Community News

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

Letter from the President | November 21, 2022

November 21, 2022

I write on a splendid fall day in Chicago when my immediate world—and the Jung Institute—feel full of hope and promise! On September 10, 2022, we resumed in-person classes and gathered for a joyful dinner and graduation ceremony for the new analysts who graduated during COVID.

I can report that our podcasts and online courses were sought out by people worldwide during the pandemic, and they remain popular. As of October 2022, the podcast has had 928,701 listens across 96 episodes.   We average 20,000 listens a month from users all over the world – from 112 countries in September 2022.

(more…)

Book Release | A People’s Guide to an Interfaith Christian Theology in a Time of Transformation

June 1, 2022

by Harvey Honig, PhD

Harvey H. Honig began his life’s work as a Lutheran minister but soon recognized his need for a more spacious and inclusive approach through which to heal and understand his inner self. This led him to spend many years exploring and experiencing other paths of religion and spirituality. In recent years, though, he found that the message, mission, and being of Jesus still played a powerful and transformative role in his life. Since common understandings of the life of Jesus are embedded within a biblical and historical framework, Honig wanted to explore the meaning of Christianity within the framework of our current world. An Interfaith Christian Theology is for fellow seekers who are drawn to the being and message of Jesus but can no longer relate to the dissonance between reality and belief that so many churches require. Honig’s approach differs from traditional Christian theology in two ways: first, it does not stem from the framework of a specific denomination, and second, it presents itself as a way of thinking about Christianity rather than the only way. After several years as a minister, Honig began Jungian analytic training and earned a PhD in psychology at Loyola University Chicago. Jung gave Honig the tools he needed to continue his personal search for a life-affirming view of Christianity and to assist others in their search for inner truth and healing.

Amazon.com
Bookshop.org

Diversity Equity and Inclusion Statement of the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago

April 27, 2022

The C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago acknowledges this country’s history of systemic racism and inequality and is committed to understanding and remediating these injustices through study and open discussion at all levels of our organization.  We are dedicated to applying the Jungian concepts of the collective shadow and the cultural complex to better understand how the toxic legacies of slavery, bigotry, and oppression of structural racism permeate our society, our institutions, and our collective and personal psyches. As practitioners of Jungian theory we strive to name and apply concepts of collective and personal shadow, cultural complex, manifested through the dynamics of projection, leading to “othering” and the denial of our shared humanity.  We endeavor to foster an atmosphere that respects, encourages, values and sincerely engages with diversity and difference in all its expressions and forms.  Our member analysts, public members and administrative staff actively support policies of inclusiveness and equity by raising these issues, concerns, and dynamics in classes and meetings.  As a community we also recognize and are mindful of Jung’s writings which contain harmful stereotypic descriptions of groups of people that are racially and culturally biased and prejudiced.  We pledge to initiate, welcome, and maintain ongoing conversations and discussions within our analyst community, with our trainees, and with our broader community of interested participants in all our programming regarding these depictions in Jung’s collective works. 

Vladislav Šolc | “The Religious Approach to Psyche” in Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche

December 10, 2021

Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts member Vladislav Šolc has published “The Religious Approach to Psyche” in the Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche, the official journal of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco.

Abstract:

Jason Smith’s book Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life is a concise and thoughtful exploration of the question of religion, its value, and meaning. Smith explores religion from two perspectives, as an organizing container provided by collective traditions and as an individual quest for meaning necessitating attention to the unconscious. He shows that belonging can be very important for one’s psychological health, but it must be accompanied by a sustained uncovering of the religious dimensions of life. Remaining unconscious can produce a state of god-like inflation. Throughout the book Smith examines the dangers of scientific rationalism that, as a rule, result in a naïve relationship with religion, religious symbols, and religious institutions. Wonder and the emptying of one’s mind to the experience of the transcendent (kenosis) are the essential attitudes for pursuing the symbolic life.

Viewing the full article requires a purchase of the article, issue, or subscription to Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche.

Full Article
Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche

Vladislav (Vlado) Šolc (pronounced “Schultz”) is a professional psychotherapist and Jungian analyst practicing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Vlado received training from the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago and Charles University in Prague. He is the author of five depth-psychology-oriented books: Psyche, Matrix, Reality; The Father Archetype; In the Name of God—Fanaticism from the Perspective of Depth Psychology; Dark Religion: Fundamentalism from the Perspective of Jungian Psychology and most recently Democracy and Individuation in the Times of Conspiracy Theories. 

Links: Vlado Solc’s Website | Vlado Solc’s Lectures Available on the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago Website

August Cwik | “The Technologically-Mediated Self: Reflections on the Container and Field of Telecommunications” in the Journal of Analytical Psychology

August 4, 2021

Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts member August Cwik has published “The technologically-mediated self: reflections on the container and field of telecommunications” in the Journal of Analytical Psychology. Abstract:

This paper contains reflections on the use of the imagination in technologically-mediated therapy and analysis. As part of the individuation process the psyche is seen as needing to adapt to new technological ways of communicating. The notion of a technologically-mediated self is posited describing a self which can only be apprehended through, and by, the use of telecommunications. This self is seen as identical to the in-person self, a subset, or superset of it. There is a revisioning of our notions of the container and the field in this work performed through technological-mediation. The need to engage the imagination in approaching this kind of work is emphasized in order to create an imaginal play-space in which the body will be deeply affected. Some thoughts on how the process of individuation might look through such analytic work is presented.

Viewing the full article requires a subscription to the Journal of Analytical Psychology or a one-time payment for access to the article.

