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Newsletter of the C.G. Jung Foundation of Ontario

ISSN 1918-6142

Chiron is a newsletter that exists to support the work of the C.G. Jung Foundation of Ontario. It was established in 1980, and has existed in electronic form since 2006. Its name and masthead image, adopted at that time, are drawn from ancient Greek culture. In Greek mythology, Chiron was the last centaur, a son of the titan Cronus. He was famed for his wisdom, knowledge and skill at deciphering the will of the gods, to healing effect.

Chiron

Volume 31, No. 1 Autumn 2011

Editor: Robert Black

Click for PDF version of this issue for easier printing

 

Contents

Sale of 223 St. Clair Avenue West

The C.G. Jung Foundation of Ontario was recently informed that the building housing our premises has been sold to a developer. We have learned from another source that all the buildings from 223 east to Poplar Plains have been purchased by the same holding company. So some time next year, it is expected that our thirty years of association with that location will end.

The Board of Directors has taken this news under advisement, and expects to begin shortly a process of "visioning" and exploration of options. More on this, we hope, in our next issue.

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Man lives in a continual state of conflict between the truth of the external world in which he has been placed and the inner truth of the psyche that connects him with the source of life. He is pulled now to one side and now to the other until he has learnt to see that he has obligations to both.

C.G. Jung, CW18 para. 1746

 

Regulation of Psychotherapy in Ontario

by Andrew Benedetto, Chair, Ontario Regulation Committee (OAJA)

OAJA has been closely following the regulation of psychotherapy in Ontario which will soon result in the creation of a new College of Registered Psychotherapists and Registered Mental Health Therapists. While Jungian analysts may or may not identify themselves by the term psychotherapist, this new regulatory body is using the term as the umbrella for a range of practitioners from different traditions and modalities.

A Brief Background

Last decade the Ontario government began considering whether the province should play a role to protect the public by regulating psychotherapy—potential clients might be unaware that an individual could 'hang out a shingle' and call themselves a psychotherapist with little or no training and without professional accountability.

A formal review was taken up by the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council (HPRAC), an advisory body to the Ontario Ministry of Health. HPRAC conducted public consultations and OAJA was among the stakeholders to make a written submission and presentation to the Council.

HPRAC learned that there were well established psychotherapy training programs as well as professional associations with standards of entry for education, on-going professional development, and codes of ethics. However, the consultations revealed that there was no shared definition of psychotherapy among practitioners from different traditions and modalities. To complicate matters there was no single academic degree that might set a standard for education. There are no Bachelors' or Masters' degrees in psychotherapy, for example. A significant number of practicing psychotherapists were trained in private institutions with varying entry requirements and where experiential learning played a key role in their education. It became evident that while a discipline existed that made an important contribution to the well-being of Ontarians it remained difficult for the public to identify qualified therapists adhering to professional standards of practice.

HPRAC recommended that Ontarians would be best served if psychotherapy were governed by a regulatory "College" under the Regulated Health Professionals Act (RHPA). The RHPA sets out a framework for the regulation of 21 health professions in Ontario including doctors, psychologists, and social workers among others. The RHPA requires that each college establish three mandatory regulations: the Registration Regulation which defines entry-to-practice requirements; the Professional Misconduct Regulation which defines professional behaviour; and the Quality Assurance Regulation which sets out the College's program for assessing the on-going professional development and conduct of its members.

Based on the work of HPRAC, the Psychotherapy Act was introduced in 2007 that established the framework and timeline toward creation of the College of Registered Psychotherapists and Registered Mental Health Therapists. The legislation recognizes psychotherapy as its own profession that requires specific education and competencies. It also establishes a "controlled act" of psychotherapy which can only be practiced by members of the College as well as designated members of five other RHPA Colleges (Physicians and Surgeons, Psychologists, Nurses, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists).

The Draft Regulations

The Psychotherapy Act (2007) gave authority for government to appoint a 15 member Transitional Council (TC) to develop details of the three mandatory regulations and establish the organization that will become the College. The TC released Draft Regulations earlier this year.

Among some of the interesting details arising from the Draft Regulations:

The TC expects that they will begin accepting member registrations for the new College beginning September 1, 2012 and that the Psychotherapy Act will be proclaimed into law by March 31, 2013. After April 1, 2013, anyone practicing the controlled act of psychotherapy who is not a registered member of the College will be in contravention of the law.

