Eastern Philosophy – C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago

Register for Patricia’s In-Person Writing Workshop “The Inner Prompt”

Bestselling author and practicing Buddhist Natalie Goldberg joins Patricia Martin in a discussion about the healing properties of writing and how it helped her heal from cancer.

Natalie Goldberg is the author of fifteen books, including Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home. For the last forty years she has practiced Zen and taught seminars in writing as a spiritual practice. She lives in northern New Mexico. For more information, please visit nataliegoldberg.com.

Patricia Martin, MFA, is the host of Jung in the World. A noted cultural analyst, she applies Jungian theory to her work as a researcher and writer. Author of three books, her work has been featured in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, and USA Today. She holds an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College and an MA in cultural studies at the University College, Dublin (honors). In 2018, she completed the Jungian Studies Program at the C. G. Jung Institute Chicago where she is a professional affiliate. A scholar in residence at the Chicago Public Library, for the last decade she’s been studying the digital culture and its impact on the individuation process. Patricia travels the world giving talks and workshops based on her findings, and has a private consulting practice in Chicago.

You can support this free podcast by making a donation, becoming a member of the Institute, or making a purchase in our online store. Your support enables us to provide free and low-cost educational resources to all.

This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may share it, but please do not change it, sell it, or transcribe it.
Executive Producer: Ben Law
Hosts: Patricia Martin, Judith Cooper, Daniel Ross, Adina Davidson, and Raisa Cabrera
2023-2024 Season Interns: Claire Weber, Harris Lencz
Music: Michael Chapman

We are sharing the webinar “Jung & the Environment” in full. The video version is available on YouTube.

Many believe we are in the Anthropocene Era, an era marked by the planet-wide influence of our species. The field of ecopsychology emerged in the early 1990s as a belated response from the psychological community to address the cascading effects of human-created environmental damage. Jungian ecopsychology offers one of the best frameworks for analyzing our dysfunctional relationship with the environment—and with each other—through an archetypal analysis of the layers of the collective unconscious. Jung was deeply connected with his native Swiss soil that was reflected in the ecological aspects of his conceptual system and his interest in alchemy as his main symbol system. Ecology begins with our relationship with “the little people” in our dreams and dreams can be used to help us connect deeply to the land using Hillman’s concept of Aphrodite as the Soul of the World. In 1940 Jung foretold a paradigm shift that he labeled a “new age” and “Aquarian Age”. The new paradigm will be based on ecological concepts and reflected in the economic system being developed by the sustainable economists. We must think in these terms as a species if there is any hope of averting a planetary nightmare. 

It was recorded on October 1, 2021.

Dennis Merritt, PhD, LCSW grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin where he established a deep connection with the land as reflected in his four volumes of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe: Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology. He obtained a Ph.D. from Berkeley in insect pathology, microbial control of insect pests, before training at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. He practices as a Jungian analyst and ecopsychologist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is a senior analyst in the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. More at JungianEcopsychology.com.

Dr. Merritt is the author of Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology: The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe Volumes 1 – 4.

Links
Dennis Merritt’s Blog
Dennis Merritt’s Practice Website
Dennis Merritt at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago
Dennis Merrit on Jungianthology

Thank you to everyone who has shared a little about themselves. If you’d like us to know who you are, click this link, and I’ll read your submission on the podcast! No need to share any identifying information. This information will not be used for any other purpose.

You can support this free podcast by making a donation, becoming a member of the Institute, or making a purchase in our online store. Your support enables us to provide free and low-cost educational resources to all.

