Previous Lectures, Seminars, and Special Events
Marti Atkinson, M.S.W., C.S.W.,Diplomate, Jungian Analyst
INDIVIDUATION in the AFTERNOON STAGE OF LIFE
The Creative Spirit of the Soul Drawing from dreams and experience, we will reflect on the "afternoon" stage of life. A stage when one re-collects one's past and finds him/herself longing for an ever deepening relationship with the inner source by which he/she shall now live life and, within the process, prepare for evening and eventual earthly death.
Marti Atkinson, M.S.W., C.S.W., Diplomate, Jungian Analyst, is a graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. She is a member of The Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts; a Board Member of The Society for Jung Studies of Southeastern Michigan; Lecturer; and Facilitator of Jung Study Groups. She maintains a private practice in Bloomfield Hills and Ann Arbor.
Kathie Carlson M.A., C.S.W.
Night Path by Skull-light: The Old Woman in Fairytales.
The Old Woman is one among many archetypal faces of old age, visiting both men and women in their dreams and inner (and outer) lives.
Using the German fairytale "Frau Holle" and the Russian tale of "Baba Yaga and Vasilissa the Brave", we will journey to the Old woman and see what she has to teach us, e.g. the possibility of "transcending downwards" to learn the deep lessons of her fertile underworld. These tales and their surrounding folklore move us into deep archetypal ground as we continue to make meaning of our own journeys into aging and death.
Note: Familiarity with the fairytales is not a prerequisite of this lecture].Kathie Carlson, M.A. C.S.W., is a psychotherapist and author of In Her Image: the Unhealed Daughter's Search for Her Mother and Life's Daughter/Death's Bride: Inner Transformations Through the Goddess Demeter-Persephone. Kathie studied extensively at the C.G. Jung Institute in New York and has a private practice in Okemos, Michigan.
Robert Slattery M.D.
Reconciling Opposites: "The Symbolic Meaning of Medication"
Many of us have or will become seriously depressed, anxious or psychiatrically ill in some way. If our symptoms are serious enough, we will often seek help in the form of Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, and others. These medications often work well, with few side effects. None of these medications were available in Jung’s time. Yet there may be a parallel in his work, for he wrote that meaningful suffering was bearable, and meaningless suffering unbearable.
At present the ways medications work is beyond our full understanding. The ancients represented such things as gods with powers greater than individual mortals did. Can some of these metaphors from the past help us find a more meaningful attitude to modern medications than that available to us from everyday medical practitioners?
In his talk, Dr. Slattery will follow Dr. Jung’s lead and try to make use of fairy tales, myths, examples from literature and the dreams of patients on medication to find ways to look at modern medications not only concretely, but symbolically as well.Robert Slattery MD was educated at Yale College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Prior to his medical training he was a documentary filmmaker. He is a long-time student of the work of Dr. Carl Jung. And is in the private practice of psychotherapy and psychiatry in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Cynthia Cuthbertson, Ed.M. Graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich
"Being in the Grip of a Complex"
The study of Complex Theory gives us a framework for understanding how the unconscious works within us, as well as giving us a deep sense of the intricacy of the inner world of each individual. We can then develop not only a better working knowledge of our lives and relationships, but an active compassion for ourselves and for others as we attempt to live fuller and more balanced lives each day. This lecture will offer a review of Jung's work on complexes, concrete illustrations, and many examples in the hope of making it clear and useful.
Cynthia Cuthbertson, Jungian analyst, is now in private practice in Ann Arbor, working with children, adolescents, and adults. Ms. Cuthbertson taught school in Izmir, Turkey, as well as at The Dalton School and The Hunter College School for the Gifted in New York City. She has a B.A. from the University of Michigan, a Master of Education degree from Harvard University, and is a graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland where she qualified to work with both children and adults. She offers traditional forms of Jungian therapy, including dream analysis, as well as sandplay and other creative avenues to the psyche. She was in private practice in Katonah, New York, for fourteen years before moving to Ann Arbor.
Nancy Dougherty, M.S.W.
The Palette of Anselm Kiefer: Witnessing Our Imperiled World
This presentation focuses upon the work of the German artist Anselm Kiefer, exploring how he examines and confronts the destructive and potentially creative forces that abound in our imperiled world. In his paintings, we will see how the deadly face of alpha narcissism, with its underlying dynamics of psychopathy, traverses the personal and transcendent as well as the cultural and political realities of our times. An exploration of the archetypal landscapes underlying narcissism in general, and alpha narcissism in particular, leads us into considerations about the psychological development required to meet these primal forces. Kiefer’s work guides us into an understanding that accepting the limits of narcissism and suffering life’s agonies can bear fruit personally and culturally.Nancy Dougherty M.S.W., is a Jungian Analyst with a private practice in Naples, Florida.
