The absent father effect is a love story, but an unrequited one. Harm is done due to the presence of his absence, affecting a daughter—and the father--in body, mind, and soul. For many reasons, the father is an essential aspect of the psyche and significant for the daughter’s psychological and physical life expressed personally and culturally. Topics of the psyche affected by the absent father include the negative father complex, puella archetype and examining the outdated concept of the animus. We will focus on the bleaker side of daughters and fathers’ relationship in order to shed light on the lack, symptoms, problems, as well as the repair and hope. 

Susan E. Schwartz, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and clinical psychologist is a member the International Association of Analytical Psychology. She has taught in numerous Jungian programs and presented at Conferences, workshops and lectures in the USA and many other countries. Susan has articles in several journals and chapters in books on Jungian analytical psychology. She has a current book published by Routledge in 2020 entitled, The Absent Father Effect on Daughters, Father Desire, Father Wounds. Her newest book, The Fragility of Self in the ‘As-If’ Personality: Imposter Syndrome and Illusions in the Mirror, will be published by Routledge in 2023. Her analytical private practice is in Paradise Valley, Arizona, USA and her website is: www.susanschwartzphd.com

Liminal defines the time in-between what was and what next.  All of us go through significant liminal times in our lives many times, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. From childhood on, major events happened to us or we made decisions that were life-affecting or life altering. There is no going back to "what was" when significant relationships are disturbed, or family, work, education, health, religion, are deeply affected. Usually liminal experiences are personal. But since the pandemic, “liminal” has affected everyone with differences only in degree.  Death, isolation, hostility, loneliness, despair, suicide, and addictions are a range of negative responses. But for others, especially those spiritual and creative people who are economically and physically safe and are aware of privilege and humility, the question of what to do now and "what next" can be deeply provocative of individuation—are you becoming who you were meant to be? 

Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, an internationally known speaker and author of thirteen influential books in over one hundred foreign editions: The Tao of Psychology, Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, Ring of Power, Crossing to Avalon, Close to the Bone, Goddesses in Older Women, Crones Don’t Whine, The Millionth Circle, Like A Tree, Urgent Message From Mother, Moving Toward the Millionth Circle, and Artemis: The Indomitable Spirit in Everywoman. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a past Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, and a former board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, and the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She is a 2020-21   Lifetime Achievement Award honoree from Marquis Who’s Who.  Her website is: www.jeanbolen.com. 

A work of art, whether a painting, a dance, a poem, or a jazz composition, can be admired in its own right. But how does the artist actually create his or her work? What is the source of an artist’s inspiration? What is the force that impels the artist to set down a vision that becomes art?

Edward Hirsch explores the concept of duende, that mysterious, highly potent power of creativity that results in a work of art. With examples ranging from Federico García Lorca’s wrestling with darkness as he discovered the fountain of words within himself to Martha Graham’s creation of her most emotional dances, from the canvases of Robert Motherwell to William Blake’s celestial visions, Hirsch taps into the artistic imagination and explains — in terms illuminating and emotional — how different artists respond to the power and demonic energy of creative impulse. 

Edward Hirsch, Ph.D. is a celebrated poet and tireless advocate for poetry. He has published ten books of poetry, among them Lay Back the Darkness (2003), Special Orders (2008), The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2010), which brings together thirty-five years of poems, Gabriel: A Poem, a book-length elegy for his son (2014), and Stranger by Night (2020). He has published six books of prose including The Demon and the Angel which we're recommending for this program, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry (1999), a national bestseller, 100 Poems to Break Your Heart (2021) and The Heart of American Poetry (2022) . He has received numerous awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. A longtime professor, Hirsch is currently the president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and lives in Brooklyn. His website is: https://www.edwardhirsch.com/

"In the deepest sense, we all dream not of ourselves, but out of what lies between us and the other." – C.G. Jung 

Our bodies and dreams may be our closest links to the unconscious, expressing the soul’s longing through image, breath, gesture, the rhythm of our step, and the music of our speech. Dreamdancing® allows access to these rich inner resources on a cellular level, reawakening our natural rhythms, instinctual wisdom, and the songs of the soul. 

Dreams carry treasures that enhance the meaning and depth of our life’s journey. Illuminating our inner landscape, they help us come to know disowned parts of ourselves, point to what we value, and provide guidance on our life path. Integrating C.G. Jung's Active Imagination approach with embodied methods, Dreamdancing® introduces the person to the inner world of body sensation, feelings, dreams and images as movement helps them build a bridge between body and psyche. 

Integrating presentation with experiential exploration, this evening will support you in nurturing body and soul through expressive movement, drawing, and writing. In preparation, you’re invited to let a healing image come to mind – something comforting, warming, or sacred that’s meaningful to you – from a dream, nature, an object on your altar, or something from your daily life.  And to have paper, pen, and colors on hand. 

