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.
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.
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.
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
Via a generous matching grant from Carl and Patricia Greer, if we can raise $3,000 by May 30, we will receive and additional $3,000 gift. You can help us and double your gift at the same time by making a donation.
When a god image changes, what does it mean? In this program Murray Stein addresses four questions: What is a god image? What does a god image change? How does a god image change? and What does it mean when a god image changes?
Murray Stein, PhD is a training analyst at the International School for Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland. His most recent publications include The Principle of Individuation, Jung’s Map of the Soul, and The Edinburgh International Encyclopaedia of Psychoanalysis (Editor of the Jungian sections, with Ross Skelton as General Editor). He lectures internationally on topics related to Analytical Psychology and its applications in the contemporary world. Dr. Stein is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. and M.Div.), the University of Chicago (Ph.D., in Religion and Psychological Studies), and the C.G. Jung Institut-Zurich. He is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. He has been the president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (2001-4), and is presently a member of the Swiss Society for Analytical Psychology and President of the International School of Analytical Psychology, Zurich.
Thank you to everyone who has shared a little bit about themselves. If you’d like us to know about the journey you are on, click this link, and I’ll read your submission on the podcast! No need to share any identifying information. This information will not be used for any other purpose.
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, Mary Dougherty, 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.
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.
Thank you to everyone who shared a little bit about themselves since the last episode. If you’d like us to know who you are, click this link, and I’ll read your submission on the podcast! No need to share any identifying information. This information will not be used for any other purpose.
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.
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.
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.
In this video seminar, Daniel Ross shares some of his work from our podcast episode “Death Panels: Our Cultural Complex Around Death”. This event was hosted by the USA India Jung Foundation – a 501c(3) foundation that does charitable work in India and USA – and was presented at the Ahmedabad Jung Center, India an IAAP Developing group (uijf.org) and moderated by Ashok Bedi – the IAAP liaison person for the Ahmedabad Jung Center. Thank you to the USA India Jung Foundation for sharing this recording of a seminar we only have on audio.
Daniel Ross, RN, PMHNP, MSN, MBA has been a nurse for 40 years. He has worked extensively as Director of Clinical Services in the field of home health care and hospice. As a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, he brings both a medical and psychiatric experience to his work. He currently works part time in the field of Palliative Care and Hospice as a Nurse Practitioner, visiting patients in their home or nursing facility helping them in their transition to hospice. He is also a Jungian Analyst in private practice in downtown Chicago.
Ken James, PhD, member of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts, was interviewed by Dale M. Kushner for Psychology Today. The interview is split into three parts:
Dr. Kenneth James maintains a private practice in Chicago, Illinois at The Soulwork Center. His areas of expertise include dream work and psychoanalysis, archetypal dimensions of analytic practice, divination and synchronicity, and ways to sustain the vital relationship between body, mind and spirit. He has done post-doctoral work in music therapy, the Kabbalah, spirituality and theology, and uses these disciplines to inform his work as a Jungian analyst.
Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ecopsychologist in private practice in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dr. Merritt is a diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich and also holds the following degrees: M.A. Humanistic Psychology-Clinical, Sonoma State University, California, Ph.D. Insect Pathology, University of California-Berkeley, M.S. and B.S. Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over twenty-five years of participation in Lakota Sioux ceremonies have strongly influenced his worldview.
It seems appropriate at this point in time to share a seminar from our store, “Racism and the Cultural Complex: Welcome to the United States of America”, with Anita Mandley, MS, LCPC and Stephanie Fariss, JD, LCSW, in its entirety. It was recorded in the fall of 2015. From the seminar description:
A recent article in The Huffington Post reads: “A white man guns down nine black people in a church in South Carolina. The state’s Confederate battle flag stays waving in the wind the next day. The white man is arrested. He is given a Kevlar jacket. Welcome to the United States of American in 2015.”
It is impossible to imagine how 350 years of slavery, segregation and racism would not have monumental consequences for both White and Black Americans. And yet, many want to believe that electing an African American President has changed all that. Events during the last year have turned that fantastical belief on its head and now more than ever we must work to understand the insidious nature of racism. Depth psychology has an important role to play in this endeavor, especially as we begin to understand how shared historical and cultural trauma experiences lead to cultural complexes in groups and within the psyche of individuals. This course will explore the presence and power of historical and cultural traumas—how the legacy of these traumas impact the brains, bodies and minds of individuals, and how the shared experience of trauma creates cultural complexes that structure emotional experience.