The legislation mandated that the College use two titles, Registered Psychotherapist (R.P.) and Registered Mental Health Therapist (R.M.H.T.). While both groups will have access to the controlled act, Registered Psychotherapists are more likely to work independently in private practice requiring appropriate education and competencies while Registered Mental Health Therapists are likely to work in institutional settings with on-going supervision.

The Regulations will require all members of the College to use their approved designation, e.g. R.P. or R.M.H.T. Specialty titles can also be used if they have been earned and granted by a recognized group. In the not too distant future we may be seeing analysts' names followed by R.P., Jungian analyst.

Entry-to-practice will be based on a competency model where the registrant is evaluated based on their capacity to practice in a safe and effective manner rather than on academic credentials alone. The competency model is intended to respect the diversity of training programs by not limiting curricula to any specific tradition or modality but ensuring that graduates of any program are able to meet a standard of practice defined by the College.

Grandparenting will be available to current practitioners who will be asked to submit a portfolio of their education, experience, teaching, supervision, and on-going professional development. A weighting system will be used to determine if a registrant meets entry criteria or if additional training is required. Grandparenting will be available for a two year period following proclamation of the act into law after which all applicants to the College will need to meet the standard entry-to-practice requirements.

The TC conducted public consultations of the Draft Regulations this past spring and summer and a number of regulations remain contentious with various stakeholder groups seeking to ensure that their constituents are well represented. Once the Draft Regulations are proclaimed into law it is expected that they will be difficult to change. The TC will finalize the Draft Regulations by the end of this year at which time they will be submitted to government for a year-long review process.

OAJA's Participation

OAJA has actively participated in the public consultation process to provide both its perspective and advocate on behalf of its membership—Jungian analysts have practiced professionally in Ontario for more than 30 years and OAJA has had an Analyst Training Program since 2000.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Helen Brammer-Savlov who held the Chair of the Ontario Regulation Committee from its inception through this past summer having made a significant contribution on OAJA's behalf.

If you would like more information on the regulation of psychotherapy in Ontario, resources can be found on the internet or questions and comments can be directed to my attention.

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Successful Co-operation With Marion Woodman FoundationMarion Woodman 2009

[photo supplied by Barbara Booth]
We are pleased to report via Susan Barbara Booth, secretary of the Marion Woodman

Foundation, that the cassette audo-recordings of Marion's various talks given at the C.G. Jung Foundation of Ontario in the period from 1979 to 1984, have been changed to digital format.

There are now 17 disks of ten Woodman talks in the Fraser Boa Library's audio-visual collection available to be borrowed by members.

 

Two New Analysts

The Diploma ceremony of October 15, 2011, saw two new graduates of the Analyst Training Programme, the sixteenth and seventeenth so far. (And we note that very soon, a majority of OAJA members will have been locally trained.)

Patricia Brannigan16. Patricia Brannigan was born and raised in Northern Ontario. She moved to Guelph with her husband and two children in the 1980s. Patricia began her working life as a secondary school teacher. After completing her MA, she worked in the area of educational administration. It was during her years in education that Patricia developed a keen interest in Jungian psychology. She entered the OAJA training programme soon after retiring. While completing the training programme, Patricia lived and worked in South Africa, Asia and the U.S. She recently relocated to Guelph with her husband where she has a private practice. Patricia continues to enjoy cottage life on the Bruce Peninsula and time with her grandchildren. Her thesis is entitled The Brake of Proper Appearances: The Animus in Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel and A Jest of God.

17. Lidia Mattuci-Jacobson. (We hope to hear from Lidia, a Toronto-based Analyst, in a future issue.)

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What is Death? The book and the topic

For quite some years now, the Daimon Verlag website has promised an English translation, to be entitled What is Death?, of a German book published only last year as Im Umkreis des Todes. It will contain three reflective essays, composed as they were dying, by Marie-Louise Von Franz, Liliane Frey-Rohn, and Aniela Jaffé. These figures all worked closely with C.G. Jung and were intimately connected to the creation of Analytical Psychology.

