The Future of Analytical Psychology and the Future of the World

Description

We are very excited to offer this web based seminar originating from the C.J. Jung Institute of San Francisco, one of the premier Jungian Institutes in the world.  This partnership will bring  many fascinating topics to a wider world audience and hopefully create a wonderful synergy in our community.

Craig San Roque and Tom Singer have collaborated on four different books in the past decade that discuss politics, myths, cities, cultures in crisis and complexes at the level of the individual and group psyche.

It is reasonable to wonder about the future of analytical psychology. Will it remain relevant in the coming decades? In this workshop we will reframe the question and ask, what is the future of the world, and what role might analytical psychology play in that future?These questions are vitally important for all clinicians who make Depth Psychology a part of their practice, and for all individuals who view our human environment through an analytical lens. If Cormac McCarthy is correct in his brilliant novels, The Road or No Country for Old Men,there isn’t much of a future for our world or for analytical psychology.  Apocalyptic scenarios color the cultural landscape-global warming and environmental catastrophe loom.  There is an increasing division between “haves” and “have nots,” between North and South, and East and West.  Unfortunately, Analytical Psychology might be forced to sit helplessly on the sidelines as our world comes undone.  This is a possible scenario that we must take seriously.  How does culture affect the practice of Analytical Psychology and does Analytical Psychology affect modern culture?In this workshop we will explore whether or not Analytical Psychology has anything to offer the world at large.  Should Analytical Psychology be confined to the consulting room, a balm only for individuals in distress?  Or ought Analytical Psychology be concerned with more than the psychological depth of the individuation process?  What is the applicability of analytical theory and practice today-and tomorrow?

Presenters: 

CRAIG SAN ROQUE, PHD, is a Member of the ANZ Society of Jungian Analysts.  Of Australian origin, brought up in country towns, he has consistently tried to illumine psycho-cultural forces from experience based observation and evidence.  He lived in London from 1968-1986, working in theatre, community services and training in psychotherapy with the Society for Analytical Psychology.  Since 1987, based in Sydney and Alice Springs, Central Australia, he continues to practice analytically and consult in mental health, substance abuse, land issues and complex cultural trauma.  He contributed to the original Singer/Kimbles book,The Cultural Complex, and the chapter, Sydney/Purgatorio, in Springs’s 2010, Psyche and the City, and in Explorations in Psychoanalysis and Ethnographyed J. Mimica, Berghan Books N.Y. 2007.

THOMAS SINGER, MD, is a Jungian analyst and psychiatrist.  After studying religion and European literature at Princeton University, he graduated from Yale Medical School and later trained at Dartmouth Medical Center and the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco.  His writing includes articles on Jungian theory, politics and psychology and he has written and/or edited many books including: The Cultural Complex: Contemporary Jungian Perspectives on Psyche and Society; Initiation: The Living Reality of An Archetype; Psyche and the City: A Soul’s Guide to the Modern Metropolis.

Learning Objectives:

1. To describe the past ways that society has viewed future events
2. Discuss possible ways that Jungian psychology anticipates future change.
3. Analyze the current collective unrest of our society.

Outline of Talk:

1. “Jung on psychic energy” by Murray Stein.
2. “The Ecological Issue of Energy from a depth psychological perspective,” with Brigitte Egger
3. “Energy as Psychological Resource, Energy as Psychical Resource.” A dialogue between Murray Stein and Brigitte Egger, with discussion.