Jungianthology Blog

Freddie Taborda | What the Dead May Teach the Living About the Individuation Process: A Jungian Perspective About an Aboriginal Necropolis

Death was sacred to some aboriginal people in Colombia. Near the town of San Agustin and Isnos, the journey to death called for a necropolis to be built by unknown indigenous tribes. Approximately more than 2000 years ago, funerary mounds, megalithic, anthropomorphic, anthropozoomorphic, and zoomorphic statues, funerary corridors, and stone slab tombs were constructed beneath the earth! Earth mounds covered stone slab dolmens that contained the dead body of important people who had natural powers or occupied important roles in their tribe (Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia e Historia-ICANH, 2011). We know very little about who these tribes were and why they abandoned this area by the 14th and 15th century. The indigenous people who currently live near this area do not seem to have a direct racial lineage with these Colombian ancestors.

Why do these aboriginal people construct and bury these “death-related” sites underground? What is the meaning of the anthropomorphic, anthrozoomorphic, and zoomophic stone sculptures? This brief article attempts to provide a psychological hypothesis to these questions, from an Analytical (Jungian) Psychology perspective, in order to emphasize “ancestral wisdom” (Leon, 2010) of indigenous for modern times.

This post was first published on thehealingpsyche.org.

Freddie Taborda, LCPC, PsyD is a Jungian Analyst with over 30 years of clinical experience. He maintains a private practice in Chicago, Illinois.


Links: Dr. Taborda’s Website | About Dr. Taborda | Dr. Taborda’s Page on the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago’s Website

Ashok Bedi | The Divine Guest and The Fearless Girl (Video)

Thank you to Carl Jung Depth Psychology Reading Group YouTube channel for sharing this video. From the description:

Dr. Ashok Bedi agreed to speak with us about his article, “Jung’s Red Book – A Compensatory Image for Our Contemporary Culture: A Hindu Perspective” – from Jung’s Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul under Postmodern Conditions, published by Chiron Publications.

Links: Dr. Bedi’s Website | Dr. Bedi’s Analytical Practice Website | Dr. Bedi’s Recorded Lectures on the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago Website | Dr. Bedi’s books on Amazon

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

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.

Letter from the President | May 20, 2022

Dear Friends of the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago,

The Institute’s 2nd Annual Spring Fundraising Drive is here and I am inviting you to join with others in financially supporting the Institute.  Your donation will help ensure that our educational mission of training future analysts and educating psychology professionals and the general public continues. 

I’d like to share a personal story about why what the Institute does matters.   While attending psychological gatherings over the years, I have invariably heard in response to my saying that I am a Jungian psychoanalyst, “Really, does anyone do that anymore?” Imagine my surprise.  Yes, I do, the analyst-members of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts do, and Jungian analysts worldwide do. 

This anecdote highlights the misperception that exists within the psychological field in this country about analytical psychology.  Your donation in support of our educational mission is tangible proof that the symbolic-depth approach of analytical psychology is relevant and is valued in today’s world. 

Analytical psychology was birthed out of the cataclysm of the Great War as Carl Jung sought to understand the promptings of psyche and make meaning of how such carnage and inhumanity could happen in the modern age.

Jung embarked on a journey within himself and the discoveries he made about psyche and psychic processes took him on outer world travels to gather the myths and symbol systems of other cultures.  These collective materials helped give shape to his psychology of the unconscious, one rooted in an archetypal collective unconscious.  

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,” Jung writes, “but by making the darkness conscious…a disagreeable and unpopular process.”  Addressing the darkness of the outer world requires that we each do our own inner shadow work so that our darkness is not projected onto others. Analytical psychology provides a way to understand and work with this reality of psyche and make meaning of what is discovered to more consciously navigate the inner and outer worlds.  Now more than ever, as the existential crises of the 21st century mount, there is a need for the education that the Institute provides. 

As a small non-profit, we do a lot with limited resources.  Your tax-deductible financial contribution adds needed income to revenue from tuition, the sale of our audio-lectures, and grants.  Equity donations are welcome.  The Institute has a Gold rating for financial transparency from GuideStar and is listed on Charity Navigator.   The Analytical Psychology Foundation of Chicago is a supporting organization.

