Public Semester Program
Spring 2024

This lecture intends to clarify some of the common misconceptions about and between mythic consciousness and religious consciousness. In the lecture the differences are identified and their current relevance to analytic practice is explored.

We suffer disappointments and disruptions in life which disturb the continuity we count on, thrusting us into loss, change, and the unknown against our will. We will explore how mourning emotional vicissitudes and ruptures in life allows us to live in the present with renewed vitality and a more integrated sense of self on the journey to individuation.

This lecture will go over some of the most important concepts, such as soul, the relativity of time and space, and the unio mystica, as presented by Jung in his Zofingia lectures. Even though these concepts were presented by Jung between 1896 and 1899, we will see how they remained important and useful throughout his personal and professional life.

Alchemy tells stories of changings of substances, which are analogous to psychic contents. A close look at alchemical images reveals how important the material world can be for soul-making. These dream-like images resonate with both the psyche and the body and move them toward a greater integrity of a personality. In pictures or in words, alchemical descriptions have their own vocabulary, grammar, and style. These stories involve navigating both the collective ‘roads’ of culture and the ‘off-road’ unconscious nature of a person. To read: Hillman, J. (2009) Alchemical Psychology: Uniform Edition of the Writings of James Hillman, Vol. 5, Spring Publications.

Four ISAP analysts each present a fairy tale interpretation. Part 1: “The Golden Tree”

** This course has been cancelled. **

On synthesizing Neumann’s various writings, a cohesive archetypal developmental relational theory emerges. This lecture presents Neumann’s theory of the different archetypal stages of psychological development from birth throughout life, to culminate in the advanced stages of the individuation process. The process, centered with the establishment of the ego-Self axis during early life and the primal relationship, plays a central role in later psychic health. The lecture will also suggest possible therapeutic applications of this theory to child and adult analysis.

Through the lens of creation myths and operations of the alchemical opus, we will review the most fundamental biochemistry and physiology of our nervous system. Participants will be amazed to see how various myths about the origins of human life actually reflect, in their imagery and symbolism, the chemical processes and properties required for life in our cells. In other words, our most basic psychological functions are subject to the same laws as our most basic biochemistry and physiology. Like creation myths, alchemy — a metaphor for psychological healing — also mirrors our body chemistry.

Four ISAP analysts each present a fairy tale interpretation. Part 2: "Snow-White and Rose-Red", which can be downloaded here.

Families have a past — an uncle who emigrated, a great- grandfather who fought in a war or an aunt who killed herself. Ancestors who did extraordinary things can be influential on their descendents. Stories are told in the family that influence one’s values and one’s psyche. In the lecture I will talk about these ghosts of the past and how one can deal with them.

Jung‘s fascination with alchemical symbolism and the unconscious provides us with the tools to understand our own psychological processes. A path is opened to transform the dark night of the soul into a meaningful, enlightening experience. In order to accomplish this, the ego must undergo its own death and rebirth.

We will discuss cultural trauma, family experiences and their effects across generations with case examples.

Canadian artist and author Emily Carr was open to a variety of religions during her search for a way to express the spirit of the wild West Coast. Leaving her Anglican and Presbyterian Christian roots, she explored theosophy, the writings of Walt Whitman, and the beliefs of some of the West Coast First Nations through her extensive travels and deep friendship with a Coast Salish woman. Before failing health forced her to abandon her easel, Emily Carr was able to do what none of the famous ‘Group of Seven’ men had achieved: to capture the wild West Coast spirit in her paintings.

This lecture will involve an in-depth discussion of Jung’s late essay “A Psychological View of Conscience” (CW 10) written in 1958. The purpose of this discussion is to come to a better understanding of Jung’s view on conscience, the role of ethics in individuation, and how to differentiate the inner voice of God (Vox Dei) from other internalized voices.
The participants are expected to have read the text in order to partake in the discussion.

** This course has been cancelled due to personal circumstances. **

Our Zeitgeist is confronted with unprecedented population explosion and globalization, characterized by multiple intersections of perspectives and value systems. This evolution can only constitute true growth when we can reconcile the compounding challenges to our ecosystem, beginning with the individual. Ecopsychology is dedicated to this need. Two classical Chinese elders — Kong Qiu (Confucius) and Chuang Tzu — proffer complementary attitudes and approaches. Jung’s Analytical Psychology offers a method.

This course is a post-Jungian reading of the animus and its lived experience in culture. It presents the contra-sexual animus as not just an inner archetypal figure, but also one that is in dynamic relation with the environment. In close ties with culture, the animus occupies a liminal realm — a subjective inner world as well as an outer, social. Inner and outer worlds are conceived as not two separate realms, but fluid, interactive spaces in which the phenomenology of the animus may be discerned. Reading: Sengupta, S. (2023) Animus, Psyche, Culture: A Jungian Revision, Routledge, U.K.

As an analyst one becomes a projection figure. We symbolize figures from the past, wishes, dreams, as well as complexes and delicate issues. How does one recognize the transferences and countertransferences? What are the dangers?

Carl Jung, as a young psychiatrist at the Burghölzli Psychiatric Clinic, published a paper ’On Manic Mood Disorder’ in 1903. It provided a vivid clinical description of mania and referred to the feeling tone and the primacy of emotion, rather than the primacy of the intellect in shaping behaviour. This idea anticipates Jung’s complex theory.
This lecture will explore the historical background to the diagnosis of Manic Depressive Psychosis, later reformulated as Bipolar Disorder. The clinical aspects of this major psychiatric condition and its current treatment will be outlined alongside examining the condition’s links with creativity.