Full Article
Journal of Analytical Psychology

Dr. Cwik is a clinical psychologist, hypnotherapist and senior diplomate Jungian Analyst in private practice in the Chicago area. After studying Chemistry as an undergraduate, he entered military service and then changed his career path to psychology. After studying with Rosiland Cartwright in the Dream and Sleep Lab at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, he was in the first class at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. He interned at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry where he trained in hypnotherapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy and returned to Chicago to begin private practice. He is on the teaching faculty of the Chicago Institute and the Florida and Minnesota Seminars for the Interregional Society of Jungian Analysts. He is an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Analytical Psychology. He is former: Co-Director of Training of the Analyst Training Program in Clinical Supervision and Curriculum and Co-Director of Clinical Training Program in Analytical Psychotherapy at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, and Senior Adjunct Faculty at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. He provides videoconferencing supervision and analysis.  He has published on analytic structure, supervision, alchemical imagery, active imagination, dreams, and numerous reviews.

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

In Memory of Lucy Klein (1921-2021)

May 31, 2021

Lucille (“Lucy”) Klein, Jungian psychoanalyst, born on August 31, 1921 in Tupelo, Mississippi, passed away on April 24, 2021, just a few months short of her 100th birthday. A daughter of the South, she retained her charming Southern accent throughout her life, which included: serving as a Navy nurse during WWII; a long marriage to Frank Klein, with whom she had 3 sons; adulthood spent largely in the region of rough-and-tumble Chicago where she held the position of CFO in the successful architectural engineering firm her husband created; and some 50 years of involvement in the Jungian circle, first as gathered around June Singer, then as housed in the building that she and Frank bought and converted into what became the C.G. Jung Center on Callan Avenue in Evanston, and since 1990 as an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago (CSJA). A long and active and rich life, indeed!

The archetypal essence of Lucy’s personality was symbolized in the choice of her thesis topic for completion of training at the CSJA: the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, Guanyin. Lucy not only wrote about Guanyin, she embodied the core value of the bodhisattva. For many who knew her even if only at a distance this was true, and the closer into her psychic aura one came, the more convincing and genuine her loving energy was on display. This did not mean she could not show anger and a fighting spirit when necessary – on the contrary! But above all, love permeated her being and radiated constantly from her readily smiling face. For her patients, she was both a loving Guanyin and a challenging inspiration for further individuation no matter what the stage of life they might have been in at the time.

Lucy considerably expanded the concept of lifelong learning and development for many of us: she graduated from the Chicago Institute as a Jungian psychoanalyst at the age of 70! Thereafter, she took her place in the Institute community as an active member into her 9th decade, serving on committees, functioning as a training and supervising analyst for candidates-in-training, and offering energetic leadership and support for the Institute’s educational and training mission. In her late 70’s, she managed to fight off a bout of breast cancer and went on to continue working as an analyst after her recovery. Her enthusiasm for Jungian psychology never waned, and her depth of understanding its intricacies and applying them in her clinical practice continued to evolve until her retirement in her late 80’s.

Not only did Lucy’s passion for learning and analytic practice remain constant even into deep age, her determination and will to live her personal life to the fullest continued unabated every bit as well. Love in Lucy’s life conquered aging and all the body’s challenges that come with it. In the elder communities of Olympia Fields, Illinois, where she spent her last years, she distributed the joy of life liberally and was loved by residents and staff alike. In the archetypal realm of Eros, Lucy shines as a bright star.

Remembering our dear friend of so many years, I couldn’t help thinking of the Beetles’ famous song of the 60’s, and this sentence spontaneously came to me: Lucy’s in the sky, now, a diamond. We who remain here salute you, Lucy, and will always continue to remember you with steadfast love, which, as the poet Dante testifies at the conclusion of The Divine Comedy, “moves the Sun and all the other stars.”

Murray Stein
Goldiwil, Switzerland
May 15, 2021

More at Legacy.com

Statement from the President | April 7, 2021

April 7, 2021

The C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago is currently closed to all in-person gatherings to ensure the health and safety of our membership and program participants during the Covid-19 pandemic.  All educational programming, meetings, and operations will remain on-line until such time that it is safe to gather in-person once more and there is full use of our Monadnock space.  We continue to monitor the situation closely for the time when we can resume in-person gatherings at the Institute and anticipate that this may happen in 2022.  The decision to return to in-person gatherings will be based on CDC guidelines and State and City mandates.  Appropriate health and safety protocols for vaccinations, mask-wearing, hand sanitizing, and surface-room cleaning will be instituted with the resumption of in-person gatherings.

Please refer back to our website for updates.

Stephanie Buck, President

Remembering Dan Lindley

February 16, 2021

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Daniel A. Lindley, Jr., member of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. Gus Cwik writes:

Dan and I overlapped in training together.  Dan, and his wife Lucia, were that type of quirky, professorial couple that you just had to love — highly refined, erudite, gourmets, with a true wry sense of humor.  One little know fact about Dan was that he was an avid fireworks creator and afficando.  Here the “ mad professor” worked his magic creating fireworks with the most exquisite explosions — though seemingly so out of character, he brought the same exacting refinement to working with gunpowder as he did to working his teaching, writing, and analysis.  The dinners they provided to many of us at the Institute, lucky enough to be invited, were elegant affairs, with aperitifs, many courses featuring a variety of wines, and digestifs — with jovial conversation to follow in the salon.  One often felt transported to some earlier era.  They will be missed.

Use the link below to read the obituary and more remembrances.

Legacy.com

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