Heide M Kolb, Certified Jungian Analyst

Past Projects

Falling Apart and Coming Together: Living consciously through times of upheaval and uncertainty

Pieter Bruegel the Elder The Tower of Babel(Vienna)

 

"In the threatening situation of the world today, when people are beginning to see that everything is at stake, the projection-creating fantasy soars beyond the realm of earthly organizations and powers into the heavens, into interstellar space, where the rulers of human fate, the gods, once had their abode in the planets. Our earthly world is split into two halves, and nobody knows where a helpful solution is to come from." C.G. Jung Vol.10, para 610
In this seminar, we will try to understand the challenges and terrors of our current times through a Jungian lens. Jung's understanding of the nature and evolution of both the collective and the personal psyche will guide us in our explorations, including Jung's unique appreciation of the role of projection in relation to consciousness. We will focus on the clinical manifestations and individual symptoms, such as anxiety, stress, and the wide range of disorders on the bi-polar spectrum associated with our current political, cultural and economic divisions. We will place particular emphasis on helpful strategies and attitudes to navigate the rough waters of these difficult mood states which plague so many in our culture. Selected images from the Tarot will assist us in approximating the battlefield of this archetypal drama played out in the collective psyche.


 

The Hero's Troubled Journey: Facing Anxiety and Fear in a Divided World

5 consecutive Thursdays, beginning March 2nd, 2017

Instructor: Heide Kolb, MA, LCSW, NCPsyA

Frodo

 

In this course, we will look at the epidemic of anxiety, stress and fear that plagues so many in our hemisphere. We will apply a Jungian lens in exploring not only how to navigate these powerful and often destructive emotions but also attempt to develop an understanding beyond the personal dimension of these affects and follow Jung's intuition of a newly emerging paradigm preceded by significant and often destabilizing shifts and stirrings in the collective psyche. We will use images from alchemy and the Tarot to amplify our explorations of how to engage these powerful and often frightful feelings when the "old" is dying and no guarantees are given to us that the "new" will indeed be born.

Not required, but recommended to read Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Note: This course was held at the NY Theosophical Society, 240 East 53rd Street.


 

Loneliness versus Intimacy: Understanding the trajectory of our longings

Friday July 15, 2016

Maternal Caress

We will explore the prevalent experience of loneliness as it relates to attachment and human bonding as well as a particular Jungian perspective of loneliness as a starting point for the hero’s journey. Along the way, we will identify necessary qualities and attitudes for the capacity to experience intimacy with others, oneself and the environment at large.

For further information and to register please visit http://www.cgjungny.org/summerstudy.html


Motifs of Redemption in Fairy Tales

Monday July 13, 2015

Sophia in a Tree

In this seminar, we will explore and elaborate on a series of lectures given in Zurich in 1956 by Marie-Louise von Franz, who was a close collaborator of C.G. Jung. By following her insights, we will discover how fairy tales and particularly their images of redemption open up a way for us to engage our own personal complexes and contribute to our understanding of the process of psychological growth and individuation. We will also reflect on some core concepts of Jungian thought, such as the shadow, anima, animus and the Self. Creative writing exercises will help us to ground some of the images in our own personal experience. Please bring a journal.


I was moderating

Ensoulment: A film by Lorís Simón Salum about the Feminine in Western Culture

Monday July 13, 2015

Soul

Tuesday, April 14, 2015
6:30 pm– 8:00 pm
at the C.G. Jung Foundation of New York
28 East 39th Street

From the theories of C.G. Jung, the film Ensoulment will explore the feminine principle in present day Western society. What is the feminine? The feminine is a group of genderless characteristics related to emotions, intuition, creativity, receptiveness, and nurturance, expressions that we tend to push aside in order to give space to reason, logical thinking and structure. Ensoulment tells a story that proposes recovering the feminine without losing the masculine. We need to be whole, to be happy and to be fulfilled.