© 2021 Dennis Merritt. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may share it, but please do not change it, sell it, or transcribe it.
Executive Producer: Ben Law
Host: Patricia Martin
Contributors: Judith Cooper & Daniel Ross
Music: Michael Chapman

This episode is the opening lecture of a weekend given by Polly Young-Eisendrath. It contains a 1-hour lecture followed by an hour of Q&A. From the seminar description:

We all sense a connection with the source that underlies our existence, whether or not we recognize it as such and we all wish to identify with something larger than ourselves. Some feel this as a spiritual yearning, while others wish for fame or celebrity or the knowledge of a larger truth. The spiritual isolation and materialism (both economic and philosophical) of our times make it difficult to find trustworthy methods from institutional religions, non-traditional approaches, psychology, or philosophy for seeking knowledge of this source. However, our desire to help others (and ourselves) and our willingness to love deeply and authentically can offer the common ground through which we can find this knowledge, but it requires a dedicated understanding of our own suffering and its transformation.

Instead of seeking such insight into our subjective lives, we Americans embrace popular myths of biological salvation and pharmaceutical soothing. It?s not just that we seek instant solutions to complex problems, rather we have lost our taste for the adventure of human life, replacing it with ideals of economic and biological ?security? and hopes for absolute control of our diet and health.

This program offers a critique of this contemporary myth of biological salvation and presents accounts from psychoanalysis (Jungian and otherwise) and Buddhism of how embracing our limitations can open the path to transformation and lasting contentment.

The weekend continues with Part 2 – Living and Loving in the Human Realm

Building on the presentation The Adventure of Being Human, this workshop investigates the challenges of human life through an exploration of our difficulties with perfectionism, the three types of suffering we encounter, and the ways in which love challenges us to develop a true discipline of our hearts. Among other things, this program explores mythologies, the Human Realm (from Buddhism), the inner critic of perfectionism, the value of the human sciences, and the differences between the two major sciences of subjectivity: psychoanalysis and Buddhism.

It was recorded in October 2001, so there is some discussion of the 9/11 attacks and related issues.

Note: In the Q&A portion, questioners were not microphoned and so the volume was very low. We’ve increased the volume, but they are still somewhat difficult to understand against the background noise, and back-and-forth is somewhat disorienting because of the frequent changes in amplification.

Polly Young-Eisendrath, PhD is Clinical Associate Professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont Medical College. She is a psychologist and Jungian analyst practicing in the mountains of central Vermont, where she lives and writes. She has published thirteen books, many chapters and articles that have been translated into fourteen languages. Her books include The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance, The Resilient Spirit: Transforming Suffering Into Insight And Renewal, The Gifts Of Suffering: A Guide To Resilience And Renewal, Women and Desire: Beyond Wanting to Be Wanted, and You’re Not What I Expected: Learning to Love the Opposite Sex.

Thank you to everyone who has shared a little about themselves. If you’d like us to know who you are, click this link, and I’ll read your submission on the podcast! No need to share any identifying information. This information will not be used for any other purpose.

You can support this free podcast by making a donation, becoming a member of the Institute, or making a purchase in our online store. Your support enables us to provide free and low-cost educational resources to all.

Links
Polly Young-Eisendrath’s Website
Polly Young-Eisendrath on Jungianthology
Polly Young-Eisendrath at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago

Books
The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance
The Resilient Spirit: Transforming Suffering Into Insight And Renewal
The Gifts Of Suffering: A Guide To Resilience And Renewal
Women and Desire: Beyond Wanting to Be Wanted
You’re Not What I Expected: Learning to Love the Opposite Sex

© 2001 Polly Young-Eisendrath. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may share it, but please do not change it, sell it, or transcribe it.
Executive Producer: Ben Law
Host: Patricia Martin
Contributors: Judith Cooper & Daniel Ross
Music: Michael Chapman

Thank you to our 2020 donors who gave at the Contributing Member level and above: Barbara Annan, Usha and Ashok Bedi, Jackie Cabe Bryan, Eric Cooper and Judith Cooper, Kevin Davis, George J. Didier, Mary Dougherty, James Fidelibus, John Korolewski, Marty Manning, Dyane Sherwood, Deborah P. Stutsman, Debra Tobin, Alexander Wayne and Lynne Copp, Gerald Weiner, Karen West and James Taylor, and Ellen Young. If you would like to support this podcast, click here to join our community of supporters.

