The Collective Unconscious

Jung in the World | Technology & the Self 2: Finding Ourselves in a Digital Culture with Elizabeth Nelson

Video Available on YouTube


Elizabeth Eowyn Nelson, PhD joins Patricia Martin for a lively conversation about the value of Jungian thought in our tech-centric times. Nelson is on the faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she is a scholar on dreams, technology, and cultural studies. In this episode, she brings a wealth of insight to our contemporary moment, exploring what it means to pursue personal growth in a digital culture.

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Jung in the World | Jung, Wonder Woman, and the Psychology of Myth with Laura Vecchiolla


In this episode, Patricia Martin interviews Laura Vecchiolla, clinical psychologist and graduate of the Jungian Psychotherapy Program at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago. Their discussion touches on:

  • Jung’s obsession with mythology
  • Mythology – Freud vs Jung
  • What does archetypal mean?
  • Image vs story
  • Wonder Woman
  • Hero’s journey
  • Glory seeking vs caretaking
  • Underestimation of women
  • Harry Potter/Hermione
  • Androgynous archetypes
  • Mainstream representation
  • Healing mythology
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Institute Archive | Jung & the Environment with Dennis Merritt


We are sharing the webinar “Jung & the Environment” in full. The video version is available on YouTube.

Many believe we are in the Anthropocene Era, an era marked by the planet-wide influence of our species. The field of ecopsychology emerged in the early 1990s as a belated response from the psychological community to address the cascading effects of human-created environmental damage. Jungian ecopsychology offers one of the best frameworks for analyzing our dysfunctional relationship with the environment—and with each other—through an archetypal analysis of the layers of the collective unconscious. Jung was deeply connected with his native Swiss soil that was reflected in the ecological aspects of his conceptual system and his interest in alchemy as his main symbol system. Ecology begins with our relationship with “the little people” in our dreams and dreams can be used to help us connect deeply to the land using Hillman’s concept of Aphrodite as the Soul of the World. In 1940 Jung foretold a paradigm shift that he labeled a “new age” and “Aquarian Age”. The new paradigm will be based on ecological concepts and reflected in the economic system being developed by the sustainable economists. We must think in these terms as a species if there is any hope of averting a planetary nightmare. 

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Jung in the World | C. G. Jung & the Modernist Revolution with Roula-Maria Dib


During our Holiday Giving Drive we are presenting a series of interviews called Jung in the World. In this episode, Patricia Martin interviews Roula-Maria Dib, creative writer and literary scholar, who views Carl Jung as a modernist and has written about the power of the modernist moment in history to give rise to the discipline of psychology. Her book, Jungian Metaphor in Modernist Literature, creates a new context for understanding Carl Jung’s work and his most important theories: the context of the collective in which he lived. In this discussion, they touch on:

  • The development of Modernism
  • Finding wholeness through art
  • Jung’s Collected Works & his literary sense
  • Active imagination
  • The symbol
  • The collective unconscious
  • Deconstruction and integration
  • Reading the Jungian way
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Jung in the World | Jung’s Two Personalities & Their Impact on Jungian Thought & Training with Mark Saban


Mark Saban joins us to talk about the complexity of C. G. Jung’s own personality, and how that has shaped the way Analysts are trained today. They discuss:

  • Jung’s life
  • Training
  • Individuation
  • Inner and outer worlds
  • Engagement with the world
  • The archetypal vs the personal
  • Jungian analysis
  • The individuation of society
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Jung in the World: Jung & the New Generation of Creatives with Jessica Carson


Carl Jung was known to be endlessly creative and said art is an innate drive within all of us. People who identify as creatives are prone to certain mental health issues that are somewhat specific to their work. In particular, their shadow material is often overlooked in our culture in favor of a more romantic, poetic view of their identities. Author Jessica Carson uses Jungian theory in her book Wired This Way, a guide to the wellbeing of the creative spirit. It helps us understand creatives as more fully complex human beings. In this discussion, they touch on:

  • Jung’s Writing
  • Creativity & Creative People
  • Entrepreneurialism and Business Culture
  • Integrating Masculine & Feminine Archetypes
  • Fairy Tales
  • Shadow
  • Projection
  • Tension of Opposites
  • Cycles of Renewal
  • Joseph Campbell & the Hero’s Journey
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Jung in the World | Eros and the Archetypal Pursuit of Healing Love with Maci Daye, Certified Sex Therapist


Love was a great mystery to C. G. Jung. It is thought that his pursuit of love and the feminine aspect of his psyche was an animating force in his famous red book. Maci Daye, trained psychologist, certified sex therapist, and author of Passion and Presence: A Couples Guide to Awakened Intimacy & Mindful Sex. Maci’s work delves into the deep roots of love and why eros is a profound path to individuation.