Nancy is a Senior Training Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, and is currently the Director of Training of the InterRegional Society of Jungian Analysts. Nancy comes from the Detroit area, and for many years had a practice in Birmingham Michigan.Along with her co-author, Dr. Jacqueline West, and Nancy wrote The Matrix and Meaning of Character: An Archetypal and Developmental Approach, Routledge, 2007.
Don L. Troyer M.D.
C.G. Jung and Thomas Merton: Towards a Contemplative Dialogue with Analytical Psychology
Jungian psychology affords respect and significance to the spiritual aspects of psychic experience. Thomas Merton, Trappist writer, hermit, poet, mystic, and social critic, has been called "one of the foremost spiritual thinkers of the twentieth century" for his autobiography The Seven Story Mountain and his works on spirituality such as New Seeds of Contemplation. This presentation will be a contribution to the bridge possible between Merton's work, which is rooted in contemplative practice, and Jungian psychology with its emphasis on the necessity of inner work moving towards individuation.
Suggested readings:
Gunn, Robert Jingen, Journeys into Emptiness.Merton, Thomas, The Seven Storey Mountain.Waldron, Robert, Thomas Merton in Search of His Soul.
Don L. Troyer, M.D. , a graduate of Case Western Reserve University Medical School and a diplomate analyst of the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, has practiced in Portage, Michigan for 19 years. A board-certified family physician, he is interested in the interface between psychology, spirituality and medicine. he lives in the country outside Three Rivers, Michigan with his wife and has three grown children.
Elizabeth Fergus - Jean Ph.D.
Illuminating Letters: Numinous Encounters with the Kabbalah
In your light I learn how to love.In your beauty, how to make poems.You dance inside my chest,where no one sees you,but sometimes I do,and that sight becomes this art. -Rumi
There is something about a numinous experience that defies explanation. Perhaps this is because inherent within the numinous experience is an encounter with Other, and each such meeting lacks a common point ofreference. How then, can one give voice to an experience that is so private and interior? Yet as its witness, one knows without a shadow of a doubt that they’ve just encountered the un-seeable . How can one illuminate the God that dances within them, and how can this experiencebe shared? During this lecture we will explore these questions and I willshare my story of one such encounter.
I began painting the Hebrew alphabet in 1999, a journey that evolved into a five-year odyssey of ecstatic wonder and numinous encounters. During the lecture I will share some of the manifestations of this extraordinary journey: my twenty-two paintings of the Hebrew alphabet, their accompanying Prayer Poems, which were a vital part of the transformative experience of painting the Letters into being, and the process of journeying in the betwixt and between of the Imaginal realm. Our discussion will include ways in which Images (visual images, word images, sound images, and dance/movement images) can be portals to experiencing the numinous via the ritual nature of the creative process,intuitive dialogues, and the experiencing of Images as subtle bodies.
Elizabeth Fergus-Jean is an artist and cultural mythologist. She received her Ph.D. in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute and her MFA from the University of Washington. She is a Board Member of the C.G.Jung Association of Central Ohio, and has lectured to several Jung associations on image, the imaginal, and the creative spirit. She has taught at a variety of venues for 30 years, and currently teaches in the English/Philosophy and Media Studies departments at the Columbus College of Art and Design. In addition, she is a founding faculty member and adjunct professor in Pacifica's new MA in Humanities with emphasis in Mythology and Depth Psychology program.
To purchase a copy of Elizabeth's book, Illuminating Letters: Paintings and Essays on the Kabbalah, please contact: info@artandpsyche.com or visit www.ArtandPsyche.com
Wendy Selene, L.C.S.W. Diplomate, Jungian Analyst
Transformation: It’s in the Details
“In a major matter no details are small.” That quote, by Paul de Gondi, a French Cardinal from the 1600’s, was not originally referring to depth psychology. Yet, we hold transformation as a major matter, and the smallest of human interaction has the potentiality within it to transform us. This lecture and sharing of clinical case notes is about how we find the detailed moments that hold the seeds of transformation in our work with patients, and also in all of our most important personal relationships.
