Grabbed By Persephone / Consoled By Demeter: Presentation & Symposium on the Greek Myth of Persephone and Demeter (April 28, 2023)

During this Friday night event, Lou Galloway-Zapiain led attendees in an in-person program designed for mythologists in general, those with specific interest in the Persephone / Demeter myth, those students of Jung seeking to understand more fully the workings of archetypes, and those who work with populations dealing with trauma as a result of displacement or sudden upheaval in life.

The presentation focused on how the 3,000-year-old myth manifested itself to touch the lives of immigrants and refugees in 2022. It revolved around two intertwined, present-day stories. One story tells of Persephone’s calling upon an English as a Second Language teacher, guiding him to present her myth to his class of immigrants and refugees. The second story told the challenges he met to present this complex story to his students of limited English proficiency.

Society Vice President Francesca “Cheska” Ferrentelli noted that “Lou’s presentation was fantastic, particularly as he discussed his process in creating the program. The dramatic reading was very effective, the audience was really engaged,” and attendees called the program heartfelt, inspiring, and healing.

​A lifelong student of mythology and intercultural connections, Lou Galloway-Zapiain has lived in and traveled to over 40 countries on six continents. His travels have focused on exploring indigenous people’s spirituality and mythology, cultural similarities, and “off the beaten path” adventure. He has 45 years experience as a classroom teacher of world history, world cultures, and English as a Second Language.

​Lou is a founding member of the ManKind Project – St. Louis. Over the past 30 years, he has led and assisted with workshops, trainings, and retreats based on the fundamentals of Depth Psychology and personal growth development.

A Jungian Analysis of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo: A Toy Rabbit’s Path Toward Individuation With Francesca “Cheska” Ferrentelli, Ph.D. (March 3, 2023)

During this Friday night event, Dr. Francesca “Cheska” Ferrentelli told the story The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane — one of Kate DiCamillo’s rich, powerful, and moving middle-grade reader books whose highly archetypal themes are akin to modern-day fairy tales — and discussed it from a Jungian and archetypal perspective. She then presented participants with study questions before they moved to breakout rooms to discuss their findings.

Later, everyone came back together in the larger group, where individuals were welcomed to share their thoughts.

By the end of the evening’s event, participants were able to

1. Understand the concepts of archetypes, persona, shadow, and individuation.
2. Discuss their ideas about these concepts and how they are alive in the story.
3. Name some of the characters and demonstrate how they fit into these concepts.

Francesca “Cheska” Ferrentelli, Ph.D., is a Jungian-influenced psychotherapist, mythologist, author, and storyteller in St. Louis, Missouri. In her private practice, she specializes in trauma, eating disorders, addictions, adult children of alcoholics, and EMDR therapy. She received her doctorate in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2003, and her M.A. in Professional Psychology from Lindenwood University in 1993. Dr. Ferrentelli has served on the board of the C. G. Jung Society of St. Louis since 2007 and currently serves as Vice President. She has led multiple study groups for the St. Louis Jung Society. Her children’s book, The Zebra and the Black Pony, was released in 2020.

James Hollis Zoom Lecture — Necessary Fictions: Therapy as the Critique of “Stories” (February 24, 2023)

The evening of Friday, February 24, lecture participants joined the Society as James Hollis invited them to consider how stories — provisional, localized, and often created at an early stage of our history — become defining narratives, and how therapy can be understood as the identification of and critical analysis of our operative or “meta-stories.”

Until these “narrative interpretations” can be smoked out, we remain their captives. Through a series of questions, Dr. Hollis encouraged participants to examine the stories they have been serving, then engage the stories that honor what wants to unfold from within.

Attendees were incredibly moved by this lecture, and much discussion unfolded among board members and Friends of the Society in the week that followed. A board member shared that it was “a thought-provoking and enlightening evening…[with a] man who continues to share his wisdom with us all” and noted that the opportunity to dialogue directly with Dr. Hollis “revealed his laser-like focus to get to the heart of the matter.”

James Hollis, Ph.D., is a Jungian Analyst in Washington, DC, and author of sixteen books, the latest being The Broken Mirror: Refracted Visions of Ourselves.

Dr. Hollis was born in Springfield, Illinois, and graduated from Manchester University in 1962 and Drew University in 1967. He taught Humanities for 26 years in various colleges and universities before retraining as a Jungian analyst at the Jung Institute of Zurich, Switzerland (1977–82). He is presently a licensed Jungian analyst in private practice in Washington, D.C. He served as Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center in Houston, Texas, for many years and was Executive Director of the Jung Society of Washington until 2019, and now serves on the JSW Board of Directors.

He is a retired Senior Training Analyst for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, was first Director of Training of the Philadelphia Jung Institute, and is Vice-President Emeritus of the Philemon Foundation. Additionally, he is a Professor of Jungian Studies for Saybrook University of San Francisco/Houston.