Learning Objectives By participating in this workshop, attendees will be able to: 1) Describe the relationship between historical and cultural traumas and cultural complexes; 2) Explain Post-Traumatic Slavery Syndrome; 3) Define micro-aggression and describe its component parts.
PowerPoint: A PDF of the slides shown in this seminar are available HERE.
Video: A video shown in the seminar is available on YouTube HERE.
Anita Mandley, MS, LCPC is an Integrative Psychotherapist with over 30 years of experience in the field of Mental Health. Anita’s specific areas of special interest and expertise is in working with adults who struggle to manage their moods and those who have had significant experiences of invalidation, including experiences of trauma, violence, abuse, and neglect. The complexity of such experiences necessitates complexity in treatment. Anita’s integrative perspective and treatment approach is based on her belief that you need to treat clients’ distress in the context of their whole self: i.e. body, brain, mind, and spirit. Anita uses the dynamic Collaborative Stage Model, developed by Mary Jo Barrett to organize treatment in a way that increases efficacy, while avoiding the treatment pitfalls of the extremes of chaos and rigidity. Anita leads the Center’s Adult Integrative Trauma Team and Dialectical Behavior Therapy Team. She also does training and consultation for groups and individual clinicians at the Center. She also presents workshops at agencies and in the community on topics such as: Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Post-traumatic Slavery Syndrome, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and Cultural Diversity, among others.
Stephanie Fariss, JD, LCSW is a member of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts and a psychoanalyst in Chicago. She has a private practice in the Chicago loop where she sees individuals and couples and runs psychotherapy groups. She has a special interest in the relevance of psychoanalytic thought to social issues such as addictions, race, organizational resilience, politics and animal welfare.
Thank you to our 2019 Supporter level donors: Bill Alexy, Usha and Ashok Bedi, Circle Center Yoga, Arlo and Rena Compaan, Eric Cooper and Judith Cooper, Lorna Crowl, D. Scott Dayton, George J. Didier, the Kuhl Family Foundation, Ramaa Krishnan & Full Bloomed Lotus, Suzanne G. Rosenthal, Deborah Stutsman, Debra Tobin, Alexander Wayne and Lynne Copp, Gerald Weiner.
In continuation of our COVID-19 response, we are sharing another full seminar. You can support our ongoing efforts to provide free and low-cost educational resources during this pandemic by making a donation on our website or a purchase in our audio and video store. We have extended our Stay Connected Sale through May 31st, so you can still get 40% everything in our store (use the coupon code CONNECT on the cart page before checkout).
Jung initially rejected the invitation to write Man and His Symbols, whose intention was to make Jungian psychology understandable to a general audience, but a dream convinced him otherwise. In his dream, he speaks to a multitude of enthralled people who understand everything he says. In this presentation on Chapter 1 of Man and His Symbols, “Approaching the Unconscious,” we’ll explore how two years after Jung completed both his chapter and his life, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a multitude of enthralled people and translated many Jungian concepts into everyday language in his “I Have a Dream” speech. Jung’s chapter is concerned with four major areas—the unconscious, dreams, archetypes, and symbols—all four of which we find illustrated and translated to a general audience in King’s dream speech. We’ll dream the dream forward into the 2020 election and see how leading presidential candidates are working with archetypes and symbols as well, on behalf of the psychological health of the body politic.
A PDF of the PowerPoint shown during the seminar, which includes links to the videos on YouTube, is available HERE . It was recorded on October 4, 2019.
Jennifer Leigh Selig, PhD is the founder and former chair of the Jungian and Archetypal Studies doctoral degree at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She has spent almost two decades researching, writing about, and presenting on Martin Luther King, Jr., including her 2005 title, Integration: The Psychology and Mythology of Martin Luther King, Jr. and His (Unfinished) Therapy With the Soul of America. Her latest books include Everyday Reverence: A Hundred Ways to Kneel , Kiss the Ground, and a co-authored volume titled Deep Creativity: Seven Ways to Spark Your Creative Spirit. jenniferleighselig.com
Thank you to our 2019 Supporter level donors: Bill Alexy, Usha and Ashok Bedi, Circle Center Yoga, Arlo and Rena Compaan, Eric Cooper and Judith Cooper, Lorna Crowl, D. Scott Dayton, George J. Didier, the Kuhl Family Foundation, Ramaa Krishnan & Full Bloomed Lotus, Suzanne G. Rosenthal, Deborah Stutsman, Debra Tobin, Alexander Wayne and Lynne Copp, Gerald Weiner.
Our Blog shares essays, articles, video, audio, and other resources by members of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts and other groups that support the education and development of our community.
The views and opinions expressed in the podcasts and blog posts are those of the respected speakers or authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.