Observations and examples about how to pay attention to the moment-by-moment of spoken words, feeling states, body language, insights and intuitions can be clinically useful for therapists and also for anyone who holds human relatedness as essential to a life well lived. The evening will consist of lecture and sharing of clinical process notes where moments of detailed relatedness leading to transformative experience can be seen. There will also be time for questions and discussion of the material, as it pertains to the participants' clinical experience or to life in general.
Wendy Selene is a Jungian Analyst in private practice in Evanston, Illinois, working with both individuals and couples. She serves on the faculty of the C.G. Jung Institute and supervises clinicians for the June Singer Clinic for Depth Psychotherapy. Ms. Selene has been in practice for thirty years, specializing in early parent loss, blocked mourning, trauma and attachment issues, and finding meaning in life after significant losses of all kinds. She has lectured nationally on the topic of Desire, the Nature of Love, and What Depth Psychology has to Teach us About Faith and Despair. In addition, she is an instructor in Aikido, a form of moving Zen.
Jo Elyn Nyman M.A., L.P.C.
Good Mother - Bad Mother, Which is Witch?
The Great Mother, the central aspect of the Feminine Archetype, was at one time revered for her wholeness, her ability to give life as well as to extinguish it. Modern Judeo-Christian Culture has reduced the sacredness of the Great Mother by fracturing her wholeness and polarizing her attributes into good and bad. Using mythical images, we will explore what we have come to consider the negative aspects of the Mother Archetype and how these conscious and unconscious beliefs keep us from experiencing our own wholeness.
Jo Elyn Nyman M.A., L.P.C.Presented byJo Elyn Nyman is a licenced professional counselor with a post masters specialization in adolescent psychology from Oakland University. Her work with troubled teens and abuse victims has led to an interest in the effects of trauma on behavior and ultimately to the study of alternative healing techniques such as EMDR and energy psychology. She is a graduate of the clinical training program from the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and has a private practice in Birmingham, Michigan.
Catharine J. Jones
The Alchemy of Dreams - Active Imagination and Psyche's Message
With an overview of Jung's perspective of dreams we will look at the way psyche speaks to us in images and feelings and how the use of active imagination helps us enter the process of dialogue with the images and feelings.
Using exercises we will discuss the various parts of the psyche and the use of dreams.
Catharine J. Jones, LCSW, M. Div., is a past president and former director of the analytic training program of the C.G. Jung Institute. She is in private practice in Chicago and Evanston. Catharine is interested in the interface of psyche and soma in personal and cultural contexts.
Susan Aaron-Taylor, Artist and College Art Professor
Presenting a slide lecture on her Creative Process
Ms. Aaron-Taylor creates autobiographical and narrative mixed media sculpture and paintings sourced from her dream imagery, active imaginations and interests in mythology, Alchemy, Tarot, indigenous cultures, rituals and shamanic practices. During our evening presentation, we will view artwork from her Diety, Tarot, and Alchemy series and learn about her creative process from idea conception through final output.
Susan Aaron-Taylor is a multi-media sculptor, painter, and college art professor. Her art has been exhibited in numerous one-person and group shows in galleries and museums throughout the United States, Japan and Mexico. She has been teaching in the Crafts department at the College for Creative Studies since 1973 where she is a Section Chairperson. Ms. Aaron-Taylor has been a student of Jungian psychology for several decades having done intensive work with Jungian analyst Marion Woodman and poet Robert Bly. She has taught workshops in New York at Omega Institute on mixed media sculpture utilizing dreamwork and active imagination.
Greg Mogenson, Jungian Analyst
Dreams and the Inner Life
Dreams are spontaneous expressions of our psychic life process. Rich in images and metaphors, they reveal the manner in which events of our lives and imperatives of our becoming combine to create our experience of meaning, our sense of soul. In this lecture the presenter will discuss a collection of dreams he has gathered over many years that vividly illustrate the vital contribution dreams make to our inner life. Greg Mogenson is a Jungian analyst practicing in London, Ontario. He is the author of several books and numerous articles in the field of Analytical Psychology.
J. Gary Sparks Jungian Analyst
Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung: Matter and Psyche in Dialogue
The discovery of quantum physics in 1927 marks a revolution in Western understanding. Wolfgang Pauli, one of the new physics' founders, met Jung in 1932 and the two men developed a life-long friendship. During the quarter century of their relationship they discussed in depth the parallels between modern physics and Jung's psychology of the unconscious.
Friday's lecture will provide an overview of the life and work of these pioneers, explore similarities in their creative discoveries and consider the connections between matter and psyche that the researchers together found to enlarge the scope of Western science. Matter and psyche's continued challenge to psychological research will be given particular attention in the talk. Multimedia with discussion.
J. Gary Sparks is a graduate of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA; the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA; and the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich, Switzerland. He is editor of Edward Edinger’s Ego and Self: The Old Testament Prophets (Inner City Books, 2000) and co-editor of Edinger’s Science of the Soul (Inner City, 2002). He is the author of At the Heart of Matter: Synchronicity and Jung’s Spiritual Testament (Inner City, 2007). He enjoys teaching and discussing Jungian psychology at all levels. For more information about him see http://www.jgsparks.net
Kathleen Moreau, M.A., NCPsyA
Invites you to join us for a film and lecture
Krzysztof Kieslowski's "DECALOGUE" explores the timeless moral issues of human existence through ten contemporary tales, each based on one of the Ten Commandments. We will be viewing the first film, loosely based on the commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The film is approximately 55 minutes with a discussion immediately following the film. Kathleen Moreau, M.A., NCPsyA, is a graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute - Zurich, Switzerland. She has been a clinician working with individuals, couples, and groups since 1979. Experienced in the areas of addictions and trauma, Kathleen has a private practice in Bryan, Ohio and in Ft. Wayne, Indiana
Floyd Joseph White RPP Long-time member and director of The Michigan Friends of Jung.
A Discussion on Fear
In the beginning of our existence we had no sharp edges. We were fluid and part of everything around and about us until we experienced some sort of trauma. Then we begin to build walls to protect ourselves. If we cannot or will not allow our tears to express these fears to a compassionate caregiver, we will continue to build higher, thicker and stronger walls until they become self-managed prisons. Our defense will be anger or rage at any person or situation that triggers our defenses. These walls are internal holding patterns that restrict the internal flow of energy. If this pattern continues throughout our life, these walls choke out the life force and manifest in illness.
What was once a survival mechanism may become a frozen prison.
In this discussion we will explore the pillars of anger, rage and addiction that support our walls of fear, as well as the role government and corporate-owned mass media play in feeding collective fears.
Bud Harris, Ph.D. Jungian Analyst and Author Diplomate, C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich
Sacred Selfishness: A Guide for Cultivating a Life of Love, Authenticity and Substance
In his seminars on Nietzsche’s “Zarathustra,” Dr. Carl Jung emphasized that we must eat the gold of the world until we are made of gold and not of hunger. Sacred Selfishness is the path of filling ourselves with gold. This path is based on the classic quest stories that reveal the path of renewed personal consciousness and help us examine all of our assumption about ourselves and our lives to assist us in uncovering our hidden potentials. Filling ourselves with gold is more than an intellectual exercise. It engages us fully in life and through growing self-knowledge softens and strengthens us while helping us to love life and other people.
This lecture will explain how this idea evolved with Dr. Harris in the context of Dr. Jung’s theory of individuation. Dr. Harris will provide an overview of how this path unfolds theoretically and in everyday life, how real love grows from the foundation of self-love. BUD HARRIS, PH. D., is a practicing Jungian analyst in Ashville, North Carolina. Formerly a businessman, he has over 35 years experience as a practicing psychotherapist, psychologist, and Jungian analyst. He has lectured widely and written a number of articles. His books include: •The Father Quest: Rediscovering an Elemental Psychic Force •Like Gold Through Fire: Understanding the Transforming Power of Suffering Co-authored with his wife, Jungian analyst, Dr. Massimilla Harris •Sacred Selfishness: A Guide to Living a Life of Substance •The Fire and The Rose: The Wedding of Spirituality and Sexuality •The Resurrection of the Unicorn: Masculinity in the Twenty-First Century.
More information about Dr. Harris is available at www.budharris.com
Judith Harris M.A. Graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich
The Psyche-Body Connection as understood by C.G. Jung
Contrary to popular thought, Carl Gustav Jung was intensely interested in the relationship between mind and body, or, in more modern terms, in the relationship between psyche and soma. In fact, Jung often said that it is not only possible but probable that psyche and soma are intimately connected, albeit in some mysterious way. These mysteries are only now beginning to become unravelled in the fields of medicine, Jungian analysis, neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology, to name but a few. We will look specifically at the space between, so to speak, where psyche and matter meet -- a space which encompasses the Zero-Point Field in quantum physics as well as what is popularly called the subtle body.
