Family and Intimate Relationships Archives - C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago

with Karin Lofthus Carrington, MA, MFT.

Caroline Stevens, Jungian analyst and wise woman of our Jungian community, introduces Karin Carrington, psychotherapist, author, and teacher who shares her reflections and understandings about “same sex love” and “women loving women.”

This presentation on same sex love was a groundbreaking event in February 23, 1991.  Karen thanked the Jung Institute for its sponsorship of this historical event during these years of struggle to achieve legal and cultural rights for gay and lesbian people. I think it is safe to say that Karin’s presentation raised the consciousness of many in the audience concerning same sex love.

Karin situates her comments within the political struggle for lesbian and gay rights at that time.  In her presentation, she calls for a restorative analytic theory based in a deep understanding of what it means to love a member of one’s own gender for our selves and for the collective.

Karen quotes an early comment by Jung that homosexuality should not be the concern of legal authority – that persons loving people of their own sex should not be outside of the law.  She also examines the impact of Jung’s theory of contra-sexuality as well as the work of Robert Hopcke on the subject of same sex love and of Christine Downing on women loving women.

Finally, Karin opens the discussion to include questions about what is our true erotic nature as well as questions that explore the over-valuation of separation and the symbolic quest of the hero within current cultural values.

Karin Lofthus Carrington is a psychotherapist, consultant, writer, and teacher whose work focuses on the interrelationship of psychology, spirituality, and social conscience. She has authored and edited books on this topic including Same-Sex Love and The Path to Wholeness.

Related talks include:

Episode music is by Michael Chapman

Edited by Ben Law

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with Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

To be a crone is not a matter of age or appearance. Becoming  a “crone” is a crowning inner achievement. “Crones Don’t Whine” is the first of thirteen defining qualities of the crone because whining blocks spiritual and psychological development. Crone qualities are those that can be taken to heart and cultivated throughout life; they support authenticity, integrity, soul growth and social activism. While physiology and socialization make it more difficult for most men to develop crone qualities, exceptional men can become crones. Crone development comes through connecting deeply with others and with soul qualities in ourselves. Maturity, wisdom, and compassion develop over time through love and reflection; they are the fruits of consciousness and choice.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst and an internationally known author and speaker. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, a past board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women and of the International Transpersonal Association. She was a recipient of the Institute for Health and Healing’s “Pioneers in Art, Science, and the Soul of Healing Award” and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She is the author of The Tao of Psychology, Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, Ring of Power, Crossing to Avalon, Close to the Bone, The Millionth Circle, Goddesses in Older Women, Crones Don’t Whine, Urgent Message from Mother, and Like a Tree with over eighty foreign translations.

For more by Jean Shinoda Bolen, CLICK HERE

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Marriage, life’s greatest intimacy, paradoxically delivers both wounding and healing and challenges to the full our capacities for self-acceptance and self-giving. In this lecture, Dr. Stein examines the mysteries and dynamics of married life.

Murray Stein, Ph.D. 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.

This episode includes commentary by Peter Demuth, Psy.D., Jungian Analyst and member of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts in private practice in Evanston, IL. More information about Dr. Demuth can be found at demuthpsychologicalservices.com

For more lectures by Murray Stein, click here.

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