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Tuesday 10th November 2015, 7:30 - 9:30pm
Dorothea Wojnar
presented a "Six-Week Dream Group" (six sessions)
Venue: Vercoe Room, Wesley Uniting Church, 22 National Circuit, Forrest, ACT
(ie not our usual Friday meeting place at Lyneham!)
Cost: The cost is $ 10 per evening to cover costs. Any surplus goes to the Jung Society.
The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends. For all ego-consciousness is isolated; because it separates and discriminates, it knows only particulars, and it sees only those that can be related to the ego.
Its essence is limitation, even though it reaches to the farthest nebulae among the stars. All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night.
There he is still the whole, and the whole is in him, indistinguishable from nature and bare of all egohood. It is from these all-uniting depths that the dream arises, be it never so childish, grotesque, and immoral.(1)
C G Jung "The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man" (1933). In CW 10: Civilization in Transition. pg. 304
The group will be facilitated by Dorothea Wojnar. Members of the group are encouraged to share their dreams and we will be using active imagination in working with the dreams. Please let Dorothea know if you are planning to attend.
Dorothea is a psychotherapist and she is currently training as a Jungian analyst with the C. G .Jung Institute of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Jungian Analysts. Dorothea has extensive experience as a group leader and therapist across a range of people and issues, working in both a public health facility as well as in private practice.
For further information, please contact Dorothea Wojnar on 6292 2014 or (0413) 245 835.
(1) Jung, C.G. (1933) The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man in Collected Works Vol 10 Civilization in Transition. pg. 304 downloaded from http://www.netreach.net/~nhojem/dreamq.htm on 20 May 2007
Friday 6th November 2015, 8pm
Dr David Russell
"Carl Jung, a Personal and Professional Challenge"
The title of David’s talk suggests both a level of excitement and a quality of challenge that is at first counter intuitive. Yes, Jung is exciting to read. His take on life is one of a positive psychology … a striving toward wholeness, a sense of purpose, and a positive life story. A deeper reading, however, invites one to enter a world of ambivalence if not downright disturbance: a troubling place for the human spirit.
David spoke of his lifelong engagement with Jung. Even before meeting Jung’s work there was the poetry of St John of the Cross - perhaps the first depth psychologist - and John’s renunciation of the joys of the senses and of the spirit (David’s period in Rome studying at the Pontifical Theological Faculty “Teresianum”).
And before Jung there was Freud with his claim that his work didn’t offer a cure but, rather, a most difficult and challenging philosophy of life. However, it is Jung more than anyone else who gently invites one to experience the underworld, the place where one’s psyche is nourished and thus can bring a gift of sorts back to the above world. During the talk David made reference to both his personal and professional experience.
Dr David Russell is a past president of the Sydney Jung Society. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies and research in psychology at the University of Sydney. Here he was introduced to the writings of Sigmund Freud (unusual for a Department of Psychology) and developed an ongoing enthusiasm for the history and philosophy of psychology.
After a few years in private practice he moved into an academic career, which culminated in the establishment of the Master of Analytical Psychology degree at the University of Western Sydney. David has currently returned to private practice in Sydney CBD.
Friday 9th October 2015, 8pm
"REGENERATING MYTHS FOR ACTIVE CITIZENS"
Dr Glenda Cloughley speaks on the politics of renewal
Join us as we look into the wonderful story of a worldwide web of more than 2000 women from warring and neutral nations who held the only international peace conference of World War I.
Against all odds and ignored by military historians, these mostly unenfranchised women set a 100-year agenda for European unity and international peace, law and human rights at their 1915 congress in The Hague. They then reinforced their achievement in a series of meetings with more individual heads of government than anyone else saw until the end of the war and founded a great global women's organization that celebrated its centenary this year.
How did they do it? And what useful guidance does their story contain for citizen groups acting for the good now in the face of climate change and huge movements of people fleeing war, persecution and poverty?
