The author of the acclaimed introduction to the practice of Jungian psychology, Boundaries of the Soul, June Singer draws from personal and professional experience to discuss the importance of dreams, those gifts from the unconscious which profoundly imbue our conscious lives. This program provides an excellent introduction not only to Jung’s dream theory, but also its application in psychoanalysis—from one of the masters of the art.

June Singer, PhD was a major figure in the development of the Jungian movement in the United States.  She earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from Northwestern University and completed training as a Jungian analyst in Zurich, Switzerland.  During the 1960′s, Dr. Singer founded the Analytical Psychology Club of Chicago, which eventually became the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, in order to provide interested individuals an opportunity to study the works of Carl Jung. June Singer was a gifted analyst and a distinguished author and lecturer.  Her text, Boundaries of the Soul, is considered to be one of the best introductions to Jungian thought. She also wrote two books about sexuality, and a Jungian study of the poet William Blake.  

Link to June Singer’s lectures on jungchicago.org

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, Raisa Cabrera
Music: Peter Demuth

The post Institute Archive | Dreams: Gifts from the Unconscious with June Singer appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.

This episode is a short excerpt from the first session of our currently-running salon series, “A Fresh Look at The Red Book: Reading the Liber Novus with Jungian Psychoanalysts”. The salon series runs from January through June, and registration remains open. Those who register will receive a link to videos of previous sessions to catch up.

George Bright will also be visiting the US in May for an in-person seminar, Where Did Jung’s Red Book Come From and Why Does it Matter?. Join us for this rare opportunity.

George Bright was educated at Cambridge University and The London School of Economics. He is a Training & Supervising Analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology and a co-founder of The Circle of Analytical Psychology, a London-based group engaged in the study of Jung’s Liber Novus and Black Books. He works in private practice in London. His 1997 paper Synchronicity as a basis of analytic attitude won the Michael Fordham Prize.

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, Raisa Cabrera
Music: Michael Chapman

The post Institute Archive | Excerpt: A Fresh Look at the Red Book with George Bright appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

This episode is the first part of the series Hero & Heroine: The Mythic Dimension in Times of Transition & Growth (the full series is available for purchase on our website). From the seminar description:

Jean Shinoda Bolen leads a workshop which offers an appreciation of how myth, legend, poetry, and contemporary stories provide insights that are meaningful in ordinary life, with particular attention given to those times in a person’s life when major changes are occurring.

It was recorded January 21-22, 1989.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD, is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and an internationally known author and speaker. 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. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and 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 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 was in two acclaimed documentaries, the Academy-Award winning anti-nuclear proliferation film Women—For America, For the World, and the Canadian Film Board’s Goddess Remembered. The Millionth Circle Initiative (millionthcircle.org) was inspired by her book and led to her involvement at the UN. She is the initiator and the leading advocate for a UN 5th World Conference on Women (5wcw.org), which was supported by the Secretary General and the President of the General Assembly on March 8, 2012.

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
Purchase the full series Hero & Heroine: The Mythic Spirit in Times of Transition & Growth
All of Jean Shinoda Bolen’s Seminars

Events
A Fresh Look at The Red Book: Reading the Liber Novus with Jungian Psychoanalysts

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, Raisa Cabrera
Music: Michael Chapman

The post Institute Archive | Hero and Heroine: The Mythic Dimension in Times of Transition and Growth with Jean Shinoda Bolen appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.

This episode is the first part of the series Women’s Spirit: The Fire Within (the full series is available for purchase on our website). From the seminar description:

Fire as a feminine aspect is the central image of this workshop by Jungian analyst and author Jean Shinoda Bolen. Fire takes many forms in our imagination, dreams, metaphors, and in our life experiences. We think of hearth fire, campfire, creative fire, passionate fire, consuming fire, destructive fire, transforming fire, wildfire, Pentecostal fire, fire signs, fiery redheads, fire-breathing dragons and firewalks. We fight fire with fire and go through the fire; our fire is put out, rekindled, and dampened: we can be fired up, flare up, burnt up, and burned out. We tend the fire and keep the homefires burning. Fire as a feminine quality is about spirit, energy, and intensity, about warmth and illumination, about rage and outrage. Inner fire is reflected in our work, in our relationships, and in the activist and feminist stances we take in the world. Using poetry and a guided meditation, Dr. Bolen’s workshop helps the listener gain insights into herself and find her personal symbols.

