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The C.G. Jung Memorial Lecture: Opening the Closed Heart: Meetings with the Human and Archetypal Child in the Psychotherapy of Early Trauma with Donald E. Kalsched

  • Friday, June 23, 2023
  • 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
  • Zoom, Eastern Time

Registration

  MEMORIAL LECTURE  

 This program WILL BE recorded. More information on recordings below. If your schedule does not allow you to attend the workshop, you can still reserve a ticket and a recording will be emailed out to you to watch at your convenience! 

Registration closes at 12:00pm EST the day before the program begins. 

Zoom Links will be in your confirmation email.

This is our Jung Memorial Lecture. Around the world Jung Societies, Centers and Institutes do Memorial Lectures to commemorate the death of Jung on June 6, 1961. We seek a world-known, senior analyst to do this lecture and we have been fortunate to have Donald Kalsched in the past and again this year. His work is complex and satisfying. We are delighted to welcome him for this special occasion.

The process of realizing oneself as a person (“individuation”) was for C. G. Jung equivalent to the unfolding of latent potentials in the personality--a vital spark of aliveness--something sacred and utterly unique in each of us. The potential for this “unfolding,” Jung felt, lay deep in the foundations of the personality, like a seed, and was universally represented in mythology as the archetype of the innocent orphaned child in exile. 

Trauma in childhood accounts for such exile.  By studying the lives of people who have survived early trauma, we discover that the ideal “unfolding” of the personality Jung envisioned is partially blocked and distorted by powerful-but-necessary archetypal defenses. These defenses divide up the inner world and banish unbearably painful feelings to the unconscious where they continue to live in “suspended animation” as implicit memories or as the orphaned specters of a traumatic childhood.  When psychotherapy begins, these wounded, ghost-like remnants of our childhood selves re-emerge, seeking acceptance and healing.  If accepted, they also bring with them a numinous, ineffable dimension that often accompanies the experience of healing.

However, the recovery of these lost parts of the self is often strongly resisted by the psyche’s defensive powers and their organization in a “system” (Self-Care System) of both protection and persecution. Successful psychotherapy depends on our understanding of these dynamics.

Donald Kalsched, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist and Jungian Psychoanalyst who practices in Brunswick Maine. He is a member of the C. G. Jung Institute of New England, and a training analyst with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. His celebrated book The Inner World of Trauma: Archetypal Defenses of the Personal Spirit (Routledge 1996) explores the interface between contemporary psychoanalytic theory and Jungian thought as it relates to practical clinical work with the survivors of early childhood trauma. His more recent book, Trauma and the Soul: A Psycho-spiritual Approach to Human Development and its Interruption (Routledge, 2013) explores some of the mystical dimensions of clinical work with trauma-survivors. For more information or to contact Dr. Kalsched, visit www.donaldkalsched.com

RECORDING: The recording will be sent out the 24-48 hours after the program concludes. Anyone who signs up for the lecture will have 14 days to watch the recording for free. Once the 14 days have concluded, you will be able to purchase the recording on our Teachable website.

ZOOM LINKS: The Zoom link can be found in your registration confirmation email. They will also be shared about 24 hours before the program start time. Registration closes before Zoom links are shared. If you do not receive your link 24 hours in advance, please reach out asap directly to support@jung.org

CANCELLATION: You may cancel your registration up to 1 week prior to the program.

By agreeing to enroll in an online program offered by the Jung Society of Washington, you are also agreeing to comply with our terms. This means that you cannot record (through internal or external devices) the audio, visuals (photos), or  any videos of the program. The intellectual property belongs to the presenter, and we ask you not to violate this policy. Also, we highly value the anonymity of the content of the program, of the presenters, and of individuals present in the program, and hope that everyone can contribute to a respectful and trust-building online environment. Thank you!


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The Jung Society of Washington is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, a nonprofit educational institution. Our IRS form 990 is available upon request. Although many of the Jung Society's programs involve analytical psychology and allied subjects, these offerings are intended, and should be viewed, as a source of information and education, and not as therapy. The Jung Society does not offer psychoanalytical or other mental health services.
Images of mandalas throughout this site were created by Carl Jung's patients between the years 1926 and 1945.
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