He lives with his wife, Jill, an artist and retired therapist, in Washington, D.C. Together they have three living children and eight grandchildren.

He has written a total of sixteen books. The books have been translated into Swedish, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian, Korean, Finnish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Farsi, Japanese, Greek, Chinese, Serbian, and Czech.

Martha Peacock Lecture & Workshop (December 2–3, 2022)

The evening of Friday, December 2, lecture participants joined the Society as Martha Peacock led an in-depth exploration of the value of memoir writing as a step on the path to what Jung called the individuation process. To give the audience a taste of memoir writing, they were asked to reflect and write personally about the three stages of alchemy:

• Nigredo: the dark night of the soul that often includes suffering and grief
• Albedo: an awakening of the spirit, a shift in consciousness that can bring a new perspective after a long torment of darkness
• Rubedo: an integration of the dark night of the soul and a re-entry into the world as a changed individual

The Saturday workshop combined Jung’s meditation technique, active imagination, as a tool for writing — or any creative endeavor — with further discussion of alchemy, its images, symbols and definitions, and how they may relate to an individual’s life. This stimulated participants’ memories and thoughts and helped them sink deeper into their personal writing as they dove into the alchemical stages of calcinatio, solutio, coagulatio, sublimatio, mortificatio, separatio, and/or coniunctio. They also discussed ways to amplify personal writing to make it more interesting to the reader. Time was given for private writing and discussion through breakout rooms and collectively as a group.

After the events, Society President Sandy Cooper noted that the events were “richly challenging” and “powerful.”

Martha Peacock, Ph.D., received her masters and doctorate degrees in mythological studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute and a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Her educational training lends itself well to digging down deep to the perennial root of unquestioned thoughts and behaviors in order to unearth fresh perspectives.

Transgenerational Complexes in Coco with Johann Mynhardt (October 29, 2022)

…the unconscious corresponds to the mythic land of the dead, the land of the ancestors. ~Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections pg. 191

On Saturday, October 29, participants in this online workshop explored transgenerational complexes through the lens of the Disney / Pixar animated feature Coco. In the film, young Miguel is mysteriously thrust into the mythic land of ancestors and is tasked with resolving generational complexes and trauma. Though seemingly light-hearted family entertainment, the film has rich themes participants explored around ancestry and individuation.

Specifically, participants explored transgenerational complexes both practically and theoretically through the lens of Coco with a focus on:

• Animism and ancestor veneration as a possible form of proto-psychology.
• The ancestral basis for Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious.
• The unconscious / underworld as a container for generational trauma.
• Incorporating an ancestral view into one’s personal myth and individuation.

From that time on, the dead have become ever more distinct for me as the voices of the Unanswered, Unresolved, and Unredeemed; for since the questions and demands which my destiny required me to answer did not come to me from outside, they must have come from the inner world. ~Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections pg. 191

Johann Mynhardt, who lives in South Africa, has been a student of Jungian thought for over 25 years. He began his journey with the Centre for Applied Jungian Studies in 2013 as a student. He later took on roles as facilitator, lecturer, and mentor and with his background in the film industry was invited to be a founding member of the Jungian Film School. He is also an initiated “Nganga” (Bwiti shaman) and has traveled to the land of ancestors.

Our Polarized Culture: Healing the Individual and the Collective with Donald Kalsched, Ph.D., and Thomas Singer, M.D. (September 30 & October 1, 2022)

After postponing our 7th biennial Jung in the Heartland Conference in light of COVID-19, then planning for an in-person conference that was not to be (also in light of COVID), the Society was pleased to convene our 7th biennial Jung in the Heartland Conference, reimagined to provide both outstanding faculty and varied experiential offerings in a fully virtual format.

For two days, participants from around the United States and the world gathered via zoom as Donald Kalsched, Ph.D., and Thomas Singer, M.D., lectured during the morning sessions and all participants, including Kalsched and Singer, engaged in lively breakout rooms in the afternoons. Lectures (topics outlined below) included references to art, poetry, film, and community theater. Discussion groups were intimate and illuminating, as participants shared insights, responses, and dreams.

After our reimagined conference, participants shared

• “The presenters were marvelous and I loved the group participation.”
• “I really liked the interactions between Tom and Don.”

And said the things they liked most included

• “The content, the presenters addressing theory with great examples”
• “Donald Kalshed’s communicating of the concepts through concrete human experiences, both personal and clinical”
• “The thoughtfulness and openness of other participants’ discussion group comments”
• “Morning presentations each day by both presenters”
• “An in-depth approach that explored the many ways the psyche of humankind and the collective culture are active/passive performers as well as contributors/collaborators to a world facing the possible extinction of life on earth”

Conference Program Highlights

DONALD KALSCHED, PH.D.

