The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology

Seminar #1: Fall 2008: 14 weeks
Wednesdays, Sep 3 – Dec 17, 2008
(excluding Oct 8 and Nov 26, 2008)

Interpreting Legends
and Fairy Tales

Jung taught that myths, legends and fairy tales all portray the interactive dynamics of the archetypes of the collective unconscious: not how individuals may behave (as in novels or short stories), but how universal archetypes interact with each other. Such stories explain, in metaphorical language, how the personality organizes itself and how it may mature or become destructive. These stories cross all cultural and temporal barriers: myths from previous millennia or from recent stone-age cultures are fully relevant to our western 21st century psychology.

For example, the ancient Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, variants of which are found worldwide from Polynesia to Africa and Siberia, illuminates issues such as sexuality, letting go of one’s children, accepting life’s dark side and finding one’s creativity. At the deepest level it is a story of death and rebirth.

Because our dreams use the same metaphorical language as fairy tales (usually commenting on the dreamer’s individual psychology and sometimes relating that to archetypes), we use similar techniques to interpret both dreams and myths. This class will help you to interpret all forms of metaphorical or symbolic messages from the psyche.

We will study stories from Africa, Polynesia, Siberia, the Middle East and Europe. Students will prepare for each class by reading the assigned story and trying themselves to interpret it. Then we will work together in the class to arrive at an interpretation, in an interpretation-by-jury process. Our discussions should be lively and fun!

Preparation for the course includes listening to several audio-recordings of fairy tales interpreted by the instructor. Information is available upon registration.

Instructor: Maxson J. McDowell, PhD

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Seminar #2: Spring 2009: 14 weeks
Wednesdays, Jan 28 – May 6, 2009
(excluding April 8, 2009)

Genesis and Depth Psychology

“It is not so much to understand what myth I am living, but rather, what myth is living through me.”

— C. G. Jung

Carl Jung was acutely aware throughout his career of the rich resources for clinical psychological insight contained in the world’s sacred literature. The son of a Reformed Pastor, he was intimately familiar with the Bible from an early age, and frequently drew upon his knowledge of that literature to illustrate his theory that archetypes of the collective unconscious pointed to an objective psyche that lay behind and influenced concrete human behavior.

The Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible is a foundational document of Western religious imagination, and forms the starting point for many of our culture’s major assumptions about the substance of and interactions between human life, nature, and the divine order. In this course, we will read the Book of Genesis with an eye to its insight into the patterns of the archetypal patterns of human emotions and behavior.

Instructor: David Robb, MDiv, STM

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Please choose your seminar carefully in that there will be
no refunds issued once classes have begun.

The Jungian Advanced Seminars

FACULTY

Maxon J. McDowell, PhD, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City, where he works with individuals and groups. He is the President of the C.G. Jung Foundation and a former Board member of the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. He is on the faculty of the Jung Foundation’s Continuing Education program, the C.G. Jung Institute of New York and the Westchester Institute for Training in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.

David Robb, MDiv, STM, is a clinical pastoral psychotherapist who practices in NYC. He is a graduate of Yale College, Union Theological Seminary (in Psychiatry and Religion), and the Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute, of the Institutes of Religion and Health. He is a faculty member of the C.G. Jung Institute of New York. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, he also currently serves as a Minister, Scholar-in-Residence, and Director of Adult Education programs at All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan.

TUITION

Tuition for each 14-week seminar is $475. Students registering for both seminars will pay a discounted $800.

Advanced Seminars Reservation Form

›› Advanced Seminars Reservation Form (PDF format) ‹‹

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The C.G. Jung Foundation and The C.G. Jung Institute of New York present

The Jungian Advanced Seminars Fall 2008 – Spring 2009

Advanced Seminars Reservation Form