Canberra Jungian analyst Glenda Cloughley has been thinking about these questions by relating them to her discovery that the Congress story has the dynamic structure of the age-old myth of regeneration –– life's most fundamental story. She will show some political markers of this myth at work in the world: energetic motivators, emotional pathways, moral tensions, spiritual tipping points, kinds of leadership, and attitudes to trauma, young people and future generations which move the women's story from death to renewal through actions consistent with the principle that 'peace is the nurture of human life'.
The evening included a few excerpts from the performance DVD of A Passion for Peace, Glenda's 2015 community oratorio which was inspired by the 1915 Congress story. Staged by A Chorus of Women with a large Canberra cast of adults and children during our first Festival for Peace, the Passion was supported by artsACT, numerous dear Canberra citizens, the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture and embassies of the European Union, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden.
In addition to private practice as a Jungian analyst and psychotherapist, Dr Glenda Cloughley is a composer and poet/librettist with a longstanding interest in mythology and cultural applications of depth psychology through the arts. In earlier careers Glenda worked as a newspaper journalist in New Zealand and public affairs and management consultant in Canberra. She has written many songs as well as mythic song cycles and choral dramas for Canberra's famous A Chorus of Women.
Friday 4th September 2015, 8pm
Dr Suzanne Moss
"Jung, Mandalas and Beyond the Colouring-in Craze"
Suzanne took us on a visual journey of mandalas from many cultures, from ancient to modern. She outlined how Jung's ideas and practice of making mandalas connect the wisdom of east and west. Suzanne has noted the current colouring-in craze, and instructed us on the next step of creating our own original design. This is part of her work of bringing meditative art and coaching together to facilitate creativity.
Suzanne had copies of her book "Painting Light, Touching Space" available for sale at half price for Jung Society Members: $5
Suzanne Moss PhD is an artist, teacher and personal coach. She brings together her skills in teaching meditative art courses helping people remember and revitalise their creativity. She has just returned from Italy and would love to take students there to do her course in Florence!
Suzanne completed her doctorate in the painting of light in 2010 after international research of paintings from the 15th through to the 21st century, producing a written thesis and large exhibition of luminous painted mandalas. She has taught painting, drawing and art theory at the ANU School of Art for 8 years and developed and delivered her courses privately during the last 3 years. Jung has been in her sphere of influence for over 20 years. Suzanne is represented by Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney.
Friday 7th August 2015, 8pm
We have three distinguished guests this evening:
Alfred Korzybski, Carl Jung and the Buddha will be coming in for a chat ...
Introduced by Robert James
A space-time-defying (hypothetical) trialogue, when Gautama ("the Buddha"), Dr Carl Jung, and Count Alfred Korzybski will be joining us in the Drawing Room for discourse and supper.
Distinguished company indeed, and WE played a role! Some timeless principles and challenging questions were brought to bear on contemporary issues.
You will have to wait a long, long time for the chance to meet these three together again ...
  
Gautama (‘the Buddha”):
Siddhartha Gautama was born into a royal family in the area around Northern India and Southern Nepal, in 563 BCE. Siddhartha realised at the age of 29 that wealth and luxury did not guarantee happiness, so he explored the different teachings, religions and philosophies of the day, to find the key to lasting human happiness.
After six years of study and meditation he finally discovered (not invented) 'the middle path' and gained enlightenment at the age of 35. The title Buddha means ‘the awakened one’. After enlightenment, the Buddha spent the rest of his life teaching until his passing away at the age of 80. The Buddha taught a path to enlightenment (or lasting happiness) from his own experience.
His teachings are called ‘the Dharma’, meaning Truth. These teachings later came to be known as Buddhism. His teachings are maintained by the Sangha, the community of monks and nuns.
Today, Buddhism is a religion (or, as some say, a “non-theist” philosophy) to about 300 million people around the world, including about half a million in Australia, growing rapidly.
Dr. Carl Jung:
Jung Society folks should know Dr Carl Jung pretty well by now. He was born in 1875, died 1961, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. His work has been influential not only in psychiatry but also in philosophy, anthropology, archaeology, literature, and religious studies. He was a prolific writer, though many of his works were not published until after his death.
Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the notion of collective unconscious, and the foundations of personality typing.
Count Alfred Korzybski:
Our third guest is probably not well known to us. Count Alfred Korzybski was an approximate contemporary of Carl Jung, living from 1879 until 1950.
Korzybski was born in Warsaw, Poland which at that time was part of the Russian Empire. He was part of an aristocratic Polish family whose members had worked as mathematicians, scientists, and engineers for generations. He learned the Polish language at home, the Russian language in schools, and French and German from governesses. He was educated at the Warsaw University of Technology in engineering.
During the World War I, Korzybski served as an intelligence officer in the Russian Army. After being wounded in a leg and suffering other injuries, he moved to North America in 1916 (first to Canada, then the United States) to coordinate the shipment of artillery to Russia.
He is remembered as a Polish-American independent scholar who developed a field of practice called General Semantics, which he viewed as both distinct from, and more encompassing than, the field of semantics.
Motivated by his experiences and observations in the destruction and carnage of World War I, Count Korzybski became convinced that civilisation as we know it could be greatly improved by application of scientific method to our public and private lives. His many publications include “Manhood of Humanity” and “Science and Sanity”, which have become the foundations of other disciplines and lifestyle-improvement programmes.
He argued that human knowledge of the world is limited both by the human nervous system and the languages humans have developed, and thus no one can have direct access to reality, given that the most we can know is that which is filtered through the brain's responses to reality. His best known dictums are "The map is not the territory" and "There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking."
The Count is not generally considered as colourful a character as our other two guests, but I’m sure he won’t mind that comparison.
Robert James is a member of the Canberra Jung Society, and President of the Australian General Semantics Society. He is proud to bring together these giants in their fields, for our edification this evening.
Friday 3rd July 2015, 8pm
Dorothea Wojnar
"Encountering the Shadow"
Jung had a deep interest in the shadow – its form and content – and in the process of assimilating “the thing a person has no wish to be” [CW16, para 470]. He saw quite clearly that failure to recognise, acknowledge and deal with shadow elements is often the root of problems between individuals and within groups and organisations.
Complementary to Jung’s idea of the persona, which is “what oneself as well as others thinks one is” [CW9 para 221], the “shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors…If it has been believed hitherto that the human shadow was the source of evil, it can now be ascertained on closer investigation that the unconscious man, that is his shadow does not consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also displays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses etc. “ [CW9{ii} paras 422 & 423].
The Shadow cannot be eliminated. The adequate question therefore never is: Have I a shadow problem? Have I a negative side? But rather: Where does it happen to be right now? When we cannot see it, it is time to beware! And it is helpful to remember Jung's formulation that a complex is not pathological per se. It becomes pathological only when we assume that we do not have it; because then IT HAS US!
“There is no generally effective technique for assimilating the shadow. It is more like diplomacy or statesmanship and it is always an individual matter. First one has to accept and take seriously the existence of the shadow. Second, one has to become aware of its qualities and intentions. This happens through conscientious attention to moods, fantasies and impulses. Third, a long process of negotiation is unavoidable”. (CW 14, par. 514)
The presentation was followed by discussion and work in small groups, where each person was encouraged to share some of their own journey with encountering their shadow.
Dorothea is a psychotherapist and she is currently training as a Jungian analyst with the C. G .Jung Institute of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Jungian analysts. Dorothea has extensive experience as a group leader and therapist across a range of people and issues, working in both a public health facility as well as in private practice.
Venue: MacKillop House Conference Centre
50 Archibald Street, Lyneham ACT
Friday 5th June 2015, 8pm
DVD screening
“The Jungian Ecopsychologist”
a talk by Dr Bernie Neville
Ecopsychology is usually defined as 'psychology as though the planet matters'. It has its roots in deep ecology, a philosophy based largely on the writings of Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess.
