Friday
2 July 2010, 8pm
Jeff Ward
“On finding and forgetting the self:
The developing dialogue between Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis”
There are many practices employed by human beings to ease suffering
and enhance personal growth. Prior to the development of psychotherapy,
these practices were mainly associated with religion, and many of the
features that define psychotherapy can also be found in religious
practices. For example, a close relationship with a spiritual advisor is
often an important part of religious practice.
Since the inception of psychotherapy, many psychotherapists have
taken an interest in the spiritual practices and teachings of the various
forms of Buddhism (e.g. Zen Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, vipassana/insight
practice as part of Theravada Buddhism). One enduring area of cross
fertilisation has been between the psychoanalytic tradition and Zen
Buddhism, which began in the 1950s with dialogues between people such as
Carl Jung and Erich Fromm and Japanese Zen scholars.
The meeting between Carl Jung and Shin’ichi Hisamatsu will be used
as an example of an early attempt to establish a conversation between the
two traditions that failed. Jung thought that a more productive exchange
might be possible by having experience with both traditions. More recently
this hope has been realized, with books being published by authors who have
extensive training in both psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism. This more
recent literature will be discussed, highlighting key areas where Zen can
make potential contributions to the practice of psychotherapy, and where
psychoanalytic theory can offer useful insights to Zen Buddhism.
Jeff Ward is a psychologist and psychotherapist in private practice in
Canberra. He is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Association of
Psychotherapy, the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self
Psychology and the Australian Psychological Society. Jeff has been involved with Buddhist practice for over 35
years. He has practised Zen in Japan and Australia and has for many years
been the practice leader of the Canberra Zen Group which is a satellite
group of the Sydney Zen Centre.
Friday 6
August 2010, 8pm
Dr Jonathan Marshall
“Archetypes of Chaos”
We tend to flee from disorder and chaos,
identifying chaos with evil and destruction. However what if spiritual,
social and psychological growth necessarily involves living with, or
passing through, chaos?
Jung differed from our usual Western approach,
embracing the fragmentary propositions of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus,
about world as flux, and the productive and disordered struggle between
opposites. This view was reinforced after Jung’s studies in alchemy when he
suggested that the experience of chaos, the materia confusa, is also the
experience which both leads to transformation and is essential to
transformation. At this time, the order that the ego wishes to impose on
the world or the unconscious no longer works, and this failure is the
moment of the possibility of new life. The whole spirit is hidden in chaos,
and disorder is not just to be feared. Indeed, we might say that life is
that which resists order and predictability, and the more we are alive, the
more fraught is the relationship between what we call order and disorder.
This talk investigates what it might mean to take
chaos and disorder seriously, by exploring symbols and images of chaos in
Christian, Jewish, Babylonian, Greek, Chinese and other mythologies, and by
a return to hidden messages of the ‘collective dream’ of alchemy.
Jonathan Marshall is an anthropologist and a Research Fellow at
the University of Technology in Sydney. He is the author of Living on
Cybermind: Categories, Communication and Control and Jung, Alchemy and
History, and the editor of Depth Psychology, Disorder and Climate Change
Friday
3 September 2010, 8pm
Sandra Kay Lauffenburger
“Self-Psychology: Just Another Psychoanalytic Theory or a Dynamic
Regenerative Research Program?”
“Evidenced-based practice” is the current
criteria for choosing therapeutic models. Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic
psychotherapy have suffered as therapy of choice because of the presumed “non-scientific
nature” of their procedures and outcomes. In a recently published text on
the Self-Psychological theory of Heinz Kohut, Lee, Rountree and McMahon
(2009) propose that Self-Psychology offers us a science and a scientific
method, but of the individual rather than the general (as is the case for
psychology). Viewing Self-Psychology from within a Lakatosian framework,
where a central postulate provides the basis for testing and evaluating
auxiliary ideas and theoretical corollaries, this psychoanalytic approach
becomes a vibrant, dynamic science with the possibility of ongoing
regeneration.