Please join us in continuing to make possible analytical psychology education in Chicago and beyond by making a generous contribution to fund our educational mission.

Many thanks for your support, 

Stephanie Buck, President

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

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. 

Stefano Carpani | “Who was Carl Gustav Jung?” with Dr. John R. Haule

Dr. John Ryan Haule (1942, USA), is a Jungian Analyst, writer, & lecturer. He graduated from the C. G. Jung Institute Zurich in 1980 and is a NCPsyA, Certified Psychoanalyst as well as a Training Analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute-Boston. He works in his private practice in Massachusetts and is the author of books on Romantic Love, Therapy as Relationship, New Age Phenomena, and many articles on these topics, as well as shamanism, history of psychoanalysis, mysticism, and popular culture.

Listen to John Ryan Haule’s lecture, The Love Cure, from the Institute archives

Stefano Carpani M.A., M.Phil. (1978) is an Italian psychoanalyst-in-training (diploma candidate) at the C.G. Jung Institute Zurich and a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre for Psychoanalytical Studies, University of Essex (UK). He works in private practice in Berlin (DE).

Links: Stefano’s YouTube Channel | Stefano’s Website | John Ryan Haule at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago

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

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.

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

Myth Salon | The Splendor Solis with Dr. Dyane Sherwood (Video)

Thank you to The Mythology Channel for sharing this video. From the description:

On Thursday, October 21 at 5PM Pacific, we are particularly excited to be featuring Dr. Dyane Sherwood giving a presentation on the alchemical illuminated manuscript, the Splendor Solis. The illuminated manuscript of the Splendor Solis is one of the Treasures of the British Library, and in recent years has become widely known for the beauty of its 22 illuminated paintings. In her presentation, Dyane Sherwood will place the Splendor Solis in context, give the audience an overview, and then focus on some of the images in depth. We will discover the sophisticated consciousness behind three series of images that portray a process of depth transformation that moves from (1) a personal process, (2) to an appreciation of a relationship between archetypal, environmental, and inner states, and (3) finally to a profound acceptance of the nature of being. Dr. Sherwood will address two interrelated themes of the Splendor Solis that are more relevant today than ever before: the fact that humans can use Nature to work against Nature and the need for, in Jungian terms, redemption of the Feminine Principle.

Dyane Sherwood collaborated with the late Joseph L. Henderson, MD on a book relating the images of the Splendor Solis to the process of transformation in analysis. Dr. Henderson had his personal analysis with C.G. Jung and was the only American contributor to Jung’s remarkable book, Man and His Symbols. Dr. Sherwood is a Jungian psychoanalyst, sand-play therapist, and author. She founded the Analytical Psychology Press.

Links
The Mythology Channel on YouTube
Dyane Sherwood on Jungianthology
Dyane Sherwood at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago
Analytical Psychology Press

Freddie Taborda | “JAMAYA PU’LAPUIN?”: A Brief Archetypal Teaching from Wayuu Aborigines to Jungian Psychology

Jamaya Pu’lapuin?” (“How was your dream?”) are the first words with which the Wayuu greet each other daily. In contrast, when people from industrialized societies meet, they may say, “Hi”, “Hola”, “How are you?.” The greeting of ‘How are you?’ does not exist in the Wayuu language. An initial comparison of the greetings between these two groups of people may reveal the following: the Wayuu emphasize the primacy of the aa’in (soul) in life, which gets manifested in dreams, as well as the individual caring for the soul in another person’s life. Given the daily forgetfulness of the existence and subjective experience of the unconscious in the industrialized people, the word “You” in their greetings may be referring to the “Ego” and, less so to the integrated whole of the conscious and the unconscious. From a Jungian perspective, the Wayuu seem to be, initially, more interested in unconscious processes than “civilized people” are.