Ensoulment brings about a unique perspective on the psyche. With a diverse group of commentators, including James Hollis, Abigail Disney, Serene Jones, Cynthia Eller, and Anne Fausto-Sterling (among many others), we bring you the animated story of filmmaker Lorís Simón Salum as she embarks on a journey in search of meaning, belonging and the path back to her true self.

Filmmaker Lorís Simón Salum holds a psychology degree from Rice University. She is a Visual Media consultant at Literal Magazine and recently became the Vice President for Women in Film and Television, Houston. Among the many awards the film has won are the Fall 2014 Platinum Award from the International Independent Film Awards and a Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Barcelona Film Festival.


Jung in Everyday Life: What does it mean to be Jungian in today's world?

Friday, Sept 24, 2014 at the C.J. Jung Center, 408 Franklin St, Buffalo, NY 14202

modern abstract art

The Many Faces of Loneliness

The Many Faces of Loneliness

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
from Eleanor Rigby by Lennon/McCartney

If a man knows more than others, he becomes lonely.
C.G. Jung

At a time when social media claims to turn anyone into a friend with a computer click and a culture that wants us to believe that loneliness can best be remedied by adding more people to one’s life, virtual or otherwise, loneliness, often borne shamefully in secrecy, remains one of the most common complaints and ailments.

In this workshop, we will explore the meaning and possible purpose of loneliness through a Jungian lens. We will reflect on its many different manifestations and qualities and differentiate between a debilitating and stagnating loneliness and the potentially transformational one. Included in our reflections will be the relationship between loneliness and grief and death and dying within life, in its literal as well as symbolical sense. We will focus on what kind of attitude the conscious mind needs to develop when encountering the emptiness where nothing and no one seems to be there.

We will trace Jung’s own, often paradoxical, relationship to loneliness and how the solitary path of bearing one’s own uniqueness cannot be separated from Jung’s notion of individuation. We will include examples from literature in our reflections.

This workshop is both didactic and experiential. It is intended for anyone who wishes to develop a better understanding of how to make sense of this grand ailment of our times, including psychotherapists and other practitioners who encounter some of the many lonely people in their consultation rooms.

Participants were encouraged to bring a journal.


Goethes Faust: A Gateway to the World of  C.G. Jung

Faust Dreamstime

Faust was Jung’s heritage. For all who claim to be Jungian, it will also be theirs. (Edward F. Edinger)

Few literary works provide such a comprehensive and authoritative image of the challenges of individual existence in modern Western culture as Goethe’s Faust does. This masterwork of German literature was profoundly significant to C.G. Jung and to the evolution of analytical psychology. Jung’s thoughts on Faust are woven throughout his Collected Works and letters.

This monumental play demands many levels of interpretation. In this seminar, we will trace Jung’s thoughts of this Opus Magnum as a collective dream of the Western psyche. We will follow Jung’s focus on the alchemical symbolism in Goethe’s Faust as it reflects the quest of individuation for the personal and collective Western psyche. We will explore how these dynamics are encountered in the process of a Jungian depth analysis, and how techniques, such as Active Imagination, can be utilized to further the process in clinical work.

Archetypal figures and events from Faust will guide us in our attempt to understand the psyche of modern humanity. While Goethe’s play will be our primary source, we will also use selected imagery from literature and opera to elucidate Faustian dynamics.

While we focus on Goethe’s Faust as a poetic vision of the psyche of modern man, we will also explore its relevance for a post-modern world and the trajectory and telos of Jung’s vision for the evolution of psyche.


Hekate ~ Hag, Crone, Queen of the Night ~ Death and Rebirth in the Feminine Mysteries

William Blake

In this seminar, we will explore the image of the powerful goddess Hekate as an archetypal representation of a dynamic in the development of the feminine psyche. Tracking the evolution of her image and symbols from a great Mother Goddess to the Queen of the Night in Greek mythology to the Witch Goddess of the Christian Church fathers, we will understand her demonization in our culture and venture toward her inherent dangers of pulling us into states of “madness,” or soul-killing envy and bitterness, when thwarted or ignored. Yet, we will also see that when Hekate is met with an open heart at the crossroads or our lives, it is she who facilitates rebirth when all seems dead or lost and it is she who has the capacity to reconnect us to the sacred feminine. We will anchor our journey through Hekate’s images, myths and trials in our personal lives with discussion and writing (please bring a journal)


