Projects
I am beginning the year 2013 with a project that feels as relevant as ever in these uncertain times
please join me for
Goethe’s Faust: A Gateway to the World of C.G. Jung
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.
at the C.G.Jung Foundation of New York, a 14 week long seminar starting on January 30, 2013
For more information please see
