians in South Carolina. He was educated in public schools. For college he chose Amherst because it was far away and hard. He majored in English and studied organ at Smith Henry Mishkin. His friends included Tom Eighmy and Kelley Edey. His fraternity was Chi Phi I think. He graduated in 1959.

After Amherst he enrolled in the new DMA program at the University of Missouri at Kansas City earning his degree in 1964. From 1961 through 1963 he was supported by the Fulbright Commission for his research and dissertation on historic pipe organs of Spain, living in Madrid, the city he regarded as his real home town. He was prepared to teach organ, harpsichord, music theory, music history. 

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From the President | November 9, 2023

November 9, 2023

Our times are so full of change and confusion that one can feel like these poor creatures from the Clavis Artis, a mysterious late 17th century alchemical text signed by “Zarathustra.”

In the past few years, more people are finding their ways to Jung’s work and our Institute. Jung taught that by paying attention to dreams and the true imagination, we may discover creative solutions to problems that cannot be solved by will or by science alone. Jung also valued the development of an attitude of tolerance for the unknown and for the Other.

The programs at the Chicago Jung Institute offer opportunities for the personal growth that comes—for example—from the hard work of learning to hold the tension of the opposites and to recognize projections of our own Shadows rather than reacting, blaming, or scapegoating.

Each Fall and Spring we reach out to you to ask you to make a tax-deductible donation to support our programs, which include in-person and online workshops and lectures, podcasts, analytic training, and a two-year in depth study program.

These programs are priceless, yet we depend on your donations to make them possible.

Please give whatever you can!

Dyane Sherwood
President
C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago

Support the Institute

Letter from the President | May 9, 2023

May 9, 2023

Our Spring Fundraising Drive coincides with the completion our first year of in-person classes and events since the COVID crisis.  The predominant feeling this year has been one of joy to be able to be together in person.

It began at our September graduation celebration of five new analysts from the Analyst Training Program.  More recently, our annual “Community Day” presented a day long program on the work of Marie-Louise von Franz at Loyola’s Lakeside Campus.  Our academic year will conclude this June with the graduation celebration of students completing the two-year Jungian Psychotherapy and Jungian Studies Programs.

Group Discussion on Community Day

In May, we are honored to present a lecture by Donald Kalsched “Opening the Closed Heart: A New Look at Jungian Depth Psychology in Light of Trauma, Affect Theory and Defense.” This event is being held at the Union League Club preceded by a Communal Supper and is open to JPP/JSP graduates and to anyone who becomes a member of the Institute. The fee is less than half of the actual cost, thanks to a generous grant from an anonymous donor.

Our podcast, Jungianthology, ranks in the top 50 social science podcasts in the United States on Apple Podcasts and this January passed 1 million downloads. We are working toward consistently publishing two episodes every month to our 10,000 listeners spread over 100 countries.

I am inviting you to join with others in financially supporting our exciting plans for the coming year, which includes welcoming a new cohort for the JPP/JSP two-year program, planning for more online and in person public programs, continued expansion of our podcast, and, of course, continuing the excellence of our Analyst Training Program with the largest number of students in recent memory.

Candidates in the Analyst Training Program

Please visit the Support Us page to learn more details about our programs and when you do, kindly give a generous donation to our Spring Fundraising Drive. Members of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts have donated $6,000 as a matching grant to kick things off, but we need your generous contributions to reach a minimum goal of $30,000 to meet our programming needs.  

Sincerely,

Dyane N. Sherwood, Ph.D.

President

Dennis Merritt | “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Revisited” published in Psychological Perspectives (Full Text Free Until July 31, 2023)

April 17, 2023

Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts member Dennis Merritt is co-author, with Kevin Lu and Frazer Merritt, of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Revisited” in the Psychological Perspectives. Abstract:

The publication of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in January of 1886 created a shock wave in the consciousness of its readers. It was an instant success in and beyond the literary world as people were confronted with the uneasy thought that evil originated within the individual and not from an external source like the Devil. This was nine years before Freud conducted his first psychoanalysis, and decades before Jung introduced the concept of the shadow.

Stevenson was known as the author of Treasure Island and children’s poetry, but had long been looking for a vehicle to write about the strange “Other” he had been aware of since his childhood nightmares. The inspiration for Jekyll and Hyde came directly from a dream, and he attributed most of his literary success to help from the “Brownies,” the “little people,” in his interior world and dreamland. The novel can be viewed in relation to the love-hate relationship with his father, whom he depended upon for financial support during his lifelong struggles with severe respiratory illness, which led to drug addiction from his attempts to cope with the illness. For Stevenson, the Other was primarily the dark side of the strict Calvinistic religion of his father and proper late 19th century Scottish culture, yet the concept is even more relevant today as we face the evils of terrorism, racism, white-collar crime, Putin and rising authoritarianism, and intolerable levels of polarization in many modern societies.

The article is free to read in full until July 31, 2023. PDF and EPUB files available.

Link to Article
Psychological Perspectives

Dennis Merritt, PhD, LCSW grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin where he established a deep connection with the land as reflected in his four volumes of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe: Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology. He obtained a Ph.D. from Berkeley in insect pathology, microbial control of insect pests, before training at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. He practices as a Jungian analyst and ecopsychologist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is a senior analyst in the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. More at JungianEcopsychology.com.

Dr. Merritt is the author of Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology: The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe Volumes 1 – 4.

Links: Dennis Merritt on Jungianthology | Dennis Merritt’s lectures at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago

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