Saturday, October 13th, 2018, 1pm to 4pm
The Analytical Psychology Club, The Kristine Mann Library, and The C.G. Jung Institute Present
A BOOK CELEBRATION
The Jungian Strand in Transatlantic Modernism, by Jay Sherry: PhD
and
Archetype of the Absolute: The Union of Opposites in Mysticism, Philosophy and Psychology, by Sanford L. Drob: PhD
Wine and Cheese to Be Served
PLEASE RESERVE: SITTING IS LIMITED
A $10.00 Contribution at the Door
Contact: (212) 557-1502 or [email protected]
The Jungian Strand in Transatlantic Modernism, by Jay Sherry: PhD
In studies of psychology’s role in the modernist movement, Carl Jung is usually relegated to a cameo appearance, if he appears at all. After his break with Freud, Jung was promoted in New York by Beatrice Hinkle, M. D. who translated his work and was a founding member of the APC. My book maps how he connected with and influenced a surprisingly extensive transatlantic network of artists, educators, feminists, and writers. This talk will highlight some of those individuals and how Jung applied his unique approach to the image-making capacity of the psyche to such modernist icons as Joyce and Picasso, an approach that appealed to such creative talents as Jackson Pollock and Joseph Campbell.
Jay Sherry, PhD is a Kristine Mann Library board member and teaches in History and Psychology Departments, Long Island University-Brooklyn. His book Carl Gustav Jung, Avant-garde Conservative (2010) won the Gradiva Award.
Archetype of the Absolute: The Union of Opposites in Mysticism, Philosophy and Psychology, Sanford L. Drob: PhD
C. G. Jung held that the self is a coincidentia oppositorum, a unity of opposing ideas, attitudes, emotions, and impulses. In making this claim, Jung was affirming, in psychological language, an idea about the cosmos that is present in various forms of Eastern and Western mysticism, was a significant undercurrent in ancient, medieval, and renaissance thought, and which, in the nineteenth century, played a central role in the philosophy of Hegel.
In my talk I will briefly trace the “problem of the opposites” in the mysticism of the Tao and the Kabbalah, the dialectical thinking of Hegel, the quantum physics of Neils Bohr, and the deconstructionist philosophy of Jacques Derrida. I will then examine Jung’s views on the role of coincidentia oppositorum in alchemy, and its importance in psychological theory and therapy. I will address the question posed by Jung in Psychological Types of how one chooses among and/or reconciles different perspectives on the psyche and will outline how the principle of the coincidence or interdependence of opposites can be applied to resolve the current fragmentation within contemporary psychological theory and practice. I will describe how Jung and others have used the coincidence of opposites to provide a model of “wholeness” that is relevant to both the self and the world. Finally, I will explore the ethical pitfalls and possible limits of the “unity of opposites” idea.
Sanford L. Drob is a Core Faculty Member in the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Fielding University and is on the faculty of the C. G. Jung Institute in New York. He holds doctorate degrees in philosophy and clinical psychology, is a prolific artist, and has made contributions in the fields of philosophy, theology and clinical/forensic psychology. For many years, he served as the Senior Forensic Psychologist and Director of Psychological Assessment at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York.
Dr. Drob is known for his writings that explore the relevance of Jewish mysticism to contemporary thoughts. In a series of books (Symbols of the Kabbalah, 2000, Kabbalistic Metaphors, 2000, Kabbalah and Postmodernism, 2009) as well as on his website, www.newkabbalah.com.