Bluebeard ~ A Killer to Reckon with: How to Survive the Souls Predator

Rigon Bluebeard

Jung experienced the core of the archetypal shadow as an encompassing destructive and fragmenting force. It is a predator within the psyche. This predatory force can manifest as a psychopathic torturer in outer reality or as a tormentor who attacks us from within. The dark eros of the fairytale of Bluebeard will guide us through its various manifestations in lived life and will show us ways that psyche can escape the grip of her own inherent destructiveness.


Rigon Bluebeard

I was delighted to be a part of a panel discussion at the C.G. Jung Foundation of New York to honor the 50th anniversary of Jung's death.


Alchemy, the Ancient Art of Transformation

Alchemy, the Ancient Art of Transformation

The aim (of alchemy) can never be what we want for ourselves but what, through the most labyrinthine paths, the psyche wants for itself.  Julian David, Jungian analyst

One of C.G. Jung's great accomplishments is his translation of alchemical processes into psychological dynamics. In this course we will take an in-depth look into this centerpiece of Jung's psychological work. Both the alchemists and Jung looked upon their work as a way of life, albeit one that requires dedication and sincerity of intention.

Via alchemical imagery, we will explore Jungian key concepts such as the Self, Active Imagination and the transcendent function. Our exploration of alchemy will lead us to understand more of the spiritual nature of Jung's analytical psychology.

Together we will study images and selected readings on the subject and also discuss alchemical motifs in film and literature.

This course will assist all psychotherapists, practitioners of the healing arts and individual seekers who are interested in the process of growth and realization of the psyche. Our aim is to gain insight into the nature of the lived and felt experiences that form the path of individuation.


Jung in Everyday Life

Jung in Everyday Life

Both Freud and Jung envisioned psychoanalysis as a new “Weltanschauung.” Before being assimilated by the medical model, psychoanalysis existed as a new vision of relating to and understanding the world within and around us. Jung always emphasized the need to viscerally experience his work. Jung’s work is best understood if one imagines it as a life long yet daily practice of relating to psyche within and around us.

In this seminar we will discern tools and techniques aimed at integrating Jung’s view of psyche into our daily lives. Inevitably we will have to revisit Jung’s understanding of the personal and archetypal dimension of the Shadow and the dynamics and purpose of projections. We will discuss the need for a balanced attitude towards dreams, fantasies, daydreams and other manifestations of the unconscious and explore Jungian work as a spiritual tradition. Story and images will accompany us in our attempt to translate Jung’s work into our own personal daily practice.


Answer to Job

I grieve for you my Brother: Jung's answer to Job: Finding Meaning in Trauma and Suffering

In this course we will explore one of Jung’s most influential, albeit controversial, works, his Answer to Job. Often regarded as the essence of the Jungian myth, we will engage some of its central themes, such as the role of human consciousness in the face of terror and trauma and the reality of the “divine drama” in the unconscious autonomous psyche. We will look at the spiritual dimension in Jung’s work which offers a depth-psychological examination of the Judeo-Christian myth and a new paradigm for inner development and transformation. Current events and selected works from literature and film will help us ground our explorations and approximate our role in the great drama of the objective psyche.


Goddess

The Lion and the Antelope

At its core, Jungian thought has always mirrored the newly arising mythologem, which can be poetically expressed as the Return of the Goddess and psychologically viewed as the recovery of the feminine principle in the human psyche.

We will look at the relationship between the return of the feminine and the notion of an Ecological Intelligence, a term coined by South African Jungian Analyst Ian MacCallum.