Says Jung, “My soul, where are you? Do you hear me? I speak, I call you - are you there? I have returned, I am here again.”  No experience is necessary, only curiosity and openness to engage the unknown.    

Tina Stromsted, Ph.D., LMFT, LPCC, RSME/T, BC-DMT, is a Jungian analyst, Board Certified Dance/Movement therapist, Somatics Educator, and author. Past co-founder and faculty at the Authentic Movement Institute, and a founding faculty member of the Women’s Spirituality Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies, she teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, Jung Platform, the Marion Woodman Foundation, and at conferences for the International Association of Analytical Psychology.  With roots in theater and dance and 45 years of clinical experience, her numerous publications and webinars explore the integration of body, mind, psyche, soul, community and nature in healing and transformation. She is the founder of Soul’s Body® Center and teaches at universities and healing centers internationally. Her private practice is in San Francisco, with international virtual consultation.   Her website is: AuthenticMovemennt-BodySoul.com

The traditional Judeo-Christian image of God is not satisfying to increasing numbers of people. Jung’s notion of the Self, an innate God-image within the psyche, offers an alternative. This presentation will describe some of the problems associated with traditional theistic God-images and explain Jung’s alternative approach. The lecture will describe the many symbolic manifestations of the Self and the ways it may be projected onto external savior figures or even onto people.  

Dr. Lionel Corbett trained in medicine and psychiatry in England and as a Jungian Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. He is a professor of depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, in Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of five books: Psyche and the sacred: The religious function of the psyche; The sacred cauldron: Psychotherapy as a spiritual practice; The soul in anguish: Psychotherapeutic approaches to suffering, and Understanding Evil: A guide for psychotherapists. He is the co-editor of four volumes of collected papers: Psyche's Stories; Depth psychology, meditations in the field; Psychology at the threshold; and Jung and aging.  

In this class, participants will be introduced to the Tarot, a divination tool that also serves as a facilitator of the process of Individuation as defined by C.G. Jung. The structure of the Tarot will be viewed as a depiction of aspects of the psyche, including the personal unconscious, the collective unconscious, and the relationships between those levels of the unconscious and the Ego complex. Basic Jungian ideas will be reviewed in the context of the cards, and the relationship between the Tarot and synchronicity will be discussed. Participants are encouraged to bring a set of the Rider Tarot deck with them to participate in some exercises with the cards. The recommended deck (the Rider Tarot, a.k.a. the Rider-Waite Tarot or the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot) is available on a number of online web sites.

Kenneth James, Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Chicago, Illinois. He is the founder and director of The Soulwork Center, dedicated to facilitating the process of individuation according to C.G. Jung. Dr. James received a Ph.D. in Communicative Sciences and Disorders from Northwestern University, and a Diploma in Analytical Psychology from the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. Along the way, he studied vocal music at the American Conservatory of Music and learned a modality of music therapy known as The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music at the Institute for Consciousness and Music in Baltimore, Maryland. He also completed four years of post-doctoral study in theology and scripture at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Dr. James holds the rank of professor emeritus after a 33-year career as a university professor. He has served on the faculty at Roosevelt University, Northeastern Illinois University, and Northwestern University. He worked for many years as the Director of Student Services at the University of Chicago’s Laboratory Schools where he coordinated services for students with learning, emotional and behavioral needs, and he now devotes his professional time exclusively to the practice of Jungian analysis and the training of new analysts. Dr. James has led workshops around the world on the relationship between divination and synchronicity, and on the use of the Tarot to explore the unconscious. The relationship between Jungian thought, clinical practice, and esoterica has been a strong motif of his work throughout his career.

Heroes of old classically slayed the dragon as a means of achieving great feats. We can understand that, for an extended period of human evolution, such a metaphor may have represented a necessary attitude for achieving the human ego’s ascendence out of our primal origins. Of course, individually, we may still enact symbolic versions of this archetypal motif as we firm up our personal ego complex along our own developmental path. Could it be, however, that collectively we are on the verge of a more advanced attitude? In his book The Archetypal Cosmos, Keiron Le Grice, who addressed Charlotte Friends of Jung last year, suggests, “We are now perhaps starting to see the beginnings of a great reversal, an enantiodromia…when the rational ego must participate in the emergence of a deeper self, as a new mode of being is born.” If we are indeed on this cusp, we would expect it to be heralded by, or even incubated in, the realm of art and dreams, where the collective unconscious seems to make itself known. The 2012 film Beasts of the Southern Wild depicts such a shift. With its young, African-American female protagonist, this film presciently addresses a host of issues ranging from entrenched power differentials to impending global environmental catastrophe and, more deeply, imagines the classic hero’s journey forward.

On Friday night, we will discuss this film in depth with the expectation that attendees will have watched it prior to our program. (It is available through the Charlotte Mecklenburg library and for rental on Amazon Prime.) We will consider whether we are currently glimpsing “a great reversal” that is not a regression but another way forward as the film suggests. Our exploration of the film will echo themes not only from Keiron Le Grice’s work but also that of Richard Tarnas, another previous guest of our group and author of Cosmos and Psyche.