It was recorded in 1994.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD, is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and an internationally known author and speaker. 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. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and 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 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 was in two acclaimed documentaries, the Academy-Award winning anti-nuclear proliferation film Women—For America, For the World, and the Canadian Film Board’s Goddess Remembered. The Millionth Circle Initiative (millionthcircle.org) was inspired by her book and led to her involvement at the UN. She is the initiator and the leading advocate for a UN 5th World Conference on Women (5wcw.org), which was supported by the Secretary General and the President of the General Assembly on March 8, 2012.

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
Purchase the full series Women’s Spirit: the Fire Within
All of Jean Shinoda Bolen’s Seminars

Events
In the Eye of the Storm
Member Event: Opening The Closed Heart: A New Look At Jungian Depth Psychology In Light Of Trauma, Affect-Theory, And Defense With Donald Kalsched

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, Raisa Cabrera
Music: Michael Chapman

The post Institute Archive | Women’s Spirit: The Fire Within with Jean Shinoda Bolen appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.

For the second episode of Marion Woodman Month, we’re rebroadcasting the very first episode of Jungianthology, Chrysalis: The Psychology of Transformation. In this lecture, Toronto analyst Marion Woodman explores the body/spirit relationship, the withdrawing of projection, gender issues, and the surrender of the ego to the Self as these themes relate to personal transformation.

Marion Woodman was a Canadian mythopoetic author and women’s movement figure. She was a Jungian analyst trained at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich, Switzerland. She was one of the most widely read authors on feminine psychology, focusing on psyche and soma. She was also an international lecturer and poet. Woodman is author of Addiction to Perfection and The Ravaged Bridegroom. 

Marion Woodman Book List

If you’re interested in Marion Woodman, you may like Soul in Exile, available in our store.

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!

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
Intern: Avery Kirschbaum
Music: Michael Chapman

The post Institute Archive | Chrysalis: The Psychology of Transformation with Marion Woodman (Rebroadcast) appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.

This episode is the first session of the series The Warrior Within: A Study in Masculine Psychology, a classic seminar in his series on the four major archetypes of masculine psychology as he understood them: King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. From the seminar description:

The Warrior is the archetype of self-disciplined, aggressive action. If Warrior energy is not accessed properly, a man may find himself caught up in cruel or self-destructive behavior. The mature Warrior, however, will be energetic, decisive and persevering in reaching his goals.  The course is divided into the following four topics:

• The Warrior in myth, folklore and religion
• The Warrior’s role in masculine creativity and leadership
• Psychopathology of the Warrior
• Creating the “Rainbow Warrior”: resources for healing the Warrior

It was recorded in 1989.

Robert Moore, PhD was Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Spirituality in the Graduate Center of the Chicago Theological Seminary where he was the Founding Director of the new Institute for Advanced Studies in Spirituality and Wellness. An internationally recognized psychoanalyst and consultant in private practice in Chicago, he served as a Training Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and was Director of Research for the Institute for Integrative Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and the Chicago Center for Integrative Psychotherapy. Author and editor of numerous books in psychology and spirituality, he lectured internationally on his formulation of a neo-Jungian  psychoanalysis and integrative psychotherapy.  His publications include THE ARCHETYPE OF INITIATION: Sacred Space, Ritual Process and Personal Transformation; THE MAGICIAN AND THE ANALYST: The Archetype of the Magus in Occult Spirituality and Jungian Psychology; and FACING THE DRAGON: Confronting Personal and Spiritual Grandiosity.

