Forgiveness – A Jungian Approach

March 29, 2025
11:00 am - 4:00 pm EST
a Zoom seminar led by
Renee M. Cunningham, MFT

 

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

"And know that there is in thee somewhat of his nature, which will never be corrupted..." C.G. Jung

This presentation will explore the archetypal experience of forgiveness from psychological, spiritual, and religious perspectives, with the Jungian approach of forgiveness as the central paradigm of contemplation, circumambulating whether or not forgiveness is possible and, if so, how. Utilizing alchemy and myth the presenter will discuss, define and amplify the process of the soul’s development. When completed, the participant will be able to understand why forgiveness is an archetypal experience unique to the person(s) involved, transforming both the forgiver and the sinner, and in therapy, both the analyst and analysand. The participant will come to understand the development of soul as one’s relationship to the self and other (both inner and outer “other”) emerges in the process.

Participants will observe film, art, and alchemical plates from the Rosarium Philosophorum in the definition and discussion of forgiveness. Jung’s concepts of ego, shadow, complex, archetype and soul will be discussed, defined and amplified as they apply to the archetypal experience of forgiveness.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

1.  Describe forgiveness as an archetypal experience that is central to the individuation process.

2.  Define forgiveness and describe the difference between redemption, reconciliation, and atonement, as these concepts apply to forgiveness.

3.  Demonstrate the Jungian approach to forgiveness by presenting and contemplating several alchemical plates in the Rosarium Philosophorum.

4.  Describe the fundamental relationship between the ego/S(s)elf and how this relationship may affect one’s capacity to forgive.

 

Renée M. Cunningham, MFT, is a Diplomate Jungian analyst in private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona. Renée has been a therapist for over thirty years and is currently a senior training analyst and President of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, Texas Chapter. Renée is an international speaker, educator, and author. She is the author of Archetypal Nonviolence: Jung, King and Culture Through the Eyes of Selma, Routledge, 2020, and contributing writer to the books Jungian Analytical Psychology in a World on Fire, Routledge, 2024, Psychedlics and Individuation, Chiron, 2023, and Feminisms and Technology, Routledge, 2024.

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Suggested readings:

Sandoval, Jennifer. A Psychological Inquiry into the Meaning and Concept of Forgiveness, Routledge, 2017.

Hillman, J. A Blue Fire, Harper Perennial, 1989.

The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, “The Psychology of the Transference,” Princeton University Press, 1954.

The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 14, Mysterium Coniunctionis, “The Conjunction,” Princeton University Presee, 1954.

Wertz, Ursula, Trauma and Beyond, Routeledge, 2020.

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

The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc. is recognized by New York State Education Department’s State Board of Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0350.

The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts. #P-0015.

C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists, #CAT-0068.

This is an online program via Zoom. This program will not be recorded.