C. G. Jung Foundation of Ontario

From the earliest times we have been told stories of fathers who have tried to silence their children in one way or another. We only need look at Greek mythology where the original father gods, Uranus and Kronos, swallowed their children when told that one of them would overthrow the old order and way of doing things. The story of Oedipus and his abandonment by his father is similar.
What is it then that lies behind this urge to create new life on the one hand, yet destroy it on the other?
To explore this deep psychological drama and see how it plays out in the modern psyche, we will focus on contemporary films. The destructive aspect will be seen in Prelude To A Kiss, Damage and The Celebration. The resolution, where the human spirit is freed to create a new life, will be explored in The Piano. Our discussion will aim towards having a better appreciation of the ambivalent nature of the father and its dramatic effect on a wide range of human experiences.

Come meet and get to know other Members, Foundation staff and some of the OAJA Analysts. Have a peek in the Fraser Boa Library — a great member resource with excellent Jungiana! Browse our Word & Image Bookstore and get the inside scoop on some of this year’s new activities. This relaxed social get together will increase your store of friendly faces for future lectures and other Foundation events. Some delectable refreshments will be served. All are most welcome!

Cats and dogs have been domesticated for centuries, and remain favourite choices as animal companions. What archetypal energies do they carry and how does living our lives in close company with them transform us? A visual exploration.

Tales of magic and imagination take us into a timeless realm, an unknown and never fully knowable matrix where we find ancient terrors and also our most profound hopes for transformation. These stories speak to us directly from the archetypal psychic patterns common to us all. We will read together a fairy tale called “Brother and Sister” and observe the ways in which the two siblings break free from the curse or blessing of enchantments. They journey from intimate bonding through necessary wounding towards healing and redemption. Through their story we can find teaching about our own brother/sister relationships in inner and outer reality.

This continuing discussion group, which normally meets at the C.G. Jung Foundation office, will in this upcoming season investigate the newly-published Jung-White letters.  For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002. New members are most welcome.

How do we know what we know? What is truth? The Greek word gnosis translates as “knowledge” or “insight.” Gnosticism, past and present, is a system that explores the alienation of people from their true selves.
Jung ‘discovered’ Gnosticism early in his career but continued to write about it into the late 1950s. Jung viewed Gnostic myths as expressing psychological meaning and he considered the Gnostics to be psychologists exploring the unconscious.

A visual presentation of the rich archetypal symbolism of the lion, an animal that figures prominently in the dream life of many.

This seminar will look at some of Jung’s key ideas on myth.  Through their application in the myth of Narcissus and one or two others (to be decided at the first session and explored at the second), we will explore the application of mythological studies generally to our own process of self-understanding and individuation. We are not alone with our feelings, fears, conflicts and aspirations. We personify ancient patterns; “our” myth can guide us to greater depth, richness and meaning in life.
N.B., Participants must register for both sessions.

This continuing discussion group, which normally meets at the C.G. Jung Foundation office, will in this upcoming season investigate the newly-published Jung-White letters.  For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002. New members are most welcome.

Ambition has many faces. It can appear as intense desire, a desperate hungering after success or an overwrought need for fame and power. However, in its benign aspects, ambition reflects genuine desires that give individuals the energy and focus necessary to move through life, fulfill goals and realize themselves.
Using visual materials including art, dreams and the symbols of alchemy, this lecture will examine the inner workings of ambition. As we will discover, ambition is produced by an interaction of consciousness with unconscious factors that can be confusing, frustrating, painful or dangerously pleasurable. If properly held and understood, ambition provides opportunities for self-realization that help us move through life and connect with our world.

The ‘ambition’ workshop continues the explorations of the Friday, November 20th, lecture by turning the focus on individual experience. Participants will be encouraged to bring images and stories that relate to their own personal encounters with ambition and failure.
As well, we will look more closely at one of literature’s and film’s most memorable stories of ambition, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus. We will discuss elements of the story and view clips from James Whale’s original Frankenstein with Boris Karloff, and the more recent rendition directed by Kenneth Branagh.
While not required, participants are encouraged to read Mary Shelley’s “ghost story” or watch one of the movies.

An investigation of two traditional liturgies, the Tridentine Mass and the Book of Common Prayer.

We will study The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan to enrich our understanding of the individuation process.
N.B., Participants must register for all sessions.

This continuing discussion group, which normally meets at the C.G. Jung Foundation office, will in this upcoming season investigate the newly-published Jung-White letters.  For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002. New members are most welcome.

Three main themes will be examined: (1) Ego isolation – escape from the responsibilities of the present; (2) Ego dissolution – the casino as the womb-like paradise (music, symbols, hypnosis); and, (3) Ego inflation – playing at being God. All of these themes represent missteps on the path of individuation. Testimonies of pathological gamblers (interviews, dreams), excerpts from F. Dostoevsky’s The Gambler, and excerpts from movies will be used to support the thematic analysis. Discussion will follow the mini-lecture.

A visual presentation of the rich archetypal symbolism of one of the most commonly dreamed-of creatures, the serpent.