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
The Warrior Within: A Study in Masculine Psychology
The King, Warrior, Magician, Lover Compilation
All of Robert Moore’s Seminars

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, Raisa Cabrera
Music: Michael Chapman

The post Institute Archive | The Warrior Within: A Study in Masculine Psychology with Robert Moore, PhD appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, we are sharing the seminar and panel discussion “Edith Rockefeller McCormick: Philanthropist, Intellectual, Analyst” in its entirety. The first hour is a presentation by Andrea Friederici Ross, author of Edith: The Rogue Rockefeller McCormick, followed by reflections by Kennon McKee, PhD, Jungian analyst and Victoria Drake, PhD, that opens up for general discussion.

The presentation includes archival photos that are not intended for such wide distribution as YouTube, so the video version is available on our website for a nominal fee.

From the seminar description:

Edith Rockefeller McCormick (1872-1932) played a vital role in supporting Carl Jung’s practices and disseminating his writings. In addition to underwriting translations of his work, McCormick provided a physical location for the Psychological Club in Zurich in an effort to bring the Jungian community together. The early years of the Psychological Club were not without problems, as the key players (including Edith and her husband Harold Fowler McCormick) wrestled with how to structure the club. In time, Jung appointed the deeply intellectual McCormick an analyst in her own right and she practiced pro bono in Chicago for the remainder of her life. McCormick’s son Fowler McCormick also had a lasting relationship with Jung, traveling with Jung in the American Southwest, India, and parts of Europe. In this program, author Andrea Friederici Ross will present a biographical sketch of Edith Rockefeller McCormick with a heavy focus on her eight years in Zurich with Jung. Materials shared will include excerpts from correspondence among McCormick family members and Edith’s father, John D. Rockefeller. Following the biographical presentation, analyst Dr. Kennon McKee and academic psychologist Dr. Victoria Drake will join Ross in a discussion about McCormick’s life and interactions with Jung.

It was recorded on January 22, 2022.

Andrea Friederici Ross is the author of Edith: The Rogue Rockefeller McCormick and Let the Lions Roar! The Evolution of Brookfield Zoo. She has been published in Fine Books, Mothering, Sheridan Road, Chicago Agent, Hinsdale Living, and other magazines. Her essays can also be found on the Center for Humans and Nature blog and their “City Creatures” anthology. Her career has been unconventional, including stints as the Operations Manager of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and as Assistant to the Director of the Chicago Zoological Society. She currently runs the library at the local public school while working on her writing projects. Andrea graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in German Language and Literature. More information is available at friedericiross.com.

Kennon McKee, PhD‘s early work specialized in child psychology, holding positions at the Institute of Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois, and in the High Risk Infancy Clinic at Cook County Hospital where she followed high-risk infants developmentally for the first 6 years of life. After training in analytical psychology, Dr. McKee went into private practice, seeing both children and adults. She is a senior training analyst in the Analyst Training Program.

Victoria C. Drake, PhD is an academic, scholar, writer, editor, educator and social/environmental conservation philanthropist. A Chicago native, she is a graduate of Harvard University followed by Applied Biology graduate work at Cambridge University, UK, University College London, UK (MSc. Studies in Environmental Economics) and Pacifica Graduate Institute (CA): PhD in Jungian Depth (Archetypal) Psychology. As a career international environmental conservationist, social justice advocate and ecopsychologist, she currently serves on the Institute’s Board and as Midwest Regional Alumni Coordinator for Pacifica Graduate Institute. She and her husband also participate in their eight-generation family farm in central Illinois with their three daughters.

Links
Andrea Friederici Ross’s Website
Edith: The Rogue Rockefeller McCormick
Let the Lions Roar! The Evolution of Brookfield Zoo
Victoria Drake’s Recordings at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago Store

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.

