Bridging East and West

The Asheville Jung Center is presenting a Global Web Based Seminar on Thursday, September 20, 2012, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST. The title is “Bridging West and East: C.G. Jung and Richard Wilhelm, a Fateful Relationship.” Richard Wilhelm was a German sinologist, theologian, and missionary who was most well known for his translation of the I Ching. Presenters are Murray Stein, Training and Supervising Analyst at the International School of Analytical Psychology (ISAPZurich) in Zürich, Switzerland;  Bettina Wilhelm, granddaughter of Richard Wilhelm and a professional filmmaker; and  Shiuya Sara Liuh, a Training Candidate at ISAPZurich and a psychotherapist in practice in Taipei, Taiwan.

In 2012 Bettina Wilhelm  published an 87-minute documentary, “Wisdom of Changes,” about her grandfather and the I Ching. You can view the trailer here.

For the story in Carl Jung’s words, here is an excerpt from Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

A Visual “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”

Artist Austin Kleon renders Jung’s memoir, Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

“We are a collage—a remix—of our ancestors. We have spiritual DNA, as well as physical, and our lot in life is to answer the questions posed by the people who came before us . . . ”

Finding the Treasure

“In myths the hero is the one who conquers the dragon, not the one who is devoured by it. And yet both have to deal with the same dragon. Also, he is no hero who never met the dragon, or who, if he once saw it, declared afterwards that he saw nothing. Equally, only one who has risked the fight with the dragon and is not overcome by it wins the hoard, the “treasure hard to attain.” He alone has a genuine claim to self-confidence, for he has faced the dark ground of his self and thereby has gained himself. . . . He has acquired the right to believe that he will be able to overcome all future threats by the same means.”—Carl Jung

“In myth the treasure is always guarded by a dragon or monster bigger and more powerful than the Goddess or any trickster. The dragon or serpent is very often the outer symbolic form for the Father figure from which the hero was separated at birth or during childhood. Without his spiritual experience, which is now at a premium, as is his fearlessness and wisdom, he would not be ready for the awesome moment when he comes face to face with his real spiritual self, his inner god. More often than not the dragon or serpent which guards the treasure is a fire-breathing dragon. As we have already seen fire in myth is symbolic of spirit and self-consciousness, and the serpent or dragon isn’t an evil tempter but is a symbol of Eternity and Wisdom. All these symbols together create the well known motif of the fire-breathing dragon – Spirit and self-consciousness co-existing with Eternal Wisdom. This is a composite symbol and so some myths may not use all the motifs contained within the fire-breathing dragon symbol, but use only certain aspects.”—Harry Young

“ . . . before we come to our own hearts we are destined to take endless journeys climbing mountains, swimming oceans
and trying to reach the stars. In the process, we inevitably will become lost, stuck or trapped. We take hopelessly wrong turns, try to fly too close to the sun or drown in our own sea of projections. Then somehow, mysteriously our individual lives through the slender threads of fate return us to the source from which we come and find what turns out to be buried treasure in our own back yards, the truth that resides in our own hearts, the golden world. This is the stuff of life. The journey Dr. Jung called the process of individuation.”—Robert A. Johnson, from the foreword to Michael DeMaria‘s book, Ever Flowing On

Webinar “A Dangerous Method”

The Asheville Jung Center is hosting a second webinar on the film “A Dangerous Method.” This one is titled “A Dangerous Method,” the Film – Historical and Clinical Reflections” and the presenters are Murray Stein, President of the International School of Analytical Psychology (ISAPZ) in Zurich, Switzerland; Angela Graf-Nold, historian of psychoanalysis; and Jan Wiener, a senior training analyst at the Society of Analytical Psychology in London. The date for the webinar is Thursday, March 8, 2012, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM (Eastern US Time Zone).

To register, click here.

The first webinar on the movie, “A Dangerous Method” Indeed: A Look at the Current Film on Carl Jung, is available now as a DVD for home study.

CE credits are available for both, as with the rest of the webinars the Asheville Jung Center produces.

Jung’s Private Library

The Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung holds the books from Jung’s private library and has embarked on a project to digitize them all for research purposes.

“The main content of Jung’s private library was contemporary literature of the 19th and 20th century, mainly about medicine, psychiatry, psychology and philosophy. Additionally there are a great number of books on antique cultures, gnosis, christian symbols, eastern religion, ethnology and occultism. The library also contains a collection of about 300 rare books (printed before 1800) on alchemy, theurgy and kabbala, as well as antique literature on dreams, writings of church fathers and of the latin and greek classic.”

You can access the collection at this site—ability to read German, French, Latin would be helpful!

“Mortensen calls for release of more Jung letters”

This popped up as the main headline on Yahoo’s Entertainment News this morning. You can read the very short article here.

 

Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

New York artist Elizabeth Huey recently had an exhibition at the Heiner Contemporary gallery in Washington DC which featured the above painting titled “Freud and Jung.” The truth vs. fiction part is the photo shown below that the artist used as a reference. The photo is supposedly real, taken in 1908 when Freud and Jung were lecturing in the U.S.

Mark Vernon’s Series on Jung

I posted earlier about Mark Vernon’s series about Carl Jung in the Guardian—here’s an update with links to more installments.

Part 1: Taking Inner Life Seriously
Part 2: A Troubled Relationship with Freud–and the Nazis
Part 3: Encountering the Unconscious
Part 4: Do Archetypes Exist?
Part 5: Psychological Types
Part 6: Synchronicity
Part 7: The power of acceptance
Part 8: Religion and the search for meaning

Jung on Facebook

Yes, you can even find Jung on Facebook, along with everybody else. To see what people are posting about Carl Jung, check out the site Trend in Facebook and search on “Carl Jung.” You can also follow the following Jung-related sites on Facebook:

AshevilleJungCenter
JungCentral

C. G. Jung Biographical Archive Recordings Digitized

The Center for the History of Medicine at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard has announced that the audio recordings of the C. G. Jung Biographical Archive have been digitized and are now available to researchers. The collection includes 143 oral history taped interviews, 1 film commentary, and 2 papers from individuals about their relationship with C. G. Jung.