After attending high school at The Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, Judith Harris earned her first degree in piano performance from the School of Fine Arts at Boston University. She continued her studies in the field of Holistic Medicine, writing her Master's Thesis on the psychological considerations of Candida and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. A graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, Judith is also a certified yoga teacher. Judith teaches regularly with The Marion Woodman Foundation and is also a teaching analyst at ISAP (International School of Analytical Psychology) in Zurich, Switzerland as well as at OAJA (Ontario Association of Jungian Analysts) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Judith is the author of Jung and Yoga: The Psyche-Body Connection (Inner City Books, 2001) as well as several articles on Jungian psychology.
Massimilla M. Harris, Ph.D. Diplomate, C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich Jungian Analyst and Author
Facing the Death Mother A Guide for Healing Our Feminine Selves and Moving from Paralysis to Full Vitality and Creativity
On both a personal and a societal level, the wounding of the Feminine archetype is one of the most important psychological challenges facing women and men today. Undermining this great archetypal force creates space for the deadly influence of the Death Mother, an archetype that entraps us and paralyzes our initiative, spirits, creativity, and vitality. The evening lecture is a journey deep into the human and psychological dimensions of how the Death Mother shapes our culture, as well as how many of us are held captive by the internalized effects of the wounded mothering we experienced as children. This healing path is based on the classic myth of Medusa, enriched with personal experiences and psychological insights that open our direction toward healing and renewed personal consciousness. It will help us examine our assumptions about ourselves and our lives in order to move from paralysis to full vitality and creativity—and most of all to a deeper love of ourselves, others and life.
In this important lecture, Dr. Harris shares a multi-faceted approach to healing the Death Mother and releasing our uniqueness, courage, and ability to live with love. She reveals how this process can transform us and our world for the better.
Themes in the Confrontation and Transformation of the Death Mother
1. Understanding the critical impact of the Death Mother on our lives as women and men
2. Facing the role of the Death Mother in paralyzing new life, killing hope, and draining our vitality
3. Learning how the institutional, personal, and psychological overlap to trap us
4. Recognizing how our culture has supported the Death Mother personally and collectively
5. Healing the effects of not being wanted by our mother, her being indifferent or wishing we were someone else
6. Recognizing our defense mechanisms such as weight, vomiting, edema, and other ways our body may turn against itself if this issue is unhealed
7. Identifying how the Death Mother creates a deadly fear of being considered inadequate
8. Analyzing how the Death Mother teaches us to fear confrontation and displeasing others
9. Understanding how the Death Mother, Medusa, must be dealt with before we can truly experience the depths of love and meaning
10. Learning how to find our way through wounding and darkness to transformation and enrichment
Massimilla Harris, Ph.D, is a practicing Jungian analyst in Asheville, North Carolina. She is also an author, teacher, award-winning quilter, and certified Solisten Provider. Dr. Harris did her analytic training in Zurich and has practiced in Asheville for over twenty years. Developed by Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis, Solisten is a special kind of music therapy that enables Dr. Harris to join body and psyche in her professional practice in order to help people release the blocks to their potential and their own voice. You may learn more about this practice at www.dynamic-listening.com More information about Dr. Harris’ professional practice, life, books, and quilts is available at www.budharris.com
Robert Mitchell
The Warrior Archetype and the Trauma of Mechanized Warfare
The warrior archetype will be awakened in every combat soldier. Psychologist Ed Tick says, “The warrior archetype seems to be hard-wired into us.” For the modern soldier, the trauma of mechanized warfare is that this archetypal identity is betrayed and remains unconscious, replaced by the anonymous soldier under the leadership of military bureaucrats, wounding the soldier from within and releasing him/her from service as a disabled veteran. Becoming conscious of the betrayal of the archetype is the first step in healing the wound to the soul caused by the combat experience. Mr. Mitchell will directly address both older and younger veterans, from the Vietnam era to the Iraq and Afghan Wars, as well as psychologists who work with veterans suffering from a wounded soul. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Robert Mitchell will speak from personal experience, contrasting the warrior archetype and the mechanized soldier in the training of modern soldiers, the combat experience and the drama of coming home. In this talk, he will draw on the work of psychologists James Hillman (A Terrible Love of War), Ed Tick (War and the Soul), and Jonathan Shay (Achilles in Vietnam).