Deep ecologists insist that we must abandon our anthropocentric focus and realise that we are cells of a larger organism. Our personal individuation is not purely personal but is a manifestation of the self-realisation of the planet. For ecopsychologists, Jung provides a rich source of insight into our relationship with the earth.
We screened a video copy of a talk on this topic given by Bernie Neville to the Melbourne Jung Society in 2010.
Dr Bernie Neville is Adjunct Professor of Education at La Trobe University. He has researched and written extensively on the interpersonal aspects of teaching and learning and the application of counselling theory to the teaching-learning process. His particular interests in the area of classroom processes are reflected in the title of his book: Educating Psyche: Emotion, Imagination and the Unconscious in Learning.
Dr Neville has consulted extensively with business and educational institutions on communication within organizations and strategies for organizational change. His particular interest in archetypal psychology as a framework for exploring and analysing organizational culture is reflected in the title of his book: Olympus Inc.: Intervening for Cultural Change in Organizations.
Rae Chittock
“The Red Book: Liber Novus.
Fifty year instalments in a thoughtful life.”
Friday 1st May 2015, 8pm
Venue: MacKillop House,
50 Archibald St, Lyneham. ACT.
There is a roughly 50 year interval since the death, in 1961, of Carl Gustav Jung and the publication of The Red Book, Liber Novus. There is, before that, a roughly 50 year interval when the writing of Liber Novus began, in 2013.
The book, much of it in Latin calligraphy with sumptuous coloured illustrations, occupied Jung for many years. Its style is different from Jung’s other works. Despite its apparent importance and singular value in Jung’s life, it remained unpublished, locked away in a safety deposit box, until 2009.
The book records Jung’s experience of a turbulent period in his life: he and Freud, another of the pioneers of the study of psychology, had declared their differences in the way they thought and had parted ways and Jung’s identity was forging itself, as if from the beginning again. He was learning to understand who he was and how differently his thinking was from Freud’s.
Liber Novus is a record of Jung’s exploration of his own mind, psychological states, inner images and processes. It is a mix of the deeply personal and curiously universal. Jung reveals and consults with inner figures who give meaning to his experience, and he records in great detail the contents and conversations of his inner explorations.
So roughly 100 years after it was begun, Jung’s inheritors pause to ponder the gift of Liber Novus. Rae examined it, wondering about its value to Jung and to those who have come after.
Dr Rae Chittock is a Jungian Analyst practising in Canberra.
PETER DICKER
"The SALT of the SOUL"
Friday 10th April 2015, 8pm
Venue: Vercoe Room, Wesley Uniting Church
22 National Circuit, Forrest ACT
The primary goal of this talk is to obtain a better understanding of the “substance” known in some alchemical writings as “philosophic” or “metaphoric” Salt - the Salt of the Soul.
Jung was a pioneer in his work on the meaning of various alchemical substances and processes, including Salt. For example, he speculated on the possible psychological significance behind the three fundamental substances – Salt, Mercury and Sulphur – that were postulated by Paracelsus in his philosophical cosmology.
In psychological terms, Jung suggested that a kind of wisdom can emerge from the bitter “salty” experiences of life through a reflective engagement with feeling and eros. He also pointed to that extraordinary alchemical belief that Salt (just a pinch) has the power to tame the raging Sulphuric energies of the psyche.
Taking Jung’s work as his starting point, Hillman further developed our understanding of Salt, suggesting that it should be regarded as “a precious essence…without which the soul cannot live.” He described this “essence” as “the ground of subjectivity” that works by “knitting and knotting events into experience,” thereby making “events sensed and felt, giving us each a sense of the personal – my tears, my sweat and blood…”
As a powerfully resonating metaphor, Salt provides us with an image of how the psyche creates its own body, giving substance to itself, thereby giving us an underlying sense of strength, containment and nourishment. As such, it is very much central to both the work of psychotherapy and to the broader opus of our psychological lives.
To help crystallise our understanding of Salt as an essential ingredient in psychological development, we will drew upon some intriguing case study material. We used this material to especially show how a dynamic relationship between Salt and Sulphur lies at the heart of all psychological processes.