In celebration of our Holiday Giving Drive, we are unlocking a full seminar by Polly Young-Eisendrath, “Gather Up Your Brokenness: Love, Imperfection, & Human Ideals”. You can be a part of this campaign by visiting our website and making a donation. Donors at the Supporter level and above will be acknowledged in the credits of this podcast. There are other benefits to donating so please consider visiting our website and making a contribution.

This episode is the second half of “Gather Up Your Brokenness: Love, Imperfection, & Human Ideals”. The first half was published on November 22nd.

In the poetic tradition of Zen monk and bard, Leonard Cohen, this presentation celebrates our brokenness. Often, we hear about grieving our mistakes, failures, losses and imperfections, but rarely do we learn how to mine them for their richness. Because human beings are naturally broken – with personalities that are largely unconscious, reactive and hard to manage – we have countless opportunities in our relationships and work to see our selves in the cracks of the mirror. This presentation will draw on Carl Jung’s psychology of individuation and on the Buddha’s teachings on awakening to offer a new vision of imperfection with its inherent openings to compassion and love. 

PowerPoint slides used in the talk are available HERE

Polly Young-Eisendrath, PhD is Clinical Associate Professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont Medical College. She is a psychologist and Jungian analyst practicing in the mountains of central Vermont, where she lives and writes. She has published thirteen books, many chapters and articles that have been translated into fourteen languages. Her books include The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance, The Resilient Spirit: Transforming Suffering Into Insight And Renewal, The Gifts Of Suffering: A Guide To Resilience And Renewal, Women and Desire: Beyond Wanting to Be Wanted, and You’re Not What I Expected: Learning to Love the Opposite Sex.

More Seminars by Polly Young-Eisendrath

Support Us: Visit Our Store | Make a Donation

© 2016 Polly Young-Eisendrath. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may share it, but please do not change it, sell it, or transcribe it.
Music by Michael Chapman
Edited and produced by Benjamin Law

In celebration of our Holiday Giving Drive, we are unlocking a full seminar by Polly Young-Eisendrath, “Gather Up Your Brokenness: Love, Imperfection, & Human Ideals”. You can be a part of this campaign by visiting our website and making a donation. Donors at the Supporter level and above will be acknowledged in the credits of this podcast. There are other benefits to donating so please consider visiting our website and making a contribution.

This episode is the first half of “Gather Up Your Brokenness: Love, Imperfection, & Human Ideals”. The second half will be published later this month. NOW LIVE HERE

In the poetic tradition of Zen monk and bard, Leonard Cohen, this presentation celebrates our brokenness. Often, we hear about grieving our mistakes, failures, losses and imperfections, but rarely do we learn how to mine them for their richness. Because human beings are naturally broken – with personalities that are largely unconscious, reactive and hard to manage – we have countless opportunities in our relationships and work to see our selves in the cracks of the mirror. This presentation will draw on Carl Jung’s psychology of individuation and on the Buddha’s teachings on awakening to offer a new vision of imperfection with its inherent openings to compassion and love. 

PowerPoint slides used in the talk are available HERE

A note about sound: There were microphone issues that were resolved after a few minutes.

Polly Young-Eisendrath, PhD is Clinical Associate Professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont Medical College. She is a psychologist and Jungian analyst practicing in the mountains of central Vermont, where she lives and writes. She has published thirteen books, many chapters and articles that have been translated into fourteen languages. Her books include The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance, The Resilient Spirit: Transforming Suffering Into Insight And Renewal, The Gifts Of Suffering: A Guide To Resilience And Renewal, Women and Desire: Beyond Wanting to Be Wanted, and You’re Not What I Expected: Learning to Love the Opposite Sex.

More Seminars by Polly Young-Eisendrath

Support Us: Visit Our Store | Make a Donation

© 2016 Polly Young-Eisendrath. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may share it, but please do not change it, sell it, or transcribe it.
Music by Michael Chapman
Edited and produced by Benjamin Law

with Murray Stein, PhD

This episode is part one of the series Understanding the Meaning of Alchemy. It was recorded in 1992.