Recently, in response to our query, we heard from Heidy Fassler, their marketing agent, that the translation project continues to be delayed. With some luck, it might come out next year.
Our interest is generated by a life-long fascination with this greatest of mysteries, and by a great respect for the work of the three analysts whose views are to be showcased. Is there sufficient interest to start a discussion group around this book, or the topic, when finally it does appear?

In dreams, death often symbolizes some kind of major transition: "that was then, this is now." Rarely does it presaging the imminent death of the dreamer. And also in dreams the corollary of death, resurrection, happens with sufficient frequency as to be almost unremarkable. (Would that this were so in the outer world!) It is, in a limited sense, the goal of our life. As we live, we do so conscious of our apparent end, and impelled to ask questions such as, "What has it all been for?"

There are hints elsewhere of what we will find in this book. We remember Liliane Frey-Rohn's interview in the Remembering Jung series (available in both VHS and DVD at the Fraser Boa Library) in which she shared what Jung had taught her. (She was recorded in 1976, and died in 1991.) It was his opinion that "when we become our own individuality," the superficial things fall away. Stable individuality grounded in "archetypal knowledge" is not the same as Ego consciousness "and probably it is this which survives death." A strong individuality, Jung thought, could survive such a profound transition, but a personality built on fragments might possibly not. Would it be these latter, he mused, that might have to be reborn? He was not a fan of the idea of reincarnation or transmigration of the soul, according to Frey-Rohn, finding it a "hideous idea." (For those interested in the topic, John A. Sanford's Soul Journey; a Jungian Analyst looks at Reincarnation is a careful, sensitive and ultimately convincing reading of the topic.)

Equally, Aniele Jaffé mused on the subject in her own interview for the same series. (She likewise died in 1991.) She reported that the nearer it got, the more natural death seemed to her, adding that perhaps she had just got accustomed to the idea! It was important, Jung taught her, to fantasize about life after death and "make it a myth," all the while knowing that "one never knows." Death is a fact, and continuation of one's life in some form after the body "is a very important myth," but it is hard to know, here and now, how it will go on. A more important myth was to know "where your task was," where you belong – and that might have to suffice. For herself, Jaffé said, she was a "servant of Jung's work," and (at least in the 1970s when she was interviewed) did not feel the need to go beyond that. We look forward to seeing in the book how, or if, her thinking changed.

There is valid (in our opinion) criticism of some Jungian-based approaches, which de-emphasize the body, physicality, and the fact that this world and this life are the locations of our existence. They leave life without, in fact, having lived it. For all we know, this existence is the only such location in which we will have our being. To slip off into fantasy, and bond with a "reality" that is not real at all, would seem a tragedy, and a waste of time. We are here. We have purpose. "One does not become enlightened by imagining beings of light, but by making the darkness conscious." (CW13: 335)
But let's give the last word on this topic to the Old Man:

To repeat: "Life behaves as if it is going on" – so if life behaves as if a man "had to live centuries," therefore you should live ahead as if for a great adventure. "You may feel considerably better!"

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Judith Harris to Zürich

Members will be interested to know that the labours with the Philemon Project of OAJA analyst Judith Harris, of London, are going to reach a new stage during 2012 with her move to Europe.

Judith worked with the Marion Woodman Foundation for some time, as well as undertaking her private practice. Once Marion retired, she gave more time to the Philemon Project, which as most readers will know is aiming to publish the complete (as opposed to "collected") works of C.G. Jung.

She is now Co-President and Director of the Project and, for at least three or four years, will be taking up residence in Zürich to manage the project at close hand.

We wish her well, and hope that she continues to go from strength to strength in her labours supporting individuation. She will, happily, continue with OAJA (as a non-voting member).

First of the ATP-formed Senior Analysts

Our congratulations are due to local analyst Ingrid Eisermann, who this Fall has attained the status of senior analyst. This standing enables her to participate in selecting, training, examining and supervising trainee analysts, and it comes after five years of involved membership in her voting society, which of course is the Ontario Association of Jungian Analysts.

As the very first graduate, back in the Autumn of 2006, of the OAJA training programme, this makes her the first local graduate to attain that status. Next Spring, she will be followed by analysts Daigneault, Duetz, and LaRade, and so on in sequence after that.