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The Archetype of Sacrifice and the Regulation of Archetypal Energy with Robert Moore


This episode is the Saturday morning session of a weekend taught by Robert Moore called The Archetype of Sacrifice and the Regulation of Archetypal Energy. From the seminar description:

This workshop links Jung’s alchemical studies and his examination of the archetype of sacrifice to more recent research into the nature and dynamics of grandiose energies in the human psyche. In this program Robert Moore discusses how the decline of ritual containment of these energies in indigenous and traditional cultures has led to an epidemic of increased anxiety, addiction, and violent acting out.

First, Moore introduces the role of the archetype of sacrifice and related techniques of ritual practice in human strategies of coping with the pressures of archetypal energies. Second, he links the failure of these traditional means to our current epidemic of narcissistic acting out. Third, he summarizes the ways in which recent research supports Jung and Edinger on the necessity of the achievement of an ego-Self axis – a conscious and willed sacrificial attitude in the individuation process. Finally, Moore outlines the clinical implications: the ways in which we must be much more specific in our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the ego-Self axis in relation to the analytical task. He discusses the implications of this understanding of sacrifice for our conceptualization of a truly Jungian understanding of a psychoanalytic “cure” – the task of optimizing the analysand’s conscious regulation of archetypal energies. In short, Dr. Moore argues that Jungian Analysis should return to its roots in a manner which draws upon the best in recent interdisciplinary research to build upon Jung’s foundational discoveries.

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The Adventure of Being Human: Beyond the Myth of Biological Salvation with Polly Young-Eisendrath


This episode is the opening lecture of a weekend given by Polly Young-Eisendrath. It contains a 1-hour lecture followed by an hour of Q&A. From the seminar description:

We all sense a connection with the source that underlies our existence, whether or not we recognize it as such and we all wish to identify with something larger than ourselves. Some feel this as a spiritual yearning, while others wish for fame or celebrity or the knowledge of a larger truth. The spiritual isolation and materialism (both economic and philosophical) of our times make it difficult to find trustworthy methods from institutional religions, non-traditional approaches, psychology, or philosophy for seeking knowledge of this source. However, our desire to help others (and ourselves) and our willingness to love deeply and authentically can offer the common ground through which we can find this knowledge, but it requires a dedicated understanding of our own suffering and its transformation.

Instead of seeking such insight into our subjective lives, we Americans embrace popular myths of biological salvation and pharmaceutical soothing. It?s not just that we seek instant solutions to complex problems, rather we have lost our taste for the adventure of human life, replacing it with ideals of economic and biological ?security? and hopes for absolute control of our diet and health.

This program offers a critique of this contemporary myth of biological salvation and presents accounts from psychoanalysis (Jungian and otherwise) and Buddhism of how embracing our limitations can open the path to transformation and lasting contentment.

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Jung in the World | Animating Female Archetypes & Telling Women’s Stories: Interview with Elizabeth Lesser


Best-selling author Elizabeth Lesser sat down with us to discuss her latest book, Cassandra Speaks: When Women are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes. Elizabeth is the co-founder of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. In the interview, Lesser talks about new models of power with host Patricia Martin and explains why feminine archetypes and female myths are so resonant today. Offering bright insights and deep wisdom, Lesser touches on several of Jung’s theories, including anima and animus, and shares a gem-like memory of Jungian analyst Marion Woodman, who led workshops at the Omega Center during its early years. Having Elizabeth Lesser on Jungianthology was profoundly inspiring; and we invite you to listen for yourself. In this interview they touch on:

The Omega Institute
The Omega Women’s Leadership Center
Archetypes
Power and abuse of power
Masculine theories of leadership
Greek mythology as written by men
The myth of Cassandra
Marion Woodman
Anima/Animus
Simone Biles
How gender roles are changing
Feminist theories and practices of power
How “feminine-ist” power is necessary to face contemporary problems

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The Return of the Archetypal Feminine & the Dawn of the New “Third”

with Laraine Kurisko, PhD, Jungian Analyst

For this Women’s History Month, we’re sharing the seminar The Return of the Archetypal Feminine & the Dawn of the New “Third” in its entirety. It was recorded on January 4, 2019. From the seminar description:

The archetypal “Feminine” is back, and She’s…”unhappy.” From “Me Too,” to the trial of Larry Nassar, to the rising refusal of young adults to be defined as either “male” or “female,” opting instead for the more neutral pronoun “they,” evidence of profound change is all around us. Neumann and Whitmont tell us that consciousness can be conceived as having evolved through stages, beginning the archetypal Great Mother. Several thousand years ago, this feminine consciousness was repressed in the service of the development of “Masculine” ego consciousness, which has, for better and worse, been accomplished. We now have considerable “ego strength” but no connection to anything beyond it, hence, a good deal of turmoil in a world that feels untethered, without purpose or direction. Both “Feminine” and “Masculine” dominated cultures were necessarily one-sided otherwise each could not have developed. But, what is next? And, what is required of us so that the new “third” can emerge?