Robert Mitchell was a combat helicopter pilot with the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam in 1968. He was honorably discharged from the army in 1970 and began a 12-year odyssey of healing, transformation and re-integration, recounted in his two-book memoir: JOURNEY TO MYRTOS: Vietnam to Crete - Healing the Wounds of War and THE TRIALS OF THE INITIATE: Transforming the Warrior Spirit.
Terri Jerue Wagner, MA, LPC, NCC
Illness as a Means of Transformation
Eleven years ago, my world became both larger as well as much smaller after receiving my lifethreatening diagnosis Stage IV breast cancer. As a newly initiated patient, I found myself immersed in a medical world of technical terms (many I didn’t know and couldn’t pronounce), frightening tests and often differing medical opinions. It seemed as if the ground had given way, as if a sinkhole had opened up beneath me and there I was faced with a nightmarish loss of normality. I found myself sinking into the depths of despair, confusion, anger and fear. This new world was rushing toward me as if to swallow me alive and yet at times I felt myself fading away and dissolving into a dissociated trance. My personal world was upside down. I was 44 years old, married, with two adolescent sons, worked fulltime and had recently completed two simultaneous graduate programs. My friends, relatives and colleagues were aghast by the news of my diagnosis. I was healthy, thin, a nonsmoker and had no family history of cancer. While I was blessed by the support of many sensitive people, I was inundated by good intentioned people who overwhelmed me with calls, requests for information, cancer stories they wanted to share and books they wanted me to read. There seemed to be no part of my life free ~~from physical, emotional or spiritual intrusion. I wondered how or if I could find my way through this harrowing journey. Would I be swallowed alive, be blindly compliant or would I break apart in such a way that the pieces could never be put together again? I was faced with so many opposites and didn’t know if I could learn to hold them. Life and death, anxiety and calm, belief and disbelief, hope and despair. All of these opposite states were swirling around internally while at the same time I needed to be moving ahead medically. In order to survive, I felt I had to create a way in the midst of all the external stimulation to go inside of myself. In the midst of needing help with childcare, food preparation, doctor appointments, sorting through differing medical opinions and much unsolicited advice, I needed to find refuge inside of myself. I needed to both stop and move forward. My year long journey was a balancing act between the inner and the outer worlds. I believe that my life depended on the ability to maneuver between these realms. Adequate navigation of those worlds provided the time and space for the healing power of the Numinous to enter into my thoughts, emotions and physical body. A vision of healing came to me and I hung onto that vision for dear life. I’m not sure why it was that I came to live and be cancer free while many others do not. One dear friend who did not live through her journey had appeared to me to be the much stronger person. She too wanted to desperately live for her children. She too loved life. As I sat shiva for Miriam, I wondered if the best woman had survived. I’ve come to accept that we each have our own journey and the best that we can do is play our role as authentically as possible. I feel that if people are able to do that, they have experienced profound healing whether they live or whether they die. Authenticity and decisions regarding how to live in the here and now are in the hands of the patient. God, the Numinous, the Mystery, hold the rest.
Terri Jerue Wagner, MA, LPC, NCC, is a psychotherapist specializing in women’s issues including: depression, anxiety, infertility, illness, menopause, relationships, grief and loss. She is especially interested in helping women find meaning in their lives and assisting them in fulfilling the call to fully live the life for which they were created. In her work, she pulls upon a blend of Jungian thought, cognitive behavioral therapy, self-therapy, spirituality, and self expressive activities such as art, journaling, dream work and yoga. She is a certified labyrinth facilitator. While Terri’s personal spirituality is based upon the Christian faith, she appreciates and honors those who have a different connection to the numinous. Terri is a wife, mother of two and stepmother of four young men, and a ten year plus stage IV breast cancer survivor. Her interests include spending time with loved ones, gardening, art, literature, the ongoing study of Jungian thought and travel. Her post-cancer years have been especially rich in meaningful relationships, creative self-expression, expanding educational studies, new professional direction and travel. She is interested in exploring her cultural identity and has made trips to Ireland in search of further understanding the rich cultural background that has woven the tapestry of her heritage. Terri has a private counseling practice in Rochester and Bloomfield Hills, MI. She is certified to provide supervision to LLPC’s on an individual or group basis. She may be contacted by email at terriwagner@mac.com.