The Polarizing vs. the Integrating Psyche

Enduring patterns of dividing and differentiating and—on the other hand—unifying and integrating exist in all of us as
individuals and in the collective as well. This lecture will explore how in unstable situations, polarizing tendencies often get the upper hand, leading to psychopathology, and how both are necessary for psychological growth and differentiation.

Culture Wars and the Hijacked Imagination
In this lecture, Don Kalsched will describe how fear hijacks the imagination and justifies defensive anger and splitting in both the individual and the collective, and describe how this is evident in culture wars around conspiracy theories, climate change, abortion, immigration, gun violence, and beyond.

THOMAS SINGER, M.D.

Cultural Complexes and the Soul of America: A Way to Frame the Psychology of Polarization

How do cultural complexes contribute to the profound divisions as well as the possibility of soul making in the U.S.? This talk focuses on the interrelationships between soul, cultural complexes, and polarization in the United States today.

The Imaginal as a Way to Heal Polarization in the Individual and Collective Psyche
This talk will focus on how the imaginal can provide ways of “seeing” our individual and collective splits in the hopes of finding ways of healing and even transcending them.

Presenters

Donald Kalsched, Ph.D., is a Jungian Analyst and Clinical Psychologist who practices in Brunswick, Maine, and lives in nearby Topsham with his wife Robin van Loben Sels. He is a member of the C.G. Jung Institute of New England, a senior faculty member and supervisor with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject of trauma and its treatment. His first book, The Inner World of Trauma; Archetypal Defenses of the Personal Spirit, described a core complex of the dissociating psyche (Self-Care System) and demonstrated its clinical applications. His most recent book, Trauma and the Soul: Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Human Development and its Interruption, explores how psychotherapeutic work with trauma survivors sometimes provides access to an ineffable world of soul and spirit.

Thomas Singer, M.D., is a psychiatrist and Jungian psychoanalyst who trained at Yale Medical School, Dartmouth Medical School, and the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. He is the author of many books and articles that include a series of books on cultural complexes that have focused on Australia, Latin America, Europe, the United States, and Far East Asian countries, in addition to another series of books featuring Ancient Greece, Modern Psyche. He serves on the board of ARAS (Archive for Research into Archetypal Symbolism) and has edited ARAS Connections for many years.

Joel Kroeker “When Psyche Sings” Lecture & Workshop (July 15–16, 2022)

The evening of Friday, July 15, lecture participants joined the Society for an in-depth look at the relationship between music and psyche as Jungian analyst Joel Kroeker shared an approach to working with musical symbols within analysis, which he calls Archetypal Music Psychotherapy.

He highlighted how many of us feel the loss of our connection to the simple, vital immediacy that musical expression offers. By distilling music into its basic archetypal elements, Joel helped participants explore how to rediscover their place in this confrontation with deep psyche while highlighting the role of the enigmatic, musical psyche in guiding us through our life.

On Saturday, workshop participants joined Joel as he drew on Jungian, post-Jungian, and contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives, helping us explore the place of the acoustic imaginal within our psychic ecology and within our current fractured world of splitting and polarization.

From Joel’s workshop description: The perception of sound triggers psychic contents, and music mediates between our internal and external experience of consciousness through its affective impact on our symbolic imagination. Like a sound engineer, who can stop Time toward differentiation and integration, we will deeply listen together to the soundscape metabolization process of our auditory digestive system toward the fundamental psychoanalytic goal of hearing what cannot yet be seen.

By distilling music into its basic archetypal elements, an approach is illustrated for working with musical symbols within analysis, referred to as Archetypal Music Psychotherapy. Through locating the role that acoustic images, both imaginal and material, play in our affective and archetypal engagement with our world, we will explore the contribution that musical processes offer to the wholeness and teleology of the individuation process intrapersonally, relationally, and collectively.

After the events, Society President Sandy Cooper noted that Joel “was dynamic yet calm, lucid and inviting, and he offered a number of ideas that stir the imagination. For example, ‘music is a waking dream’ that gives us ‘earcons,’ a play on icons, to contemplate. Relating to the conference theme about our polarized culture and its healing, I noted Joel’s point that many things can exist within the musical field without canceling each other out.”

Joel Kroeker is a Canadian Swiss-trained Jungian psychoanalyst, clinical supervisor, and Music-Centred Psychotherapist. He is on faculty as an instructor at the CG Jung Institute Zürich and the Centre for Applied Jungian Studies. He is the founding international workshop facilitator of Archetypal Music Psychotherapy (AMP) and an international recording and touring artist.

He divides his time between his clinical practice and teaching Jungian-oriented courses across Brazil, Europe, and North America. His new book, Jungian Music Psychotherapy: When Psyche Sings (Routledge, 2019) is a finalist for the IAJS (International Association for Jungian Studies) book award.