This continuing discussion group, which normally meets at the C.G. Jung Foundation office, will in this upcoming season investigate the newly-published Jung-White letters.  For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002. New members are most welcome.

Members and friends are invited to celebrate the 40th anniversary of an organized Jungian community in this area, the creation on January 19, 1970 of the Analytical Psychology Society of Ontario (renamed in 1982 the C.G. Jung Foundation of Ontario). There will be a door prize, archival displays, refreshments and a band -- a pleasant evening.

Feb. 6:   The Structure of the Psyche                                                         Roger LaRade
Feb. 27:  Persona and Shadow                                                                Elisabeth Pomès
Mar. 6:   Anima and Animus                                                                     Geri Daigneault
Mar. 27:  Individuation                                                                            Ingrid Eisermann

N.B., “Basic Principles of Jungian Psychology, Part II” will be offered in the 2010-2011 season, and it is anticipated that this pattern of basic courses spread over two years will continue to repeat for as long as there is interest.

Participants will have an opportunity to work closely with dreams to see how they are put together, and what they have to tell us in terms of how we live our day-to-day lives. Please bring questions.
N.B., Participants must register for all sessions.

This continuing discussion group, which normally meets at the C.G. Jung Foundation office, will in this upcoming season investigate the newly-published Jung-White letters.  For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002. New members are most welcome.

This continuing discussion group, which normally meets at the C.G. Jung Foundation office, will in this upcoming season investigate the newly-published Jung-White letters.  For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002. New members are most welcome.

The psychology of numbers intrigued Jung in the final creative phase of his life. Friday’s lecture will explore this interest and its further exposition in the writings of Marie-Louise von Franz. Hardly dry and abstract, the role of numbers in dreams shows them to be dynamic symbols of life’s most significant processes: the birth of selfhood; the growth of destiny; the life of synchronistic phenomena; the bridge between matter and spirit, desire and meaning. Dreams from the analytic practice will be considered throughout the evening to demonstrate the relevance of Jung’s late insights to the West’s evolving worldview as well as to the process of analysis. Lecture format with images and discussion.

The Visions seminars present the dreams and visions of a young American woman during her analysis with Jung in the 1920s. Jung explores the analysand’s libidinous marriage triangle as an emotional crisis leading her to selfhood as well as to an understanding of contemporary world events. Sunday’s workshop examines selections of Jung’s Visions commentary in order to present the two main themes of the woman’s suffering and growth: the role of sexual passion in her psychological exploration and the effect of war’s violent upheaval on her personal development. The day’s discussion will elucidate how spirit in the woman’s body shaped her life.

C.G. Jung wrote a great deal about evil. We will explore Jung’s conception of evil with reference to other systems of conceptualization.

This continuing discussion group, which normally meets at the C.G. Jung Foundation office, will in this upcoming season investigate the newly-published Jung-White letters.  For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002. New members are most welcome.

When talking informally to students at the Zurich Institute in 1958, Jung was explicit on the need to differentiate ‘yes’ from ‘no’ – and above all, on the need never to say ‘yes’ if one means ‘no’. If we do that we are “sunk,” he said. In order to differentiate clearly how one feels about something what is needed, by definition, is to have one’s feeling function at one’s disposal. This is very difficult in highly rationalized, scientistic societies, in which thinking values, often of a highly collective nature, are highly valued at the expense of feeling values.
The great art of living together, as Bertolt Brecht called it, requires above all that each and every one of us begins the life-long task of consciously differentiating how we really ‘feel,’ even about apparently “trivial,” everyday issues.

Like all great works, Jung’s “Answer to Job” deserves to be read over and over again. It is obviously highly significant that Jung himself said that he felt he had been picked up by the “scruff of the neck” and was not released until he had finished the work, which he wrote more-or-less non-stop. Not one word did he ever feel like changing. Even more significant was his comment that after writing “Answer to Job,” he lived in his deepest hell, and “could sink no further,” a statement we will ponder at some length.
Participants are invited to read the Biblical tale of Job, Jung’s text, and Edward Edinger’s Encounter with Self: A Jungian Commentary on Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job before the seminar, and during it, to discuss those parts of the story that elicit a strong reaction.

The Black Madonna is an image of great antiquity which historically has inspired cults and been credited with miracles. Today there is a new wave of interest in the symbol, as may be seen in contemporary writing and art. What accounts for this appeal over time, and for its renewed vigour in the twenty-first century? Historical continuity and contemporary interest in the symbol suggest that it answers to a need deeply held in the human psyche. In the first part of the seminar the Black Madonna will be situated in historical and cultural context with a focus on the Madonna of Montserrat, Spain, as an example. Psychological implications of the symbol will be considered within the framework of C.G. Jung’s thought on the Great Mother and will include reference to how the symbol appears in dreams and creative work. In the second part of the seminar, participants will explore the symbol to discover what the Black Madonna means on an individual level.

This continuing discussion group, which normally meets at the C.G. Jung Foundation office, will in this upcoming season investigate the newly-published Jung-White letters.  For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002. New members are most welcome.