The 2025 Zurich Lecture Series
ISAPZURICH and CHIRON PUBLICATIONS
present
Riccardo Bernardini, Ph.D., Psy.D.
The Art of the Self
The Blue Book of Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, founder of Eranos
Eranos founder Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn’s (1881–1962) unpublished anthology of artwork, which we might rubricate under the name “Blue Book,” is traceable to two distinct periods. The first phase is inherent in a series of “Meditation Plates” painted between 1926 and 1934: these images are expressed through a geometric rigor, eschewing any naturalism of form. As a result of her deepening of Analytical Psychology and the maturation of her intellectual relationship with C.G. Jung, one of the most influential figures in her life and among the most important inspirers of the Eranos Conferences, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn’s artistic practice increasingly turned toward a figurative style that recalled the active imagination, to which the works of the second period can be traced: a collection of 315 “Visions,” arranged in 12 blue-bound albums, drawn between 1934 and 1938. Convinced that “The deepest things in human life. . .can only be expressed in images,” Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn documented in her “Blue Book” the forms of imagination of a creative and independent subjectivity, capable of holding together the identities of woman, mother, scholar, artist, and spiritualist. Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn perhaps hoped that her “Blue Book” would survive her and allow the generations that would follow her to rediscover and make it their own, as a special attestation of that endless search for Self, at once personal and universal, that Jung would theorize with the idea of “individuation process”.
Date & Venue
15–18 October 2025 | Zurich, Switzerland
Reception, Apéro, Lecture 1 & Dinner:
The Blue Book of Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn and the story of Eranos
Zunfthaus zur Schmiden
Marktgasse 20, 8001 Zurich
The first lecture and dinner on Wednesday, 15 October will be held at the “Zunfthaus zur Schmiden” (Guild House for Blacksmiths), a beautiful city palace located since 1412 at Marktgasse 20, close to the Limmat River in the heart of old Zurich. The sumptuous late-Gothic Guildhall and the historic rooms with style, warm hospitality and tradition will make you feel welcome. It is a special privilege to celebrate the Zurich Lecture Series at this grand location.
More lectures will follow on Thursday, 16 October at Foyer St. Anton, Klosbachstrasse 36a, 8032 Zurich.
Lectures:
2. The life and work of Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, founder of Eranos and among the most influential (and unknown) figures at the origins of Analytical Psychology
3. The relationship between Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn and C.G. Jung: personal, analytical, and archetypal dimensions
4. Analytic Psychology as a key to the Blue Book: analytic reflections and psychotherapeutic techniques in clinical work with images
5. The female individuation process in Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn’s Blue Book: an initiatic text for our time?
2025 ZLS Speaker
Riccardo Bernardini, Ph.D., Psy.D.
Riccardo Bernardini, Ph.D., Psy.D., is scientific secretary of the Eranos Foundation (Ascona, Switzerland), for which he has worked for more than 20 years. He is director of the Institute of Analytical Psychology and Psychotherapy (IPAP, Ivrea), a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) and the Association for Research in Analytical Psychology (ARPA), and secretary of the Order of Psychologists of Piedmont (Italy). He teaches Psychology of Evil and Radicalization Processes at Turin University (Italy). His books include Jung at Eranos. The Project of Complex Psychology (2011) and, by C.G. Jung, the editions of The Solar Myths and Opicinus de Canistris. Notes of the Seminar given at Eranos in 1943 (with G.P. Quaglino and A. Romano, 2014–2015) and Rebirth. Text and notes of the Lecture held at Eranos in 1939 (with F. Merlini, 2020).
Event Schedule
Wednesday, 15 October (Zunfthaus zur Schmiden)
17:30–18:15
Reception & Apéro
18:15–19:15
Lecture 1:
The Blue Book of Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn and the story of Eranos
19:30–21:30
Dinner
Thursday, 16 October (Foyer St. Anton)
10:00–12:00
Lecture 2: The life and work of Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, founder of Eranos and among the most influential (and unknown) figures at the origins of Analytical Psychology
Lecture 3: The relationship between Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn and C.G. Jung: personal, analytical, and archetypal dimensions
12:00–13:30
Light Lunch
13:30–15:30
Lecture 4: Analytic Psychology as a key to the Blue Book: analytic reflections and psychotherapeutic techniques in clinical work with images
Lecture 5: The female individuation process in Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn’s Blue Book: an initiatic text for our time?
