Four Alternative Thursdays, October 5 – November 16 | 7:30pm - 9:00 pm, Eastern Time

From Ego to Soul: Jung's Radical Revision of Psychology, a course with Mark Napack

"Where id was, there ego shall be," so said Sigmund Freud. Would it be true to say that for C. G. Jung, "Where ego was, there shall soul also be?" Such may be Jung's radical revision of psychology. 

Jung and Freud parted ways with the publication of Jung's The Psychology of the Unconscious in 1912. There Jung demonstrated that the libido was not reducible to the sexual paradigm but was involved in symbolic progressions of consciousness based on mythological patterns. But this was only the beginning of the story. After the break with Freud, Jung conducted a series of experiments on himself which resulted in the development of his psychology of soul. These are recorded in his Black Books and described in The Red Book and Memories, Dreams and Reflections. Up until this point, Jung's psychology had been based on his theory of the complexes and their effect on the ego. In his experiments, Jung's soul confronts his ego as an other and forces him to radically revise his theory of the psyche.

In this course, we shall examine Jung's radical revision of psychology as it pertains to his own theory, psychology itself, and where we find ourselves today. The eclipse of soul has taken place in the "mental health" world of our culture, where a pandemic of dystopic states of mind continues unabated. Is there a way forward to a greater sense of aliveness, that core characteristic of the archetype of the soul? Our aim is to find the soul's path, with the help of Jung's discovery.

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An Evening With John Hayes: The Dark Numinous: Pathologies and Transformations 

Experiences of the numinous are not exceptional and are hardly restricted to saints, monks, and mystics. Indeed, they occur in various degrees of voltage in the experience of ordinary folks. Not unlike dreams, numinous experiences need to be received and empathically understood for their transformative potency to be realized.  These experiences intimate to ego consciousness the presence and power of the Self. 

Jung asserts the primary value of the numinous experience is its ability to have a powerfully disjunctive impact on consciousness, an impact that brings the conscious ego into right relationship with the Self. While the content of that experience, the numinous image itself, is not unimportant, greater importance is given to its actual impact on consciousness. Its effect is to remind my conscious ego that it is seen by the Self, reminding ego consciousness that it emerges from and is grounded in a more profound and vital psychic matrix.  The very specific content of the image and its condensed symbolic meanings complement the essence of that corrective transformative action. 

After a point in life, the ego optimally comes to instinctively know the Self, recognizing its presence and remembering other such encounters. Some numinous experiences are intense moments of encounter with the Self that re-mind the ego of its relativity and its origin in Self. Although such moments have great affective charge and are potentially transformative, they are part of an ongoing dialectic, what Jung in Aion calls a “circular opus” (CW9ii, para.419), that is moments in a “step-by-step development of self from unconscious state to a conscious state” (CW9ii, para. 418) The work towards individuation, towards wholeness, towards full realization of one’s Self is the aspirational work of a lifetime, always elusive and never fully realized. 

As “dark” implies mystery and depth, it also connotes the potential for  blindness and evil. Jung also recognized the dangers of the numinous, both individually and collectively. While optimally the numinous is a catalyst for individuation, it also holds the potential for psychic possession and even psychosis. The numinous can hold group psychology in its thrall with dangerous and terrible consequences, as recent collective history bears witness. 

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Transgenerational Trauma: a workshop with Kristina Schellinski

The task of individuation does not only encompass our becoming conscious of our personal issues, but, in many cases, also invites us to become conscious of complexes and traumata that affected our parents or grandparents. When we have dreams that seem to come from far away or to have nothing to do with us, when we notice repetitions and patterns across generations, then we are called upon by psyche to recognize and understand what happened to our ancestors. We do this to heal them, to heal us, and to help lighten the load that would otherwise be passed on to our children and grandchildren. 

I will present concepts, research, and cases and invite a lively discussion and personal exploration.

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Re-enchantment and the Anima Mundi, a lecture with Joseph Cambray

In the midst of the trials and tribulations that permeate our lives, it has become increasingly vital to attend to our capacity for wonder, awe, and joy in our encounters with the world.  A pathway towards recovery and re-animation of these emotions in our lives can begin through creative play, rooted in engagement with unconscious processes. 

Over the past 125 years or more, therapeutic listening to the suffering of the soul has gradually been refined and can be expanded beyond the consulting room to the pathos of our culture, to nature, and even to the universe.  Exploration of our dreamworlds has shown us they are not solely intrapsychic events but have enhanced our awareness to include interpersonal and environmental aspects of the psyche.  Now we are learning to listen to the Anima Mundi, the soul of the world, which has led to a re-valuation of indigenous and “pre-modern” traditions, such as alchemy.....

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Connecting Our Practices Toward Re-enchantment, a workshop with Joseph Cambray

Following my presentation on listening to the soul of the world, this workshop will seek to deepen our ordinary experiences for their capacity to partake in re-enchantment.  Explorations of wonder and awe, touching on the sublime in our lives, can offer a portal to the true imagination, a vital step towards re-enchantment.  

Participants will have the opportunity to rekindle personal memories of such experiences as felt realities.  This forms a basis, which can then foster expansion of our inherent eco-spiritual potentials as a natural function of communal soul life.  Revaluing the seemingly mundane aspect of daily life for the hidden potentials therein, to engage and collaborate with the anima mundi, will be our orientation in the workshop.  Through open discussion amongst participants, we will link our felt sense of wonder and awe with a range of synchronistic experiences.  The collective wisdom of the group will be invited in to explore healing potentials for persons, societies, and worlds.