During the last thirty years of his life, Jung turned to alchemy as a fundamental resource for depth psychology. In alchemy he found images and thoughts that were uniquely fitted to his perceptions of psychological life and that confirmed his views of the spontaneous activity and directedness of the unconscious. Jungian analyst and author Murray Stein presents an overview of Jung’s work on alchemy to develop an understanding of the relation of alchemical symbols to the analytical process and individuation. The set includes the following lectures:

Murray Stein, PhD is a training analyst at the International School for Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland. His most recent publications include The Principle of Individuation, Jung’s Map of the Soul, and The Edinburgh International Encyclopaedia of Psychoanalysis (Editor of the Jungian sections, with Ross Skelton as General Editor). He lectures internationally on topics related to Analytical Psychology and its applications in the contemporary world. Dr. Stein is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. and M.Div.), the University of Chicago (Ph.D., in Religion and Psychological Studies), and the C.G. Jung Institut-Zurich. He is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. He has been the president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (2001-4), and is presently a member of the Swiss Society for Analytical Psychology and President of the International School of Analytical Psychology, Zurich.

For the complete series, click here.

To browse all of Dr. Stein’s lectures, click here.

Music by Michael Chapman

Arwind Vasavada (1912-1998) was born and raised in India. In the 1950’s, he traveled to Zurich to study at the Jung Institute and to work in analysis with C.G. Jung. Although he had only a few sessions with Jung, he considered him his guru, a title which Jung himself did not accept in the Indian sense but gave Vasavada nevertheless some important “transmissions,” to put it in the terminology of Hindu tradition. After finishing his training in Zurich, Vasavada returned to India to open an analytic practice. June Singer visited him in India in the early 1970’s and invited him to come to Chicago, an invitation that he gladly accepted. Vasavada lived and worked as a Jungian analyst in Chicago through the 1970’s and 1980’s, and he was a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. He had a strong and dedicated following of students in Chicago until he retired in the early 1990’s and moved to his son’s home in the state of Washington. After that he visited Chicago intermittently until his death (in India) in 1998.

In the 1980’s, analysts Josip Pasic and Murray Stein held a series of discussions with Vasavada in Pasic’s home, where they were filmed for posterity. The dialogues revolved in general around analytical psychology and its similarities with and differences from the traditions of the East (i.e., India). The following is an excerpt from one of these conversations.

For Arwind Vasavada’s lecture on Hinduism, click here.

To browse Dr. Stein’s lectures, click here.

Music by Michael Chapman

with Warren Sibilla, Jr, PhD.

Using examples from Zen Buddhism, Warren Sibilla discusses Jung’s idea that the subjective and objective have a complementary relationship, and that this relationship is necessary in clinical practice – objective knowledge alone is not enough.

Warren Sibilla, Jr, PhD is a Diplomate Jungian Psychoanalyst with a clinical practice in Chicago, IL and South Bend, IN.  Dr. Sibilla served as the Director of the Jungian Psychotherapy/Studies Program (2010 – 2016) at the Institute and teaches in our Analyst Training Program.  He is engaged in the study and practice of Zen Buddhism including authoring a book on the relationship between Zen Buddhism and Analytical Psychology as well as a paper formally exploring Jung’s 1958 dialogue with Japanese Zen Master and Philosopher Hisamatsu. Dr. Sibilla teaches in the Masters and Doctoral programs at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and The Institute for Clinical Social Work and facilitates silent contemplative retreats at GilChrist Retreat Center in Michigan. More information about Dr. Sibilla is available on his website, wsibilla.com.

PowerPoint: The slides for this talk are available HERE (right-click and click “Save Link As…” to download)

For all of Dr Sibilla’s lectures, CLICK HERE

Related talks include:

Episode music is by Michael Chapman