Three Tuesdays, December 5 - 19 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm, Eastern Time

Dreams: Theater of the Unconscious: A course with Jane Selinske

C. G. Jung considered the psyche and dreams as expressions of unconscious processes.  According to Jung, difficulties arise in the interpretation of dreams and images because of their unconscious nature.  He determined that dreams are often structured like dramas and that the theater motif and the dramatic presentation of the unconscious story can assist in understanding a dream.  

The dramatic structure of the dream, like that of a Greek drama, consisting of a setting, theme, characters, development, crisis, and outcome, all contribute to grasping the unconscious language being spoken by the psyche.

The unconscious language of dreams speaks through image and symbol.  So, in addition to learning to interpret the dramatic structure of a dream, one will learn the language of images and symbols.  In dream interpretation, Jung also gave prominence to symbol amplification and personal association to dream images, and he stressed the objective nature of the psyche.  All these elements of dream analysis will be woven together and will expose the participants to dream interpretation through a Jungian lens.  The class will be didactic and experiential.  Please bring a short dream that can be shared in the group.

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Friday, December 15 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm, Eastern Time

THIS IS A HYBRID PROGRAM!

Tonight, we explore Barbara Hannah’s life story, and how she, in 1929, at age 38 -- at a transformative moment -- found her way to Zurich. What happened next is the rest of the story.

If we can entertain the idea that each of us is born with a daimon, an “inner companion,” an innate intelligence, or a particular destiny that works its way through our life, Barbara Hannah’s would be characterized as a striving towards wholeness. Barbara Hannah was a consummate introvert who rarely spoke about herself and her life.  She said that she did not care if she was remembered after she was dead, and what mattered to her was that she might contribute to the field of analytical psychology. Therefore, she paid little attention to publication or notoriety. We, therefore, are grateful to those people who knew her, loved her, and valued her, along with her work, and who took the time to honor and remember her. 

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Saturday, December 16 | 1:00pm - 4:00pm, Eastern Time

The Animus: The Spirit of Inner Truth in Women: A workshop Bonnie Damron

THIS IS A HYBRID PROGRAM!

Barbara Hannah spoke of the animus as the archetype that personifies the inner spirit or unconscious mind of women and which typically appears as a masculine figure in women’s dreams and as projections. Today we shall work with some of Barbara Hannah’s insights about what the animus is, how it functions in a woman’s life, and how she might safely create a fruitful relationship with this complex and mercurial inner figure.  We shall also reach into her toolbox of practical methods for engaging with the animus, the “spirit of inner truth in women.” 

Barbara Hannah arrived in Zurich in 1929, the year of her 38^th birthday.  In 1929, the year The Secret of the Golden Flower was published, C. G. Jung was 54 years old. In 1931 she attended a lecture delivered by C. G. Jung on the anima and animus, during which he proposed a conceptual model for the inner development of the animus.  At the end of his discussion, believing that “a man’s ideas about the animus can produce a model based only on intellectual assumptions, and not grounded in direct experience,” he would “lay down a challenge.”

Addressing the women at the lecture and noting that only a woman could have a direct experience with the animus, he said, “Now that is my proposition, but I leave it to the ladies to invent something better or argue this proposition.” Barbara Hannah heard the clarion call.  Over the decades ahead, she generated a body of work and created a toolbox of practical and insightful methods that provide guidance for women who confront, and are confronted by, the problem of the animus.

C. G. Jung’s challenge is living in us today; each of us has the opportunity to respond.  As Barbara Hannah taught, a woman cannot learn about the animus by reading about the animus, any more than, shall we say, she can learn to play tennis by reading about tennis. To learn tennis, she must play tennis. To build a relationship with the animus, she must engage with him through inner work, and this takes practice, persistence, and courage... (Read more on the program page) 

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Four Wednesdays, January 3 - 24 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm, Eastern Time

Jung and Zen: The Relationship of Consciousness, Suffering, and Individuation: A course with Morgan Stebbins

What is Zen? How does it relate to Jung?  These are hard questions, but we will start with a survey of Buddhism and its offshoot that became Zen, including its meditation and ritual practices. Then we’ll look at Jung’s view of Zen – both in his introduction to D. Suzuki’s famous book and in his disappointing though often hilarious encounter with the Zen master Hisamatsu. 

To make matters worse, Zen famously promotes a “no-self” theology while the core of Jung’s model of the psyche is, of course, the self! Once we untangle that mess, we will look at Jung’s take on Zen and analytical psychology. We will see that this orientation diverges from either the historical or the experiential components of Zen but is of great value in understanding Jung’s project. Finally, we can wonder about what is perhaps the central theme that lies under both Zen and Jung: the nature of consciousness and its role in suffering and individuation. Here, finally, we will see some convergence – though not one that might have been predicted. 

In this discussion we will attempt to balance three quite disparate orientations: that of practitioner/believer, that of scholar/historian, and that of the Jungian psychological view. This allows us to feel the tension between words of the believer from the inside, the words of the scholar from the outside, and the analytical psychologist, who takes an empirical and psychological stance. 

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Four Thursdays, January 4 - 25 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm, Eastern Time

Jung and Shakespeare, The Psychology of the Transference: A course with Phyllis LaPlante

This is not a new phenomenon. We know that Shakespeare was aware of it because many of his plays feature characters who project onto others their unacknowledged psychic contents.

We will discuss four of Shakespeare’s plays:

Week 1 Coriolanus. A brilliant primer on the grooming of a candidate for high public office,  complete with handlers, coaches, strategists, and the stage mother to end all stage mothers, the magnificent Volumnia, who projects onto her son her own need for power. Take note of Coriolanus' love/hate relationship with his enemy/partner Aufidius and his attitude toward the common people.

Week 2 Cymbeline. Part history, part romance, part revenge tragedy, and part satire. The King opposes his daughter Imogen's marriage and banishes her virtuous husband. His Queen (second wife) has a son, whom she wants Imogen to marry, thus making him heir to the throne. This is a play that tackles an intriguing set of problems about the relationship between political stories and psychological stories, between the state and the subject, and between political fiction and fact.

Week 3 The Winter's Tale. An ageless story of how one man's suspicious nature and unchecked power poisons the lives of everyone around him.

Week 4 The Tempest. Is this a beautiful story of magic and love, or is it a colonialist allegory? There is something troubling about this idealized picture of a man possessing arts and crafts, dominance and power, living on a small island with his daughter. We could see Prospero as a colonizer of territory not his own, who displaces the native ruler and enslaves its indigenous population. The play’s structural design mirrors the human psyche: Caliban is dark and ugly but must be acknowledged. Ariel is the spirit of imagination, who cannot be possessed forever.