C. G. Jung Foundation of Ontario

Poems, like dreams, contain images and symbols, which challenge our thoughts, feelings, memories and imagination. Their symbolic language “has a wider ‘unconscious’ aspect that is never precisely defined or fully expressed” (Jung, Man and His Symbols, p. 4). In The Poetry Corner, we ponder the riches of various poems that encourage connections with our depths.

In preparation for tackling The Red Book in 2013-14, the group will be reading John Kerr’s A Dangerous Method and the Freud-Jung Letters. For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002.
New members are most welcome.

Drawing on the insights of the late Jungian analyst Edith Wallace, participants will be invited to create two abstract free-form collages with materials provided. After a break, we will (as a group) share reactions and insights provoked by our creations.

Garden statue saint? There is so much more to Francis of Assisi. Come follow Francis’ quest for individuation.

In preparation for tackling The Red Book in 2013-14, the group will be reading John Kerr’s A Dangerous Method and the Freud-Jung Letters. For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002.
New members are most welcome.

As the film Strictly Ballroom opens, the red curtains part and we sense that, as with a fairy tale, what we are about to witness will be both wildly fantastic and deeply real in archetypal terms. Scott, the young man at the centre of the story, wants to “dance his own steps” instead of following the collective rules of the dance establishment. This film by Baz Lurhman lends itself to a reading on several levels – it provides insights into the creative process as well as the process of individuation and it also highlights the potential connections between personal and social transformation.  Scott’s attempts to express an inner imperative create conflict not only outwardly with the dance community but also inwardly as he confronts ego fears about security and collective status.  In this young man’s struggles we will recognize various archetypal themes: coming to terms with the parental complexes; developing a relationship with the anima, including distinguishing the true from the false bride; and, initiation into an adult masculinity capable of challenging a patriarchal order. A close study of this film, like the study of a fairy tale, provides an opportunity to step back from the moment-to-moment unfolding of a particular psyche to view a series of such moments in the context of a larger process where one may discern dynamic patterns of the self-regulating psyche in action.

In preparation for tackling The Red Book in 2013-14, the group will be reading John Kerr’s A Dangerous Method and the Freud-Jung Letters. For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002.
New members are most welcome.

In preparation for tackling The Red Book in 2013-14, the group will be reading John Kerr’s A Dangerous Method and the Freud-Jung Letters. For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002.
New members are most welcome.

This particular Jungian (who is definitely not a scientist)  has been fascinated with recent developments in brain research,  especially the new brain imaging technology which gives us a picture of how the brain works in a living human being.  Out of this fascination comes a lecture which will cover just the basics of this brain research.

We will look at the development of the brain, how it has shaped us and how we can shape it.  We will discover what happens on a neurobiological level when we struggle with our complexes and are in despair of ever becoming conscious enough to stop repeating negative patterns of behaviour. We will be encouraged by the brain research which now tells us that analysis and other depth therapies are actually effective.  We will also be encouraged to learn that our brains can change in response to new developments and needs in our current lives. We will hear about case examples of people whose brains have adapted to catastrophic injuries in ways that seem almost miraculous.

Therefore it is hoped that by the end of this lecture it will become clear why this Jungian has developed an enduring interest in the inner workings of the brain.  A bibliography will be provided.

In preparation for tackling The Red Book in 2013-14, the group will be reading John Kerr’s A Dangerous Method and the Freud-Jung Letters. For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002.
New members are most welcome.

This lecture will attempt to answer some of the questions surrounding the Eleusinian Mysteries, including questions about the principal goddesses, Demeter and her daughter, Persephone.  Does Persephone's descent into the Underworld have something to do with seed and the harvest?  What does death have to do with the growth of the grain?  What was enacted in these ancient Mysteries?  What befell the initiates?  What was the role of the sacred mimes?  Why are there purification rituals?  And, what of the climax of the Eleusinian Mysteries?  There always remains something of the ineffable about the Eleusinian Mysteries, but the literature on the topic stresses that the initiates who experience the sublime vision are freed from suffering and are truly blessed.

Finger paint is a primitive and direct medium of spontaneous expression. The technique is simple and action oriented: while standing, the color is smeared onto dampened paper with the flat of the hand, fist, fingers, wrist or forearm in sweeping body motions. Because the medium does not lend itself to controlled and elaborate detail, it can subvert inhibitions arising from concerns about technical skill. Painters are encouraged to experiment and follow their fantasies as figures and shapes emerge from their markings and the finished pictures can range from the pictorial to the abstract. In this 3-hour workshop, participants will have an opportunity to experiment with finger paint and then reflect on their paintings in terms of what the conscious ego might discover about the deeper processes at work in the psyche.   
N.B. Materials cost: $5.

Limit: 8 participants.

What are some of the shifts in consciousness at this stage? How do these changes affect the individuation process? Are there important developmental tasks unique to the second half of life? By pondering questions such as these with fellow-travellers, insights emerge, which can be fortifying for the journey.

Friday lecture:$20 in advance; $25 at the door; Sustaining Members free - call office for ticket

SUNDAY Discussion: $20 in advance; $25 at the door

In preparation for tackling The Red Book in 2013-14, the group will be reading John Kerr’s A Dangerous Method and the Freud-Jung Letters. For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002.
New members are most welcome.

In preparation for tackling The Red Book in 2013-14, the group will be reading John Kerr’s A Dangerous Method and the Freud-Jung Letters. For more details, please contact Schuyler Brown at 416-241-5002.
New members are most welcome.

In this lecture, we will take a look at the illusive and unpredictable energy we call inspiration in the creative process. Using references from C.G. Jung, mythology, and contemporary artists and authors, we will try to answer a few questions. What is inspiration? Where does it come from? What are some of the mythical references we can consider to better understand this energy? Is there a proper attitude that invites inspiration? Can we cultivate it, and, if so, how? A short dance will be presented in the second half, followed by a talk about inspiration in the context of making and performing a dance.

Dora Kalff developed Sandplay Therapy with the active support of C. G. Jung.
In Sandplay, images are formed in a tray partly filled with wet or dry sand as the therapist sits quietly nearby. Miniatures may be used and the resulting sand scenes allow psychic contents to find embodied form. The Sandplay process invites guidance from the Self during a protected regression into the preverbal matriarchal level of the psyche. The therapist serves as a midwife, receiving the images into a safe and protected space in which conflicting opposites can be united and a healing process becomes progressively evident through the act of play. This seminar will be illustrated with sand pictures and will also include a short film. 

Jungian analyst, Helen Brammer-Savlov is currently studying for certification in Sandplay Therapy with the Canadian Association for Sandplay Therapists.

From the vantage point of a twenty-first century view on libido and the relations between sexuality and spirituality, we will consider the life and times of John Henry, Cardinal Newman, with reference to Yale historian Frank Turner’s 2002 book, John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion.

Come to a farewell/celebration ritual at 223 St. Clair Avenue West, remembering the forty-some years we have been there. We invite you to get together with us on Saturday, June 8th, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

This is an informal event, and you can expect to be surrounded by boxes and at least some emptied space. No words of wisdom and insight are planned, although they are welcome to emerge; and who knows what kind of food there might be? But there will, at least, be some wine and a smudging in the company of friends.  

If you know former members of the C. G. Jung Foundation of Ontario who might be interested in this event, do by all means invite them to come along.