This talk will touch briefly on the Lakatos
framework, using it to discuss the interweaving of the theoretical
components of Self-Psychology. Case vignettes will be used to illustrate
the Lakatosian model of Self-Psychological theory where empathy is the core
postulate driving any theoretical innovation.
Sandra Kay, B Ed, M Sc, B Soc Sci (Hons)
(Psych), maintains a clinical practice in Self-Psychologically-based
psychodynamic psychotherapy in Canberra. For the past 12 years she has
worked with a spectrum of issues such as chronic pain, multiple
personality, OCD, personality disorders, and borderline presentations.
Professional training in Self-Psychology and over 25 years of exploring the
body and movement therapies inform her clinical work. Sandra holds
credentials in Laban Movement Analysis and is a lecturer in Dance/Movement
Therapist. She is on the faculty of the Wesley
Institute (Sydney) where she teaches courses in non-verbal clinical
interventions as well as lifespan developmental issues. She also offers
face to face and phone supervision to psychotherapists and Dance/Movement
Therapists.
Friday 8 October 2010, 8pm
John Kassoutas
“ITHAKA RE-VISITED”
The Odyssey in ancient
Alexandria
(Place-making in the gap between
myth and reality)
______________________________________________
There is an island there in the heavy wash of the open Sea,
in front of
Egypt, and they call it Pharos
(Odyssey, Book 4, lines 354-355)
Quoted by Plutarch in
‘The Life of Alexander’ in Lives of the Noble
Greeks and Romans, 75AD
_______________________________________________________________________
From these two lines of poetry,
reputedly recited by Homer to a dreaming Alexander the Great, the city of
Alexandria, in Egypt, was founded in 331BCE. But thanks to Alexander’s
leading General, Ptolemy 1, and, later, the historian Plutarch Homer’s
reputation may have suffered gravely by this mythologising entanglement.
In the Hellenising
(colonial) program for Egypt the tale of wandering by ‘cunning and
resourceful Odysseus’ was overlooked for Homer’s other great tale of
Achilles wrath and the sack of Troy (Iliad). Stories of Achilles’
heroic exploits and divine heredity were promoted as Alexander’s story
after his death (Alexander Romance).
John writes, “by asking
‘how much more of the Odyssey is in ancient Alexandria? I’m seeking
more material evidence of design linking Odysseus’ exploits and his
character to the city”. John recognises Odysseus as a ‘Trickster archetype’ * and will
focus his talk almost exclusively on the scenes leading into the underworld
and the return (Books 10-12). John concludes, “if Achilles/ Alexander is
the idealised action hero, Odysseus is an expert hunter, familiar with
traces and histories of movement in the landscape; hinting at an ‘environmental unconscious’”. **
John Kassoutas was
a postman when a heart attack and stroke (2007) felicitously delayed the
earlier presentation of this talk, as ongoing recovery of mobility and
sensation yielded personal insights into an unconscious haptic sensibility.
John has graduated in Social Ecology/Analytical Psychology (UWS); Media Art
(UNSW); and Primary Teaching (SCAE).
Notes
*Joseph Russo,
‘A Jungian analysis of Homer’s Odysseus’ in The Cambridge Companion
to Jung, 1997, p 240;
see also
* C.G. Jung,
‘On the Psychology of the Trickster-Figure’ in The Archetypes and the
Collective Unconscious, Vol 9, I, 1975.
** Paul Carter, Dark
Writing: Geography, Performance, Design. University of Hawai’i , 2009.
Friday 5 November 2010, 8pm
Speaker to be confirmed
Friday 4 February 2011, 8pm
Speaker to be confirmed
Friday 4 March
2011, 8pm
Dorothea
Wojnar
“Achetypes and Fairy Tales”
Beginning
with the fathers of the field, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, psychoanalysts
have turned to fairy tales in an effort to understand the human mind. Fairy
tales are inextricably linked to the work of Carl Jung. The “collective
unconscious” that lies at the core of his work, and which is shared by all
human beings, is revealed through archetypes, forms and symbols found in
fairy tales.
