September 8, 2017
“The Masks of Eternity” with Joseph Campbell: Film and Panel Discussion

In this film Bill Moyers discusses spirituality and religion with the famous mythologist and storyteller, Joseph Campbell. In words and visual art, they explore the teachings of Buddhism, Christianity, Native Americans, C.G. Jung, and others.

A panel discussion will follow with Jungian analysts Thayer Greene, Erica Lorentz, and Penelope Tarasuk. There will be time for questions and comments from the audience.

October 6, 2017
Diane Croft: Journey to the Center of the Psyche

Based on an encounter with a “wholly other force within,” this lecture will describe a descent into the deeper layers of the primordial unconscious. For three years, Croft was pulled into the sacred temenos at the center of the psyche and captured the poetic voice she heard there. It took several decades to decipher its meaning. Her presentation will vividly demonstrate the dynamic relationship between the ego-driven personality and the greater collective unconscious.

Diane Croft, Ed.M., a graduate of Wittenberg and Harvard, has spent most of her career as Vice President of Publishing at National Braille Press. Her recent book The Unseen Partner: Love & Longing in the Unconscious has garnered four national book awards, including the prestigious Nautilus Book Award.

November 3, 2017
*Francine Lorimer: The Treasures of Introversion: Healing from the Psyche
*Note: Anita Greene had to cancel her lecture due to unforeseen circumstances. 

Multiple forces push us in our everyday life to the extent that we often feel stretched to the limit meeting external demands. Even psychology increasingly focuses on behavior as a measure of success, so that we can meet these demands. But the cost of focusing on performance is neglect of our inner vitality. Our inner life is sustained in quite different ways and in turn it sustains our enjoyment of the world. This presentation explores the fascinating lifeworld that lies within us, how it manifests, and how we can learn to relate to it and give it a place at the table. The lecture will draw on both my anthropological experience in Aboriginal Australia and Denmark and my own personal experience that led me to become a Jungian analyst.

Francine Lorimer has a Ph.D. in anthropology and conducted fieldwork in Central Australia and Cape York, Australia, and Copenhagen, Denmark. She taught anthropology at Copenhagen and Harvard Extension School. She is a Jungian analyst, having trained at the C.G. Jung Institutes in Zurich and Boston. She also has a Psy.D. in clinical psychology from William James College, and taught psychology at UMass Boston. She has a private practice in Arlington, MA.

December 1, 2017
Thayer Greene: The Many Faces of Love

When we use the word “love” what are we describing? This lecture will explore its subjective meaning and experience as well as the great variety of objects toward which love is directed. Love is deeply personal but also a profoundly universal/archetypal human experience.

Thayer Greene, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst  (IAAP), trained in New York and Zurich, Switzerland. He practices in Amherst, MA and is a training analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute-Boston. He has written a book and many articles in the field.

Sunday, January 14, 2018 (1-4pm)*
*NOTE: Please note this lecture is on Sunday at 1pm.
Jason Smith: “Nothing” is Real: Self-emptying in Jungian Psychology and the Contemplative Traditions

“‘Nothing’ is the force that renovates the World,” wrote Emily Dickinson, expressing a truth known to the mystics of every time and place. Every religion gives expression to this life-giving “Nothingness” and offers practices of self-emptying that can bring individuals into contact with it. In this talk we will see how this experience is expressed in the great world religions as well as in the theories of depth psychology. We will then consider the Jungian concept of individuation as a process of self-emptying.

Jason E. Smith, M.A. is a Jungian Analyst in private practice in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. His areas of focus include dream work, depression, and spiritual development. He currently serves on the Training Board of the C.G. Jung Institute-Boston.

February 2, 2018
Erica Lorentz: Healing Through the Imaginal Realm

Working with the imaginal realm involves a conscious dialogue with the unconscious. This dialogue is essential for our transformation and is called active imagination. It was Jung’s preferred method for exploring the unconscious (see The Red Book). Our guide for this process comes from the psyche itself that manifests symbolically in all art forms, the body, and dreams. This lecture will explore how we use active imagination. Examples and DVD clips will illustrate this creative force that guides us.

Erica Lorentz, LPC, Jungian Analyst (IAAP), has a private practice in Northampton. She is a training analyst and has served on the Training Board at the C.G. Jung Institute-Boston. Since 1986 she has lectured and taught workshops in the US and Canada.

March 2, 2018  *NOTE: CANCELED/RESCHEDULED for March 9, 2018
Penelope Tarasuk: The Archetypal Initiations of Childbirth and Death: Symbolic and Embodied

Jung wrote relatively little on childbirth or dying, the alpha and omega human experiences. Both totally embodied and often nonverbal, these physical experiences utterly impact our lives. We are all born of and through a womb and we all die when our consciousness separates from our material body. These crucial entries and exits set the stage of life and draw a veil, or curtain, over the end of life, as we know it. Tonight, we will discuss how these archetypal initiations impress the great humanizing core of who we are.

Penelope Tarasuk, Ph.D., is a Jungian Analyst (IAAP), artist, and author of Polishing The Bones. She graduated from the C.G. Jung Institute-Boston and has served there as a board member, curriculum coordinator, faculty, candidate supervisor, and evaluator. She practices in South Deerfield and Cambridge: individuals, families, and groups.

April 6, 2018
Richard Bouchard: Embodying the Symbols of the Tarot

This program explores various aspects of Jungian psychology. Participants will jump right into “live tarot readings” and speak for the images that appear in selected layouts. This experiential lecture will allow participants the opportunity to deepen their practical understanding of Jungian psychology and the Tarot. Prior knowledge of the Tarot and Jungian psychology may be useful, but is not required.

Rick Bouchard, LCSW, Jungian Analyst (IAAP) has a private practice in Portland, Maine. He facilitates a variety of professional workshops, including those related to the Tarot, and he works with the images of the Tarot in his clinical work with patients. He also offers professional tarot readings.

May 4, 2018
Karen A. Smyers: The Shipwrecked Sailor: A “Fairy Tale” from Ancient Egypt

We will examine this mysterious story from approximately 2000 BCE in its specific cultural and historical context as well as ponder its universal meanings.  Along the way we shall meet a talking snake, visit a magical island, and meet an ancient Egyptian “proto-Jungian.” Containing opposite world views within a set of nested stories, The Shipwrecked Sailor may provide wisdom to help us survive our own psychological, physical, or material “shipwrecks” today. Images from Egyptian art will illustrate the lecture.

Karen A. Smyers, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst (IAAP) is a former Associate Professor of Religion and Anthropology at Wesleyan University and a graduate of ISAP-Zurich. She has a private practice in Northampton.