Creativity :
Mythic Themes and Archetypal Image

All class sessions are scheduled for Wednesdays, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Tuition for each 14-week seminar: $475
Please see Registration Application for multiple-registration tuition discounts.

Seminar #1: Fall 2007: 14 weeks
Wednesdays, Sep 5 – Dec 19, 2007
(excluding Sep 12 and Nov 21, 2007)

Jungian Perspectives of
Artistic Creativity:
Individual and Collective Transformation

Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him. As a human being he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is “man” in a higher sense – he is “collective man,” a vehicle and molder of the unconscious psychic life of mankind.

— C. G. Jung Vol. 15, par 157

In The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature, Jung described the creative process as the unconscious activation of an archetypal image and the shaping of this image into a finished work. He went on to say it is a living thing implanted in the human psyche, an autonomous complex which has a life of its own outside ordinary consciousness. This autonomous creative complex arises from the collective unconscious, which consists of primordial images, or archetypes. The artistic creation of the image(s) forms a new symbol.

This new symbol, or third, is equivalent to the transcendent function. Once the transcendent function has been recognized it can be psychologically analyzed. This new symbol has the potential to increase consciousness in the individual and in the collective. The symbol takes on a social significance and the art images that have been brought up from the collective unconscious can transform society. Jung believed that the artist was responsible for bringing up from the unconscious images that needed to be translated and integrated into the language of the current society.

This course is didactic and experiential, focusing on Jung’s perspectives of artistic creativity and the understanding of art as a psychological phenomenon. What art means for each participant and for mankind, and what position it occupies in human development, will be examined. Within a created temenos, the group will focus on historical and contemporary works of art and will become adept at examining each piece for the impact it has on them personally and collectively.

C.G. Jung’s CW 15, The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature, and Erich Neumann’s Art and the Creative Unconscious are texts that will be read during the course.

Instructor: Jane Selinske, EdD, LCSW

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Seminar #2: Spring 2008: 14 weeks
Wednesdays, Jan 30 – May 7, 2008 (excluding March 19, 2008)

Memoir and Mythic Motifs

In psychological work, we move between archetypal and personal material, linking perspectives to discover the mythic motifs that structure and give meaning to our individual narratives. We also ground the mythic symbols we find in dreams and other material by finding their analogues in personal experience. Similar linkages in the waking dreams reveal themselves as we begin to create the memoirs of our lives.

— Sylvia Brinton Perera

This is a workshop for people who are considering writing creative non-fiction — memoir, personal essay, one-person performance piece - or already have one in the works. Beginners are welcome.

We will focus on accessing the voice and heart of the work by learning how to pull out the meaningful story via exercises, conversation, literary example and dreams. We will go for powerful beginnings and gripping characters by learning to delve deeply – and to reach what is most archetypally compelling. Expect to walk away from the workshop with something solid on paper and an urge to discover more about the mythic themes that pervade your narratives.

Memories, Dreams, Reflections, C.G. Jung’s memoir, is required reading.

Instructor: Kate Lardner
Sylvia Brinton Perera will offer additional commentary.

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Please choose your seminar carefully in that there will be
no refunds issued once classes have begun.

These seminars are intended both for the general public and for professionals. This program is being co-sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP) and the C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology and the C.G. Jung Institute of New York. NAAP is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. NAAP maintains responsibility for this program and its content. 21 continuing education credits are offered for the 14-week seminar.

Please note that credit is granted separately for each of the seminars. The program is subject to change without notice.

For further credit information and related administrative processing fee, please call the C. G. Jung Foundation offices at 212-697-6430.

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The Jungian Advanced Seminars

FACULTY

Kate Larnder teaches writing in New York City. She has contributed to various publications, The New York Times, Good Housekeeping and Town & Country among them. She is currently working on a play with journalist and biographer, Patricia Bosworth. Ms. Lardner is the author of Shut Up He Explained: The Memoir of a Blacklisted Kid (Ballantine Books, 2004).

Sylvia Brinton Perera is a Jungian analyst in private practice and a writer who explores mythic themes that illuminate personal issues.

Jane Selinske, Ed.D., LCSW, NCPsyA-LP, MT-BC, is a licensed Jungian analyst, a certified teacher and trainer of Mandala Assessment through the Association of Teachers of Mandala Assessment and a Board Certified Music Therapist. She is a Fellow in the Association for Music and Imagery and is trained in the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery that uses music to clinically access the unconscious. She is currently practicing in New Jersey.

Advanced Seminars Reservation Form

›› Advanced Seminars Reservation Form (PDF format) ‹‹

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