Fairytales
are oral forms of folk tales with moral and ethical aspects, which teach us
how to behave and how to deal with others in the community. Marie-Louise
von Franz considers fairy tales as the purest and simplest expression of
the collective unconscious of psychic processes. Fairy tales represent the
contents of the collective unconscious, the archetypes, and offer an
understanding of the basic patterns of the human psyche and can guide us
through the individuation process.
We
will be considering the following questions drawing from ancient and
contemporary material:
Why are we so enthralled by fairy
tales?
Are fairy tales stories for adults
or children?
How do they differ from myths,
legends and sagas?
How do you interpret fairy tales?
How can that help me with my own
individuation journey?
Saturday 5 March 2011, 10am to 4pm
Dorothea
Wojnar
A workshop on “Fairy Tales”
Participants
are asked to bring their favourite tale - either one they have heard and
love or a fairy tale they have written. We will experience the fairy tales
through enacting them. Participants will have the opportunity to become the
archetypal characters in the fairytale. This can be a powerful experience
as you become, for a short time, the witch or the evil king or the divine
child. Participants will be asked to bring various props that will help
them to become the character in the tale. After de-roling, each actor then
speaks within the closed group about what it felt like to be in that role
and how they experienced the other characters.
We
will be interpreting the fairy tale after the enactment within the group.
This can become a profound way of grasping the power of the fairy tale and
one which can leave us with a deeper appreciation of just how the psyche
undergoes the individuation process. This workshop is completely
confidential and participants are asked not to discuss material from the
workshop outside the group. Acting ability is not important, because we
will focus on your developing an ability to experience your own and other’s
psyche. Most of us acted out stories and tales as children - this is
similar to that but with two major differences - we fully become the
archetypal character with intention, and we fully debrief the experience.
Dorothea Wojnar 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. She has training and experience in Analytical Psychology , Transactional
Analysis, Gestalt therapy, Solution Oriented Psychotherapy, Family therapy,
Self Psychology and Psychodrama. 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.
Later in 2011 – “Watch this space!”
Sally Gillespie
Apocalypse Now: Dreams and Myths
The spectre of apocalypse is alive and well in the 21st
century, haunting our media through the dire predictions of scientific
reports on climate change, species decimation and failing oil reserves. The
message is our world is fragile and teetering on the brink of a terrifying
future. Yet this is not a new message – throughout millennia humanity has
anticipated, dreamt, and mythologised the end of world, generation after
generation. Yet for all the prophecies the world has kept turning and the
human species has flourished - so far.
This talk explores the archetypal dimensions of apocalypse through
an exploration of end of the world dreams, mythologies and millennial
movements. This material will then be considered in the light of the
current discourse on global warming and ecological degradations to
illuminate how the unconscious archetypal dimensions are expressing
themselves and shaping debates and responses in both the private and public
domain.
What truth lies in Robert Bosnak’s belief that ‘the current faith in
global warming is a religious expression of millennial fears’ which at
least in part relates to ‘the quasi-physical dream that we are that chosen
generation which lives at the limit of time’? Or in Michael Ortiz Hill’s
warning that if ‘we do not take the apocalypse into the psyche where it
truly belongs and suffer through it as a rite of passage, we will be
compelled to live it out literally...’? This talk will enter into the
heart, mind and soul of the apocalyptic imagining of our present times.
Sally Gillespie is a
Jungian psychotherapist who has recently begun a PhD exploring the topic of
Climate Change and Psyche. She is the author of The Book Of Dreaming and
Living the Dream and co-author of The Knot Of Time. Sally has been in
private practice in Sydney for over 25 years and facilitates professional
development courses in dreamwork and sandplay, She was the President of the
CG Jung Society of Sydney between 2006 and 2010.
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