Thank you to our 2021 donors who gave at the contributing member level and above, including those who choose not to be acknowledged here: The Arlene M. Feiner Trust, Barbara Annan, Arlo and Rena Compaan, Judith Cooper, Kevin Davis, George J. Didier, Mary Dougherty, Carl and Patricia Greer, Ryan Maher, Patricia Martin, Boris Matthews, Sue Rosenthal, Dyane Sherwood, Deborah P. Stutsman, Lawrence Chad Tingley, Alexander Wayne and Lynne Copp, Gerald Weiner, and Ellen Young. If you would like to support this podcast, click here to join our community of supporters.

© 2022 Andrea Friederici Ross. 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

The post Institute Archive | Edith Rockefeller McCormick: Philanthropist, Intellectual, Analyst appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.

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

The post Institute Archive | Jung & the Environment with Dennis Merritt appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.

This episode is the Saturday morning session of a weekend taught by Robert Moore called The Archetype of Sacrifice and the Regulation of Archetypal Energy. From the seminar description:

This workshop links Jung’s alchemical studies and his examination of the archetype of sacrifice to more recent research into the nature and dynamics of grandiose energies in the human psyche. In this program Robert Moore discusses how the decline of ritual containment of these energies in indigenous and traditional cultures has led to an epidemic of increased anxiety, addiction, and violent acting out.

First, Moore introduces the role of the archetype of sacrifice and related techniques of ritual practice in human strategies of coping with the pressures of archetypal energies. Second, he links the failure of these traditional means to our current epidemic of narcissistic acting out. Third, he summarizes the ways in which recent research supports Jung and Edinger on the necessity of the achievement of an ego-Self axis – a conscious and willed sacrificial attitude in the individuation process. Finally, Moore outlines the clinical implications: the ways in which we must be much more specific in our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the ego-Self axis in relation to the analytical task. He discusses the implications of this understanding of sacrifice for our conceptualization of a truly Jungian understanding of a psychoanalytic “cure” – the task of optimizing the analysand’s conscious regulation of archetypal energies. In short, Dr. Moore argues that Jungian Analysis should return to its roots in a manner which draws upon the best in recent interdisciplinary research to build upon Jung’s foundational discoveries.

It was recorded on May 24 and 25, 2003.

In this recording, Moore mentions some of his seminars, including Mythology of the Great Self Within, Transforming Fire: Understanding, Accessing and Regulating Psychic and Spiritual Energy, Ego and Archetype: The Genius of Edward Edinger.

Robert Moore, PhD was Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Spirituality in the Graduate Center of the Chicago Theological Seminary where he was the Founding Director of the new Institute for Advanced Studies in Spirituality and Wellness. An internationally recognized psychoanalyst and consultant in private practice in Chicago, he served as a Training Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and was Director of Research for the Institute for Integrative Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and the Chicago Center for Integrative Psychotherapy. Author and editor of numerous books in psychology and spirituality, he lectured internationally on his formulation of a neo-Jungian  psychoanalysis and integrative psychotherapy.  His publications include THE ARCHETYPE OF INITIATION: Sacred Space, Ritual Process and Personal Transformation; THE MAGICIAN AND THE ANALYST: The Archetype of the Magus in Occult Spirituality and Jungian Psychology; and FACING THE DRAGON: Confronting Personal and Spiritual Grandiosity.

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
The Complete Seminar: The Archetype of Sacrifice and the Regulation of Archetypal Energy
Mythology of the Great Self Within
Transforming Fire: Understanding, Accessing and Regulating Psychic and Spiritual Energy
Ego and Archetype: The Genius of Edward Edinger
All of Robert Moore’s Seminars

© 2003 Robert Moore. 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.

The post Institute Archive | The Archetype of Sacrifice and the Regulation of Archetypal Energy with Robert Moore appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.

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.

The post The Adventure of Being Human: Beyond the Myth of Biological Salvation with Polly Young-Eisendrath appeared first on C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago.