Journeys through Underworlds: The Psyche Keeps Score

A daylong seminar led by Mark Napack, MA, STL, MS

The "underworld" is a symbol that holds many meanings relevant to psychology and psychotherapy--the unconscious, the dream, as well as myths and stories of the underworld. The underworld is not alien to this world. It is not even under. As C.G. Jung pointed out, the underworld of the unconscious exerts its effects in the world in which we live, personal and collective. This workshop will explore underworld journeys as archetypally expressed in classic underworld tales and myths. Aeneas, Odysseus, and Dante, as well as Orpheus and Persephone, will be joined with psychological insights. In addition to psychotherapeutic applications, our goal will be to learn from these journeys in order to come through to a belonging in this world with greater wholeness.

In our exploration of the underworld, we will look at the contribution of Jungian analyst Donald Kalsched to trauma theory and psychotherapy and analysis. We will also look at ways in which Kalsched's theory and framework may be further developed. The psyche keeps score and, when exile and trauma hit, they register symbolically and create a distinctive psychological underworld. The journey out of this type of dissociative underworld involves a unique interplay of relational and symbolic processes, which will be elucidated.

Not all underworlds are expressive of trauma bonds. The mytho-poetic dimension of the psyche has revealed other types of underworlds that serve and symbolize other purposes. It can hold the dead, disowned and exiled parts of self, and even the soul (anima/animus, in Jungian terms). We will take a look at some of these, since there are many, in order order to get a sense of the underworld's continuing relevance for human existence and the practice of psychotherapy. While the psyche keeps score, the journey through the underworld contains the possibility of true redemptions, healing recoveries and new life.

Contact hours: 6 CE contact hours for Licensed NYS Social Workers, Psychoanalysts and Creative Arts Therapists for this program.

Learning Objectives

Describe psychological meanings and therapeutic relevance of myths and stories of the underworld.
Explain the symbolization specific to trauma in the underworld.
Analyze the resolution of trauma as presented in the underworld.
Disclose the role of Jung's "transcendent function" in underworld journeys.
Identify what "underworlds" look like in this world through various video examples.
Describe the therapeutic role of relationship and symbol in the journey out of the underworld.

Mark Napack, MA, STL, MS, studied archetypal patterns in comparative literature at Columbia University, after which he applied Jungian theory to the redemption motif in medieval theology for his thesis at Fordham University. He further studied Jung, psychology, and the history of religion at Loyola and Catholic Universities. A long-time graduate and college instructor, Mark has presented at international conferences and his work has appeared in scholarly journals and books in English and French. Mark Napack, LCPC, is also a Jungian informed psychotherapist in North Bethesda, MD.

Contact hours: Six 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.

Saturday, April 18, 2020: 9:30 am–4:30 p.m.
at the C.G. Jung Foundation, 28 East 39th Street, New York City