Readers might be interested to know that analysts were recently presented with a "competency profile" survey, that sought their opinions on how to distinguish between the skills needed by a newly graduated analyst, just starting up a private practice, and those "competencies" that s/he needed to exercise some time thereafter. (This survey was part of the consultation process that will result in registration and licensing criteria for psychotherapists by the Province of Ontario.)

The distinction made between those two categories is basically what Jungians have recognized for decades. There is a certain fluidity, and dare one say maturity, of approach that develops when an analyst does the work day after day after day. As one's experience grows, so does one's discernment. This is true psychotherapeutically, but it is also true of simple knowledge, such as knowledge of the kinds of things with which governments concern themselves: the legal limits of confidentiality, of example, or the need to be informed of other options for clients.

We analysts could, one supposes, practice "in the black" or "under the radar," but in this context, at this time, there is no reason to do so. Any encouragement to grow and to deepen seems like it could have very positive results, whether it comes from outside or inside the profession – and the heart.

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Analysis should release an experience that grips us or falls upon us as from above, an experience that has substance and body such as those things, which occurred to the ancients. If I were going to symbolize it, I would choose the Annunciation.

C.G. Jung, from William McGuire, ed., Analytical Psychology: Notes of the Seminar given in 1925 by C.G. Jung, page 111. (Bollingen supplement to the Collected Works.)

 

Letter to the Editor

We don't get many letters to the Editor, one is told, because they tend to get published! Don't hesitate, if you don't want it to appear just say so! Otherwise, you're fair game – especially when you say nice things….

[From Beverly Bond Clarkson, August 30.] Thank you for this recent issue. I enjoyed it so much! When I hear about the gathering to observe the 50th anniversary of Jung's passing I wish I had stayed. It must have offered a wonderful feeling of kinship and gratitude. I read your review, "A Challenge to Analysis," carefully and will order the book. Somehow that work went by me among all the books that are advertised online. It looks most interesting. Chiron has certainly blossomed under your insightful tutelage and care.

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Downloadable Jung

The governing body of Jungian Analysts, the International Association for Analytical Psychology, has an extensive website. Much of it is restricted to Analysts in good standing, one notable exception to this being the "List of IAAP Analysts," a global directory. Recently, in co-operation with the Google project of digitizing books in the public domain, it put on line a half-dozen early "Jungiana," in German and in English, for anyone to download for non-commercial purposes.

All of these books have been superseded by the Bolligen series, the Collected Works and its Supplements. But for those interested in the development of Jung's thought, here are some early texts. The original Psychology of the Unconscious, the precursor to volume 5, is one such interesting example of changes Jung made to strengthen his earlier arguments.


Visit this site at: http://iaap.org/Digitized-Books/View-category.html

Chalk it up to old age

Some people may have heard a rumour that our Library copy of the newly-published Red Book had gone missing. This is because a couple of us, who shall remain nameless, got our wires crossed and made the wrong conclusion from its apparent absence. (It's so huge it can't be missed!)

In fact there is no and has never been a problem, and a copy is available for both in-house reference and for borrowing by members.

We needed a Red Book for the draw at Daryl's party last year, and we used one of the two we had ordered for the Library. Then we ordered a new one and put it in the closet to be accessioned whenever a spare minute came. Time passes, chores piled up, spare minutes never happened and we forgot.

Finally came a dream, and then a vague memory, and then sufficient impetus to look in the Library closet – and there was the missing Red Book still wrapped in the publisher's cardboard sleeve. Chalk it up to old age!

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SUBMISSIONS TO CHIRON

The C.G. Jung Foundation’s members and friends are very welcome to submit pieces for publication in Chiron. We would particularly welcome short articles (under 1000 words) on archetypal material, and very short (under 500 words) “book notes” and film reviews. Longer pieces can be negotiated, especially if serialization is possible.

We very sincerely promise that our responsibility to cast an eagle editorial eye over these submissions will be lightly and not impertinently applied, and that you will see beforehand any results of our meddling; so that the full essence of your insights and the character of your “voice” is kept safe and sound in the published version.

Hyperlinks in the electronic version of Chiron

Hyperlinks in the electronic version of Chiron do not imply or constitute endorsement of the organization or individual concerned, and are provided as a courtesy in current issues only. The C.G. Jung Foundation of Ontario is not responsible for the content of such sites.

 

Past issues available online

 

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