Charlotte psychotherapist Barbara Birge returns to Friends of Jung having led programs on varied topics, including numerous films, over the past 30 years. Barbara received her PhD from Pacifica Graduate Institute with specialization in Depth Psychology and has been in private practice since 1991.

Jungian Analytical Psychology places at the core of relationships the formulation of the Anima/Animus (Eros/Logos) or contras-sexual unconscious of the Female/Male psyche. The complex dynamics in human relationships which are built around these concepts will be examined.

The formulation Anima/Animus implies contents of development that change with the times and evolution, as well as with the psychological transformation of the individual psyche and its personal growth. Unfortunately this formulation has at times been distorted and interpreted as a sexist view and denied its potential as a very constructive concept.

The Jungian formulations of Logos/Eros, Anima/Animus, can be “stripped” (Samuels) of their connections not only to sex but also to gender and become excellent tools for understanding the dynamics in human relationships.

An added biological understanding related to DNA functioning and its epigenetic control will be added, aiming for the enrichment and explanation of the content of these formulations.

Alvaro Giraldo came to the United States from Colombia 52 years ago.  Alvaro received his medical degree at the Javerina University in Bogota, Colombia.  Early in his career, he was tasked to work in “rural practice,” where he provided medical care to two small towns in the mountains and around the jungles of Colombia.  He considered this to be formative in his decision to come to the United States and deepen his career as a medical doctor.  Alvaro obtained a rotating internship at St. John Hospital in Detroit, MI.  This precipitated a long, productive career in the biological sciences. He received formal training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, Immunology, and Molecular Biology (DNA-biology) at Wayne State University, Oncologic Pathology (with an emphasis on immunological malignancies) at M.D. Anderson Hospital (University of Texas), cardiac pathology studies at the NIH, in addition to other academic and research oriented endeavors.

 During these years of dedication to biological studies, there was a parallel inner-journey taking place, circumambulating around the religious and spiritual life.  This translated into formal training during nights and weekends with the Jesuits at Manresa (Univ. of Detroit).  This lasted several years until Alvaro was granted a diploma on Ignatian Spirituality and recognized as a Spiritual Director. Alvaro continued his studies at Ashland Theological Seminary (Ashland University, Ashland, OH) where he obtained a Master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling.

 After a few years of personal Jungian Psychoanalysis, Alvaro decided to enter into training to become a Psychoanalyst.  This task took 11 years.  He received his training at the Pittsburgh Jungian Institute, a program of the Inter Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (IRSJA) under the International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP) in Zurich. Alvaro was granted the degree in Analytical Psychology (Jungian Psychoanalyst) in 2008.

It was during his training in Jungian psychology that he decided to retire from a 33 year medical practice and enter a residence training program in Psychiatry at Penn State University (PSU).  Alvaro became part of the faculty as Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Resident Training Program. After several years at Penn State he was invited to practice psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).  Alvaro held the positions of Associate Professor in Psychiatry as well as Jungian Analyst. 

Alvaro lived in Charleston for 13 years.  Alvaro recently resigned his position at MUSC and retired to tend to his private psychoanalytical practice.  He currently resides in Charlotte North Carolina with his wife of 50 years. They live close to their family. He is currently the president of the North Carolina Society of Jungian Analysts (NCSJA). Alvaro maintains his membership to multiple medical societies (mostly as Emeritus Member).  His medical career is distinguished with a long list of publications over the years. Currently, his main interests are concentrated around the marriage of matter and spirit, which is reflected in his graduation thesis as a Jungian Analyst.  The thesis was titled DNA and Archetypes, a labor of 9 years.

At the present time his personal life and private practice include and attempt to weave an interconnectedness between the biological, religious, psychological, and spiritual.

Thomas Moore’s recent book Soul Therapy is a manual for the professional therapist from the soul point of view. It emphasizes depth exploration, meaning, purpose and a spiritual outlook. It also proposes a broadening of therapy, noting how everyone at times is a “therapist,” and it applies the fantasy of therapy to every aspect of society. He asks, “How can parents and business leaders speak therapeutically at crucial moments?” He also goes deep into the role of narrative, eros, sado-masochism, friendship, and the permeating presence of transference in all encounters. This presentation is for professionals and all people who engage in deep and caring conversations with family members, friends and coworkers.

Thomas Moore, Ph.D. is the author of the number one bestselling Care of the Soul and twenty-five other books on soul and spirit in everyday life. He was a Catholic monk in his youth and studied music composition. He earned his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Syracuse University. He has been a psychotherapist and college professor and frequently speaks for Jung societies, spiritual groups and medical professionals. He writes fiction, arranges music and enjoys golf in New England, where he has lived for twenty-five years.