How can we begin to reconcile the Human-Nature split? What is the nature of the newly emerging consciousness? What are the consequences if we fail to make the psychological leap? These are some of the questions we will engage. Particular emphasis will be given to the role of aggression, violence and destruction that seem to plague or current times, but are also unavoidable consorts of the returning Goddess stirring in the depths of our unconscious psyche.


kaleidoscope

The C.G. Jung Foundation of New York: One-Week Intensive Summer Study Programs 2008

Living with Integrity: Understanding the Role of the Archetypal Charlatan and the Trickster in One's Life

The dynamics of the charlatan and the trickster seem to be in conflict with living with integrity. Yet, in this seminar we will discover how one can only move towards an authentic life when one becomes conscious of the psychic reality of the Charlatan within oneself as well as in the world at large. We will explore how to relate to this powerful archetypal force without identifying nor blindly projecting it into others.


kaleidoscope

The C.G. Jung Foundation presented: Charlatans, Healers, Visionaries, False Prophets: What is What and Does it Matter?
A Jungian Exploration of the Flakiness of Life

Every spiritual truth is gradually reified and turns into a substance or tool in the hand of man.

C. G. Jung, CW 13

In this workshop, we will discover how we can relate to the psychic reality of the Charlatan, neither identifying with it nor blindly projecting it onto others. From Jung to Einstein, anyone who has made a major contribution to our culture has been accused of being a charlatan by some. The image and the dynamics of the Charlatan are a specific appearance of the archetypal Shadow that we can fall prey to when Power overtakes Eros.

We will examine how the archetype of the Charlatan shapes our relationship to political, cultural and religious leaders and also to the world of psychoanalysis, Jung and the Jungian community. The controversial figure of Carlos Castaneda, a charlatan for many, a spiritual teacher for others, will serve as a focal point in our attempt to comprehend the Healer/Charlatan paradox. Jung’s understanding of the power of the Black Magician as it is contained in the ever-present shadow of the Healer, makes this workshop relevant for any practitioner in a healing profession, any explorer of consciousness or any seeker of meaning and truth.


Mjollnir

The Battle for Psyche

Today’s world is dominated by warfare and environmental changes that make the threat of extinction more real than ever. But in addition to all the external battles and changes, there is another, less visible, fight occurring and that is the battle for psyche. In this course we will define and approach psyche as a consciously held relationship to the invisible world that is in danger of disappearing in our current age. We will discuss Jung’s appreciation of the individual psyche or soul as well as the world soul, the anima mundi. We will explore the role of the imagination and the impact of technology on our relationship to psyche and we will investigate tools and attitudes that allow us to become stewards, even warriors in the battle for psyche. Selected readings and examples from film and the art world will be provided.

 


Carl Jung 1912

A Jungian Perspective on the Idea of Evil

The Jungian Advanced Seminars presented by the C.G. Jung Foundation and the C.G. Jung Institute of New York (a fourteen week seminar)

I have discovered that all evil comes from this, man’s being unable to sit still in a room – Blaise Pascal

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction – Blaise Pascal

The idea of evil presents us with an eternal problem. No matter how we try to define it, its elusive nature always evades our grasp. The problem of evil does not allow for quick solutions. As clinicians we can sense its presence in the dynamics of sadism and masochism and in the fragmentation of psychotic processes.

In this course we will try to understand how the notion of how unimaginable evil manifests and is experienced in the human psyche. We will begin by approaching the problem of evil from a theoretical and phenomenological perspective. Then we will trace how depth psychologists from Freud to Jung to Melanie Klein, Wilfried Bion, Thomas Ogden, Michael Eigen and Donald Kalshed have attempted to translate the metaphysical concept of evil into psychological dynamics.

Jung struggled intensely and wrote much on the problem of evil, although not in a systematic way. We will spend time exploring Jung’s personal confrontation with evil, which was his experience of Nazi Germany.

We will also explore several perspectives on how we may be opened to incursions from the dark side of the Self. And we will engage with the Jungian concept of integrating the shadow and explore how that can help us to relate to and even protect us from what we experience as evil in ourselves, in our patients and in the world at large. To amplify the dynamics of the problem, we will use fairytales and contemporary contributions from film and literature.


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