Jung Club - Lectures and Special Events

EVENING LECTURES

at the Essex Church, 112 Palace Gardens Terrace, London W8.
The lectures are followed by discussion and sometimes by refreshments

Plan your journey here (Nearest Tube Station: Notting Hill Gate):

Please click on the individual lecturers names for information.
SUNDAY 6:30 September 23	The Princess And The Serpent JULIAN DAVID It is von Franz’s thesis that fairy tales are not about real life but the archetypal structures that lie behind it. We will look at what this might mean, with reference especially to two archetypal images. The first is the Serpent, ubiquitous in fairy tales but almost always early on in the story. The second is the Princess (or, as in Cinderella, the Prince) who comes at the end. Both are Self-symbols, but the serpent seems to represent what Jung called the pre-conscious Self, that experience of the totality of nature, in which self, mother and the world beyond are not to be distinguished. It is always healing to return to it. Therefore there were snakes in the healing sanctuaries of Greece, and the dream of being touched by one of them was a favourable prognosis. The marriage with the Princess comes at the end of the story. She sets difficult tasks and gives herself only when they have been done. The Mystic Marriage is a consummation, a symbol of the Self, but now conscious - when we arrive where we started and (as Eliot said) “know the place for the first time.”
THURSDAYS 7:30 - 9:00	Note earlier starting time of 7:30
October 18	The Composer as Instrument of the Objective Psyche TIA KUCHMY An exploration of the life and music of Michael Tippett (1905-1998). Tippett was an exceptionally articulate composer, who on many occasions most poignantly expressed what it felt like to be held in the autonomous grip of the creative process. There is something vast and impersonal about the archetypal imperative when it touches an artist at the level of genius; it takes possession of him and uses him as an instrument. The talk will trace the imprint of this sometimes implacable force upon inner and outer events in Tippett’s life, and upon his music.
November 22	Physics and Consciousness SHANTENA AUGUSTO SABBADINI Consciousness, the subjective aspect of the world contrasts with the objective description pro-vided by physics, chemistry, biology, neurophysiology. While the neurosciences are extending their ability to describe the nervous system, a sharp awareness of the essentially ‘other’, essentially irreducible nature of consciousness is gaining ground. This lecture aims to offer physics as an ‘instrument of wonder’, opening up surprising vistas, shaking taken-for-granted ideas about the world and helping us to better appreciate this amazing, mysterious reality we find ourselves being part of.
January 24	Tragedy and the Origins of Ethical Individualities LEON FEBRES-CORDERO The purpose of this lecture is to show how Greek institutions were related in their origins with the transformations suffered by the hero in tragedy, taking for this purpose a line from Aeschylus' Oresteia.
February 21	Sacred Waters ELIZABETH GORDON At Epiphany the Christian Church celebrates not only the coming of the Magi but also the baptism of Christ in the waters of Jordan and the miracle at the marriage at Cana when Christ turned water into wine. The pre-Christian Ancient Egyptian rite of blessing the waters, held soon after the turn of the year, was thought to purify the noxious waters of winter turning them sweet and wine-like. In this talk we shall be looking at the symbolism of sacred waters in religious traditions, alchemical texts and in the dreams of individuals.
April 17	C G Jung & Goethe: On Living the Good Life PAUL BISHOP This talk aims to help change our view of Jung’s relation to Goethe and the influence of the Classical world on German thought, by looking at the way Goethe, Schiller and Jung sought to help us to enhance our lives. This talk, based on ongoing research, will explore some of the intellectual affinities between analytical psychology and classical ideas, concentrating in particular on how Goethe’s ideas about ‘form’ and morphology influenced the development of Jung’s thought.
May 15	Two Kinds of Thinking, One Kind of Living DESMOND BIDDULPH Directed thinking is one kind and subjective thinking, which is actuated by inner motives which are often unconscious, is the other kind of thinking Jung discusses in CW5 . “Through fantasy thinking, directed thinking is brought into contact with the oldest layers of the human mind, long buried beneath the threshold of consciousness...Conscious fantasies...illustrate, through the use of mythological material, certain tendencies in the personality which are either not yet recognized or are recognized no longer.” Thinking of all kinds occupies an important place in the Buddhist view of reality that seems to be quite different from the Jungian point of view but comes together in a remarkable way with the concept of individuation where thinking is seen to revert to its proper place as one of the four functions.
June 19	Is there More to Jung? Reflections on Jung's Unpublished Works SONU SHAMDASANI The preface to Volume One of Jung's Collected Works announced the 'first complete collected edition' of his works, yet this never came about. Half a century later, we are still far from this goal, and our knowledge of Jung to date has been based on an incomplete corpus. Much of his work still remains unknown and unresearched, and thousands of pages of manuscripts, seminars and correspondence remain unpublished. This presentation will discuss the question whether such material should be regarded as 'just more of the same', or may transform contemporary understandings of his life and work.
July 17	Jung, Zen and Psychic Energy NICK LEWIN There are many parallels between Jung’s ideas about psychic energy and individuation and the Zen School’s wealth of experience in providing a way out of suffering by gentling the fires of human nature. The Zen school of Buddhism (Ch’an, {Chinese} ‘Meditation’) offers laity and religious a way within a Buddhist framework to grow and change that uses the creative interplay between daily life and meditation. The practical tradition means that Zen training and parts of Jungian psychotherapy have much in common. The overlap is deepened as the influence of Buddhist and Eastern thought runs through much of Jung’s work and this was especially so after reading the Taoist meditation text, “The Secret of the Golden Flower”. With this text, Jung was able to take his early work on psychic energy and develop his thinking about psychological containment, transformation and individuation that lies at the heart of his school of psychotherapy. The talk seeks to explore parts of the two paths and consider how each has sought to help and teach individuals to transform the primitive unconscious and become fully human.

