Presented by
Maine Jung Center
According to C. G. Jung, the human personality contains a vital spark or sacred core of aliveness (soul) that must personalize and embody in the course of a person’s development if optimal psychological health and ensouled living is to become possible. But when trauma strikes the developing psyche of a child, a dissociation or split occurs in which the vital core of the self retreats into the unconscious, where it continues to live in “suspended animation” under a spell cast by the powers of the psyche’s survival system. Depth Psychotherapy offers the opportunity for renewed contact with the lost soul and hence for renewed feeling-life, creativity, and relatedness—but not without fierce resistance thrown up by the psyche’s defensive powers.
In this slide-illustrated lecture and workshop, we will explore this archetypal struggle with the help of clinical examples, dreams, and mythological amplifications. New findings in attachment theory, affective neuro-science and somatically attuned ways of working in the psychotherapy process will also be discussed.
