Contact hours:  4 CE contact hours for Licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists for this program.

MORNING SESSON:

Assenza di Compassione: Absence of Compassion

Beginning in childhood, we are taught the virtues of compassion, and that compassion demonstrates a profound sense of empathy and the capacity to care deeply about another. Conversely, we see those lacking empathy as autistic, excessively narcissistic, and even psychopathic.

However, we do well to remember that the archetypal and etymological roots of the word “compassion” refer to an act of "suffering together” and to “the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another's suffering and feel motivated to relieve that pain."  While it is a gift to feel deeply for another, it is also a great challenge to realize that another’s transgressions can be so extreme that we no longer care or feel the need to share in their suffering.

In Sunflower, The Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, Simon Wiesenthal writes of his experiences in Auschwitz, where he was asked to forgive a dying Nazi soldier. Many people in many different situations also suffer moral conflicts when withholding compassion.  However, to consciously experience an absence of compassion for one who has created such pain within our family, and our culture may in fact represent a great act of individuation.

In this presentation, I will discuss those situations that may have us turning away from compassion and the archetypal imperative and significance of this decision.

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AFTERNOON SESSION:

Forgiveness: Living with Transgressions, Hoping for Redemption

As Jung writes, "Morality is not imposed from the outside, we have it in ourselves from the start -- not the law but our moral nature without which the collective life of human society would be impossible.” (CW 7, ¶ 30).

Many years ago, I had the great honor of speaking with Elie Wiesel in a private interview about forgiveness. He explained that forgiveness is a relatively simple matter when it concerns two people. However, the hope of forgiving many people for their collective transgressions is not a personal issue but belongs “in God’s hand.” It was Wiesel’s brilliance and spiritual understanding of life that allowed him to capture the profundity of this deeply complicated issue.

Forgiveness involves a conscious recognition of those transgressions we have committed as well as those done to us, our family and culture. Since the beginning of time, humanity has sought to expiate guilt through the creation of the scapegoat, the sin-eater, and later, the confessor. Each speaks to the difficulty of living with our transgressions and the hope of exiling these disturbing contents.  It is the universality of this need that speaks to this being an archetypal issue and imperative within the Psyche.  Our denial of our transgressive behaviors deeply disturbs the psyche, and is often  converted and manifested into unconscious guilt, accompanied by self-injurious behaviors.
As we age, it is imperative to face these deeper issues of transgressions and forgiveness.  We will discuss the archetypal nature of both, and how we can find our way to redemption.