Cost & Registration
Two-day ticket
ZLS 2025 (15–16 October, dinner and light lunch included)
Standard Attendance: CHF 240
AGAP members / ISAP participants, staff, and consultants: CHF 180
ISAP Students: CHF 110
ZLS 2025 (15 October only, dinner included)
Standard Attendance: CHF 160
AGAP members / ISAP participants, staff, and consultants: CHF 140
ISAP Students: CHF 90
ZLS 2025 (16 October only, light lunch included)
Standard Attendance: CHF 120
AGAP members / ISAP participants, staff, and consultants: CHF 90
ISAP Students: CHF 60
Final Registration Deadline: 8 October 2025
About the Zurich Lecture Series
The ZLS was established in 2009 for the purpose of presenting annually a significant new work by a selected Jungian psychoanalyst or scholar who has previously offered innovative contributions to the field of Analytical Psychology by either: bringing analytical a psychology into meaningful dialogue with other scientific, artistic, and academic disciplines; showing how analytical psychology can lead to a better understanding of contemporary global concerns relating to the environment, politics, religion; or expanding the concepts of analytical psychology as they are applied clinically. For the Series the selected lecturer delivers lectures over a two-day period in Zürich based on a previously unpublished book-length work, which is then published by Chiron Publications.
Postlude to the Zurich Lecture Series 2025
You are invited to participate in a day of Postlude lectures following ZLS at The Psychology Club Zurich.
Postlude Lectures
Friday, 17 October 2025
Gemeindestrasse 27
CH-8032 Zürich
9:30-9:55
To be announced.
10:00-11:45
To be announced.
13:00-14:45
To be announced.
15:00-16:45
To be announced.
Per Lecture Fee
General Entry – CHF 40
Students & Over 65 on-site – CHF 30 (official proof of student status or age must be shown on-site for discount)
Refugees attending on-site – CHF 10 (proof of official refugee status must be shown on-site for discount)
Due to seating limitations at the Psychology Club, registration is limited to 65 attendees.
Gratis for ISAP Students and Analysts
ISAP Students will receive credit for on-site lecture attendance
For questions please contact [email protected]
To register for on-site attendance please use the main Register for ZLS Attendance button above.
Excursion: Tour through the Exhibition in the National Museum
Excursion Coordinator: Kathrin Schaeppi
Saturday 18 October 2025, 9:45–11:00
Meeting place: Landesmuseum Welcome Desk
Landscapes of the mind
C.G. Jung and the exploration of the human psyche in Switzerland
Switzerland has been home to a number of soul searchers over the years, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Nietzsche and Carl Gustav Jung. Developments in psychiatry and psychoanalysis have a close association with Switzerland, which is still in evidence today, for example the pioneering Rorschach test, Ludwig Binswanger’s Daseinsanalysis or Jung’s analytical psychology. To mark the 150th birthday of C.G. Jung, the National Museum Zurich is presenting its first comprehensive exhibition covering the history of the exploration of the human psyche in Switzerland. The main exhibit is the legendary Red Book in which C.G. Jung made his notes during an intense spell of self-reflection. Art also helps open doors to the mind with visionary works by Johann Heinrich Füssli, Emma Kunz, Rudolf Steiner, Meret Oppenheim and Thomas Hirschhorn. This provides a psychological panorama covering every region in Switzerland, in which the connection between mind and landscape is presented in impressive fashion.
Arrival time: 9:45, deposit coats and bags in cloak room
Guided Tour: 10:00-11:00
Cost: CHF 20 including entrance fee and guided tour
Maximum 25 people
Tour is in English
Excursion Leader
To register for the excursion please use the main Register for ZLS Attendance button above.
Postlude Speakers
To be announced.
The intangible, the psyche, becomes the ground and substrate, […] the possessor and realizer of unthinkable creative secrets, the vehicle of the life-giving World Soul, and, ultimately, the architect of the brain […]
Find Us
Tram 11 or 14 to Beckenhof / Tram 11 oder 14 nach Beckenhof