The Collective Unconscious in the Age of Neuroscience: Severe Mental Illness and Jung in the 21st Century

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

Is all psychosis the same? Depth psychology treats it as such, yet medical models of severe mental illness say different. While medication may be frowned upon in some Jungian circles, some disorders cannot be treated without it. Is there common ground? Can Jung’s bedrock notion of a collective unconscious coexist within scientific advances that have occurred since his death? The answer is a resounding yes. This workshop will explore the remarkable prescience of Jung’s work, how medical models actually advance his theory, and the challenges and opportunities for analytical psychology moving forward.

Included in our program will be a personal journey of enchantment, then disillusionment, with Jungian practice through the presenter’s own struggle with bipolar I disorder and psychosis. The research Dr. Durchslag will share was born out of the lived conundrum of reconciling medical and depth psychological models of treatment. In the end, her journey led to a renewed and deeper connection to Carl Jung’s body of work.

This workshop will allow participants to view these questions through an analysis of four autobiographical narratives, including the presenter’s, which highlight the consistency of connection to numinous and transpersonal collective material. A brief overview of medications used in the treatment of severe mental illness will offer a vision of how this transcendent material appears to manifest at a physiological level, and shed light on Jung’s later exploration of synchronicity and the ultimate unity between psyche and matter.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Participants will be able to:

1. Define severe mental illness from perspective of both medical and depth psychological models.
2. Use case material to highlight challenges for depth psychology in regard to bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia.
3. Build familiarity with the divergent paths of classical and developmental post-Jungian theory and practice.
4. Build global understanding of current medications for treatment of severe mental illness.
5. Utilize case material to highlight how severe mental illness aligns with basic tenets of analytical psychology.
6. Identify and explore how individuation and notions of Self coincide/diverge in psychotic disorders.
7. Build dialogue related to human physiology and a collective psyche.

Hallie B. Durchslag, PhD, LISW-S, lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where she teaches, writes, and maintains a private practice as a Jungian-based, psychodynamic psychotherapist. She began her career as a social worker in the arena of Community Development after earning a Master of Science in Social Administration (M.S.S.A) at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. Shifting toward a clinical practice in 2009, she earned her doctorate (PhD) in Clinical Psychology with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Dr. Durchslag has an abiding interest in the complexity of what makes us both human and transcendent beings. Her research over the past 10 years has looked at this subject through the lens of severe mental illnesses and their physiological connection to Jungian theory. Her book, The Collective Unconscious in the Age of Neuroscience: Severe Mental Illness and Jung in the 21st Century (Routledge) was released in July 2020. She maintains her commitment to the macro side of social work as the curator of The Anima Mundi Project, which looks at soul-based approaches to holistic personal development and community-building. She is a Past-President and current Honorary Board member of the Jung Educational Center of Cleveland.

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.