While most of our evening speakers are analysts, we also invite speakers who work in areas such as medicine, religion or the arts whose contributions serve to widen our discussions beyond the bounds of clinical practice.

It is not necessary to book in advance for these lectures. Admission payable at the door £8 (£6 concessions).

Some lectures are recorded and tapes may be purchased for £7 (including p&p) or borrowed by members for £3.50.
No other recording is permitted.

WEDNESDAY SEMINARS

WEDNESDAY SEMINARS at the Club Library 1 More's Garden, 90 Cheyne Walk, London SW3 5BB

JANUARY 23 and 30 7.30
Nymphs, Sylphs, Pigmies, Salmanders and Other Spirits PEDRO KUJAWSKI
A psychological commentary on Paracelsus's book. Pedro is offering these seminars as a ceremony to honour the memory of his friend and colleague Cara Denman, who first gave him the book on Heraclitus.

SPECIAL EVENTS

20 - 22 JUNE 2008
Residential Weekend at Lypiatt Park

THE IMAGE

The residential study weekend at Lypiatt Park, Stroud, held through Daniel Chadwick’s kindness, will be repeated at midsummer 2008. It will continue with the theme of the first meeting in 2006, The Image. In all images there are opposites contained: it is that which gives them their energy. By the same token, in every image there is a charge of Eros in the interaction between those opposites.

Jules Cashford brings her perceptive awareness and thorough explorations of the Homeric gods and the realm of the moon to the discussion of images, Ann Colcord talks about the Italian word sprezzatura and Tiepolo, Julian David on Hermes, and Tia Kuchmy introduces us to ritual dances from Michael Tippett’s Midsummer Marriage.

Click here for more information, price and booking form

FIRST MONDAY EVENING OF EACH MONTH
except October and April
6:45pm in the Club Library

ANN COLCORD will continue to guide practices with her translation of Seasonal Yoga, which will be published in 2008.

Questions and confirmation to Ann Colcord: email or telephone 020 7352 8288

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