Therefore, Jungian analysts could learn, from the Wayuu aborigens, that the first question to be asked, when an analysand comes for the first time and to subsequent sessions to analysis, is “How was your dream?” (“Jamaya Pu’lapuin”). This is congruent with Jung’s writings and clinical practice where the centrality of dreams, as revealing the wisdom of the Self, was fundamental. There are exceptions, of course.

The Wayuu (“The People of the Sun, Sand, and Wind”) are an indigenous tribe that live in the desert of La Guajira Peninsula, which borders Colombia and Venezuela. They live in small settlements called “Rancherias,” which consists of five or six houses made of branches, corrals, and mud houses. Because their societal structure is matrilineal, each Rancheria is composed of people belonging to the same matrilineal clan. Some of these clans are, for example, the Aspushana (“Sour with Something”), the Epieyu (“Where Sleepiness is Felt”), the Jayaliyuu (“Eyes without Head”), etc. Furthermore, Wayuu children primarily bear their mother’s last name (and not the father’s), and each clan is identified with a symbolic drawing (“Kanaas”) that usually has a geometric shape that alludes to an animal, a plant, or a geographical place.

Therefore, the importance of images in Wayuu’s cosmology is comparable to the primacy of images in Analytical Psychology.

According to Paz (2017), Lapu refers to a deity that, through dreams, conveys messages to people. Dreams help the Wayuu to prognosticate many of outer events, such as death, health, adversities, etc. The Wayuu seek signals in dreams on how an adverse event can be prevented. At night, the aa’in (soul) of a Wayuu wanders, and such travel is aptly described in dreams. In recent decades, and within the field of Analytical Psychology, there is a greater tendency to see dreams as a comment, primarily, of the “analytical field” and, less so, of the intrapsychic life of the individual. The Wayuu perspective that dreams are helpful comments or warnings about outer events, such as a marriage, taking a trip, buying a house, taking a new job, moving to another city, etc, is becoming, unfortunately, less relevant to Analytical Psychologists because of the idea that “subjective interpretations” of dreams are emphasized more than “objective interpretations.” A close reading of Wayuu’s cosmology may help Analytical Psychology to have a more balanced view and hold the tension of the opposites of viewing dreams subjectively and objectively. Therefore, next time we want to relocate to another city, change jobs, have more children and, (why not?) getting together with a friend, etc., let us consult a dream about it, like the Wayuu do.

(more…)

IAJS & Routledge | Analytical Psychology and the Human Sciences (Free E-Book)

Analytical Psychology and the Human Sciences was curated by Routledge Mental Health and the International Association for Jungian Studies as a companion to the 2021 IAJS Triannual Conference, sharing its theme of Analytical Psychology and the Human Sciences. The complementary e-book features six chapters by plenary and keynote speakers, which have been excerpted from Routledge books:

• Roger Brooke on “Archetypes” from Jung and Phenomenology
• Stanton Marlan on “Jung and Alchemy: A Daimonic Reading” from How And Why We Still Read Jung: Personal and Professional Reflections
• Fanny Brewster on “Archetypal Anger” from Archetypal Grief: Slavery’s Legacy of Intergenerational Child Loss
• Jon Mills on “Existentialism and the Unconscious Subject” from Underworlds: Philosophies of the Unconscious from Psychoanalysis to Metaphysics
• Lucy Huskinson on “Using Architecture to Think Ourselves into Being: Buildings as Storehouses of Unconscious Thought,” excerpted from Architecture and the Mimetic Self: A Psychoanalytic Study of how Buildings Make and Break our Lives
• Andrew Samuels on “Nations, Leaders and a Psychology of Difference” from The Political Psyche

To receive the e-book, you will be asked to provide your email address to Routledge, but have the option to opt out of marketing emails.

About the IAJS

Founded in 2002, the International Association for Jungian Studies exists to promote and develop Jungian and post-Jungian studies and scholarship on an international basis. The IAJS is a multidisciplinary association dedicated to the exploration and exchange of views about all aspects of the broader cultural legacy of Jung’s work and the history of analytical psychology. Through the development of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, the IAJS aims to aid the understanding of contemporary cultural trends and the history of psychological and cultural tendencies. Learn more on the IAJS website.

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