As part of our preparation for this psychological material we took a brief journey through the cultural history of salt, noting its esteemed value across all cultures as "a jewel of the earth and the sea," not only for its obvious value in cooking and preserving food but also for its use in various rituals and practices and for the place it has come to hold in human imagination.
This presentation was seasoned with ideas and images distilled from poetry and literature, case material, cultural history and dreams, with just a pinch of each for us to savour.
Peter Dicker is a psychologist with a long history of involvement in Jungian thought and practice in Australia, including a former position as the President of the Jung Society of the Illawarra and a life membership of the Sydney Jung Society. Over a period of 25 years he has presented numerous lectures, contributed essays and film reviews, and more recently appeared on the ABC Radio National Encounter program titled “Mind at Large.” Through this work he has developed a reputation for presenting unique insights, both clinical and conceptual, within the field of Archetypal Psychology.
Fiona Kalmar
"IMAGINING THE INVISIBLE"
Friday 6th March 2015, 8pm
Venue: MacKillop House,
50 Archibald St, Lyneham. ACT.
In writing to Mr Martin, Jung outlined the significance of the numinous in relation to his clinical work;
‘it always seemed to me as if the real milestones were certain symbolic events characterised by a strong emotional tone. You are quite right, the main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neuroses but rather with the approach to the numinous. But the fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the disease takes on a numinous character’ (Jung, 1973).
In the analytic hour we are repeatedly confronted with moving paradoxical, ironical and ambiguous complexities. In this presentation Fiona will consider Jung’s idea of the expression of the numinous within analysis from a number of perspectives. She will consider her understandings of mystical experience as a deeply intuitive process within the analytical relationship. Fiona will use clinical examples to illuminate that mystical experience and the poetic are analytically in the invisible space outside of (but connected with) time.
Fiona Kalmar is a Clinical Psychologist and Jungian Analyst and has an established private practice in Cook in the ACT and in the rural town of Bungendore. She has also been trained in the Conversational Model. As a consultant she has provided psychological services to several departments in the Federal Government. She has a strong interest in education and has lectured in psychology at university level. Previously Fiona was employed as a senior electronic engineer and she has also worked in international marketing. Fiona specialises in working with people with personality disorders and she has published both nationally and internationally.
Friday 6th February 2015, 8pm
Joanna Kujawa
"Carl Jung and the Gnostic Gospels"
The knowledge of the inner self and the feminine principle of creation are not concepts familiar to the Christian scriptures. Yet, about 40 gospels and letters were discovered over the last 150 years that throw a different light on both.
Considered heretical and rejected in the fourth century, Gnostic Gospels talk about the knowledge of the inner self, the importance of the feminine principle in creation, and the knowledge of the soul as juxtaposed to a belief. Indeed, the word Gnosis means ‘self-knowledge’ or ‘inner knowing’. In this talk, Joanna would like to briefly discuss the fascinating discovery of the Gnostic Gospels, some of their teachings which inspired Carl Jung’s work since 1912. Jung himself claimed that Gnostics were his intellectual predecessors and an inexhaustible source of the collective unconscious especially for his concepts of psyche, archetypes, and the feminine.
The focus will be on the relationship between Carl Jung’s Gnostic essay ‘Seven Sermons to the Dead’ and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of Philip and the Gnostic creation myths in general.
Dr Joanna Kujawa received her B.A and M.A in medieval philosophy and history at the Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies and the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto.
After finishing her PhD at Monash University, she continued in indulging her passion for early medieval philosophy, writing a book, Jerusalem Diary: Searching for the Tomb and House of Jesus (which is a bestselling travel guide to Jerusalem on The Book Depository and the Amazon.com) as well as several scholarly articles and newspaper features (The Age, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review).
Her most recent contribution on the topic is a chapter in Journeys and Destinations published by Cambridge Scholars Press (2013). For the last 12 years she has worked as a lecturer and tutor at Monash University and RMIT and for the last three years as an editorial assistant for Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies.
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