Terri's suggested pre-talk reading, "Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness As a Soul Journey" by Jean Shinoda Bolen
Cynthia Cuthbertson, Ed.M. Graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich
C.G. Jung's "The Red Book" with video by Dr. Murray Stein
C. G. Jung's The Red Book, hidden from the public for nearly a hundred years, was published in 2009, revealing the depths of Jung's midlife encounter with his inner life. It has been described as a "timeless document of the soul". This recounting of the dialogue of active imagination and the magnificent paintings that accompany it form a compelling, inspiring record of one's man's experience of his soul.
We have the privilege of seeing the recording of Dr. Murray Stein, analyst, author, and former president of the International School of Analytical Psychology in Zurich, introduce The Red Book to us. There will be copies of the book to look at, and plenty of time will be reserved for questions about this and other phases of Jung's inner search.
Cynthia Cuthbertson, Ed.M. Graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich
Film Discussion: "The King's Speech""
The movie "The King's Speech" starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helen Bonham Carter, is an affecting, brilliantly acted look at King George VI's mythic path to the throne of England. We are offered beautifully written portrait of Bertie's stammering search for his true voice--his Hero's Journey into his past and toward his future. His speech therapist, Lionel Logue, is a compassionate, talented Teacher, Wise Man, and Healer who embodies the archetypal role of The Trickster/Fool to move Bertie toward wholeness and the fulfillment of his destiny. And the portrayal of The Wise Woman in Elizabeth, the wife, is profoundly loving and steadfast.
The film provides us with compelling images of complex theory and archetypal forces at work in humans. Please watch the film before the meeting, then come ready for discussion, which is sure to be deeply involving
Drew Smith, M.A. Depth Psychology
Analyzing the Mythic & Archetypal Themes Fueling the Binary Gender Battle
There is still much debate surrounding the gender/wage pay gap, the rape culture on college campuses, paternity suits and divorce cases. There is only a deepening of the chasm of animosity between men and women and it's only heating up.
Drew will spend the night discussing the myth of Hephaestus, the crippled Greek god of metalwork and volcanos, in relation to the emerging Men's Rights Movement, in order to better see the mythic underpinnings of the 'battle of the sexes' we witness today. When looking through this mythic lens, we can better recognize the archetypal patterns being triggered, and see through the rhetoric and into the depths of the collective unconscious.
Drew Smith currently has a M.A. in Depth Psychology and is persuing a Ph.D. Drew has recently been published in the Fall 014 issue of Depth Insights for his paper on the Word Association Test
Dr. Greg Mahr, & Cynthia Cuthbertson, Ed.M Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich
What do dreams mean?
Dr. Greg Mahr, a long-standing member of the Jung Dream Group, asked Cynthia
Cuthbertson, to share a lecture with him at Grand Rounds at Henry Ford Hospital
on "What Do Dreams Mean?" This was a challenge since they would be speaking
to approximately sixty psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers who were
not trained to consider dreams in their therapeutic work and know little about
Jung's theory of dreams.
Dr. Greg Mahr and Cynthia Cuthbertson hope you will be interested in what was
shared at Henry Ford, so we will recreate the lecture and invite your questions and
reactions. Please feel free to bring a dream of your own to be considered by the
whole group; we will look at as many as we can.
Dyane N. Sherwood, PhD
The Lakota (Sioux) have continuously maintained their profound spiritual tradition, including the ceremonies of the sweat lodge, vision quest, and Sun Dance, despite these practices being outlawed by the US Government until the mid-twentieth century. The Lakota tradition is attuned to the natural world and to the human needs for connection, orientation, and resilience when faced with extreme circumstances. We will learn about their practice of the vision quest as a rite of transformation.
This evening’s presentation will combine lecture, recordings, and slides with an opportunity for self-exploration. You are asked to bring a journal and, optionally, drawing materials. You will also be invited to enter into reverie during a brief drumming.
Dyane N. Sherwood, PhD, is a Jungian Psychoanalyst and a Teaching Member of the Sandplay Therapists of America. She began her study of shamanism, including Native American traditions, with the late analyst Donald Sandner. She worked for many years with the Lakota elder Pansy Hawkwing and underwent vision quests and participated in the Sun Dance on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Dr. Sherwood has a private practice in Oberlin, Ohio. Website: http://dyanesherwood.comrying for a Vision- The Native American (Lakota) Vision Quest and the Path of Individuation
Cynthia Cuthbertson
Film Discussion: Good Will Hunting
The award-winning film Good Will Hunting, starring Matt Damon (who also wrote the screenplay) and Robin Williams, gives us an opportunity to empathize with and explore the intense experiences of these remarkable characters.