In this class we will dive deeply into the bigger story at play here – the deep, archetypal dynamics and the wisdom behind them. We will begin to think about, observe, and imagine, the next phase of consciousness. Rather than simply enacting each stage via identification, we can step back and consciously embrace the gifts and costs of each, for men and women. By holding both in a conscious, creative tension of opposites, we can facilitate the emergence of the Mercurial “Divine Child.”

Laraine Kurisko received her PhD in Clinical-Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2000 and Diplomate Jungian Analyst from the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago in 2016. Prior to beginning Analyst training in Chicago she attended the MN Seminar in Jungian Studies for nine years and the Philadelphia Seminar in Jungian Studies for one year. She has worked as a psychologist since 1987, and is currently in private practice in Eden Prairie. A Canadian by birth, she and her family enjoy their annual pilgrimage to their cottage near Sault Saint Marie, Canada, on the shores of Lake Superior.

PowerPoint: The slides are not available for this seminar.

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© 2019 Laraine Kurisko. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may share it, but please do not change it, sell it, or transcribe it.
Executive Producer: Ben Law
Producer: Patricia Martin
Music: Michael Chapman


Thank you to our 2020 donors who gave at the Contributing Member level and above: Barbara Annan, Usha and Ashok Bedi, Jackie Cabe Bryan, Eric Cooper and Judith Cooper, Kevin Davis, George J. Didier, James Fidelibus, John Korolewski, Marty Manning, Dyane Sherwood, Deborah P. Stutsman, Debra Tobin, Alexander Wayne and Lynne Copp, Gerald Weiner, Karen West and James Taylor, and Ellen Young. If you would like to support this podcast, click here to join our community of supporters.

Madness, Religious Experience, and the Wisdom to Know the Difference

with Thomas Patrick Lavin, PhD

This diagram accompanies the lecture series

This episode is the first session of the series Madness, Religious Experience, and the Wisdom to Know the Difference. It was recorded in July 1993. From the series description:

In the history of humankind, there have always been seeming psychotic features accompanying authentic religious experience, and there have often been apparent religious images and/or identifications associated with psychotic disorders. In our transitioning and liminal culture, what Jung has called the “transcendent function” acts like a balancing pole for those of us who feel “called” to walk the tightrope between madness and religious ecstasy.

This course examines the work of C.G. Jung and others to help develop imaginal strainers to sift the sounds of the many voices which call to us. It explores our perceptions of the presence of the divine in madness and the madness in the divine.

Topics in this program include:

•   Varieties of Religious Experience
•   Varieties of Psychotic Experience
•   Higher Powers and Deeper Powers: The Transcendent/Immanent Axis
•   Feeding the Ego-Self Loop

Note: I am away from home through May 2021 so my microphone quality will be less optimal during this time. Thanks for your understanding!

Thomas Patrick Lavin, PhD is a Zürich-trained Jungian analyst who holds a PhD in clinical psychology and a PhD in theology. He was formerly chief clinical psychologist for the U.S. Army in Europe and is a founding member of the CG Jung Institute of Chicago. He is in private practice in Wilmette, Illinois, and consults internationally on typology, spirituality and addictions.

Links
The complete series
All of Dr. Lavin’s lectures in our online store
Tomas Patrick Lavin on Jungianthology
Support this podcast


© 1993 Thomas Patrick Lavin. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may share it, but please do not change it, sell it, or transcribe it.
Executive Producer: Ben Law
Producer: Patricia Martin
Music: Michael Chapman


Thank you to our 2020 donors who gave at the Contributing Member level and above: Barbara Annan, Usha and Ashok Bedi, Jackie Cabe Bryan, Eric Cooper and Judith Cooper, Kevin Davis, George J. Didier, James Fidelibus, John Korolewski, Marty Manning, Dyane Sherwood, Deborah P. Stutsman, Debra Tobin, Alexander Wayne and Lynne Copp, Gerald Weiner, Karen West and James Taylor, and Ellen Young. If you would like to support this podcast, click here to join our community of supporters.

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    The Jungianthology Podcast offers free lectures from our archives and interviews with Jungian analysts and presenters at Institute programs.

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