As a group, we can discuss our reactions and thoughts about the film, using Jungian concepts to find a common language of understanding.
The film is readily available. Please watch it BEFORE our meeting, registering the parts that were most powerful for you.
Cynthia Cuthbertson
Interview with a Zurich Jungian Analyst
Have you ever found yourself curious about the lives and thoughts of people who have spent as much as forty years immersed in the Jungian process? In 2016, the publisher Chiron distributed a series of nine films in which Zurich analysts are interviewed about their first encounters with Jungian depth psychology, about their own training and work, and about the Jungian concepts they find invaluable to the future development of individuals.
At this meeting we will watch the particularly meaningful interview of Andreas Schweizer and then discuss our impressions, thoughts, and questions about him and his experience. This film gives us a very personal, detailed view of one person's intense journey into his inner world, with references to Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz and others. It is rare to be given this kind of insight into the life of someone whose lens for viewing himself is that of Jungian depth psychology
Cynthia Cuthbertson
Hecate, Image of the Cosmic Soul
In Edward Edinger's book The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology, he summarized Jung's psychological view of mythology as "the self-revelation of the archetypal psyche. . . As we reflect on the mythological images, we are studying the facts of the psyche and trying to interpret them. . . The facts, the mythological images themselves, have a reality that transcends interpretation. As we consider the basic images of Greek mythology, we should ask what the image could mean in our own individual lives. . . to connect them with living experience so that they are not just remote abstractions."
At this meeting we will concentrate on the Goddess Hecate, hearing her stories, learning of her rituals, and discussing what she meant to the lives of the Greeks and Chaldeans, and what her image brings to us today.
Cynthia Cuthbertson, Jungian analyst, is now in private practice in Ann Arbor, working with children, adolescents, and adults. Ms. Cuthbertson taught school in Izmir, Turkey, as well as at The Dalton School and The Hunter College School for the Gifted in New York City. She has a B.A. from the University of Michigan, a Master of Education degree from Harvard University, and is a graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland where she qualified to work with both children and adults. She offers traditional forms of Jungian therapy, including dream analysis, as well as sandplay and other creative avenues to the psyche. She was in private practice in Katonah, New York, for fourteen years before moving to Ann Arbor
Gregory Mahr M.D. & Jamie Sweigart, D.O
Psychedelics Then and Now
Psychedelic compounds have been used by indigenous cultures for medicinal and spiritual purposes for thousands of years. Long before hippies embraced psychedelics in the 1960s, there was an active underground use of psychedelic compounds like LSD by psychiatrists who were investigating its behavioral effects in humans.
After a 20 year hiatus due to legal restrictions, a renewed interest in psychedelic research has emerged. An international research movement is currently underway, examining the utility of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy as therapeutic tools for a variety of mental health conditions. In this lecture, we will discuss the history of psychedelics, current research, potential dangers and direction of further study. Gregory Mahr, M.D., will serve as discussant and initiate a dialogue on the psychology aspects of hallucinogen use, and explore where we go when we are "tripping."
Jamie Sweigart, D.O., is graduating from psychiatry residency at Henry Ford Hospital, with an interest in psychedelics and mental health. She has presented at several national conferences on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for conditions such as PTSD, treatment resistant depression, end-of-life anxiety, and alcoholism. She has completed a psychoanalytic fellowship at Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute in 2017 and is currently an Early Admissions Candidate.
Dr. Greg Mahr, & Cynthia Cuthbertson, Ed.M Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich
Exploring the Works of Dr. Marion Woodman
In Memorium: Marion Woodman, renowned Jungian psychoanalyst and author died on July 19 at the age of 89.
After many years of successful work as a high school teacher in Ontario, Dr. Woodman was called to a journey of self-discovery and change. She sought psychoanalysis, discovered the work of Jung, and entered the program at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich.
Dr. Woodman’s work centered on the development of the female psyche and the negative impacts of the male patriarchy on female development. She was a subtle enough thinker to also recognize that the male patriarchy contained within it the devouring aspects of the dark feminine, and sought to liberate men and women from patriarchal thinking. Her books include “Addiction to Perfection,” and “The Pregnant Virgin.” She worked closely with Robert Bly and with him wrote “The Maiden King: A Reunion of Masculine and Feminine,” about how men and women need each other to become whole.
In our next meeting the Michigan Friends of Jung will explore the work of Dr. Woodman.