He Doesn’t Have (a) Clu(e): A Jungian Interpretation of TRON: Legacy Presented by Dr. Sean Hill

On Saturday, November 16, 2019, the Jung Society hosted “He Doesn’t Have (a) Clu(e): A Jungian Interpretation of TRON: Legacy presented by Dr. Sean Hill. Attendees gathered at the Maryland Heights Community Center, where the Society screened the film and ran a concession stand with snacks, candies, and sodas. Following the TRON: Legacy screening , Dr. Hill presented on the movie’s allegorical journey highlights.

In the 2010 movie, a sequel to the 1982 TRON, a brilliant computer programmer named Kevin Flynn mysteriously disappears. Twenty years later, his rebellious and troubled son, Sam, goes to an old video arcade after his father’s former colleague receives a page. This “page to adventure” serves as the beginning of a heroic journey in which Sam enters a digital world known as the Grid. Though Kevin Flynn was largely responsible for the creation of the Grid, Sam soon discovers this world is no longer under his father’s control. Instead, the Grid is ruled by Clu, who was compelled by Kevin Flynn to “create the perfect system.” 

Dr. Hill analyzed the characters and storyline of this film using Jungian, post-Jungian, Campbellian, historical, and mythological perspectives. His presentation proposed that TRON: Legacy can be understood as an allegorical journey highlighting the limitations of (self-)knowledge, encounters with(in) oneself, and transformation.

Sean C. Hill, Ph.D., is Vice President of Student Engagement at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois, where he also holds tenured faculty status in psychology. Sean received his Ph.D. from Loyola University Chicago in research methodology/human development. His scholarly interests are race, identity, chaos, complexity, and Jungian perspectives. Sean especially enjoys applying these frameworks to popular culture. He has presented at several conferences including the Mechademia Conference on Asian Popular Cultures, Winter Chaos Conference, Film and History Conference, DePaul Pop Culture Conference, and Conference of Research in Jung and Analytical Psychology. Sean authored “Toward Conceptualizing Race and Racial Identity Development within an Attractor Landscape” published in SAGE Open in 2017.

Reframing Our Sense of Self and World in Times of Plague: A Webinar Presented by James Hollis, Ph.D. (May 8, 2020)

“Our personal and collective encounter with an invisible antagonist, our enforced sequestering, our interrupted activities, and our removal from familiar points of reference occasion both anxiety and fear in us. How do we understand this experience psychologically, move from a sense of victimage to personal agency, and find enlargement in times of diminishment?”

James Hollis, Ph.D., is a Jungian Analyst in Washington, DC, and author of sixteen books, the latest being Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times.

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.

Reflections on C. G. Jung’s AION with Rose Holt, M.A. (February 1, 2020)

AION is perhaps Jung’s most challenging and difficult work but also one of his richest.  In this lecture at the First Congressional Church UCC, Rose Holt, Jungian Analyst, presented information and insights from this text that are directly relevant to our understanding and experience of the Christian era and to our own developing sense of self-identity.  Jungian Psychology, at root, attempts to provide some answers to the essential and deeply personal questions of life—“Who am I?” and “How then shall I live?”  AION provides a large and coherent frame from which we might better explore these questions.

AION is Jung’s report on his researches into the formation and development of the Christian Era, where it fits in human history, the people and themes that have shaped it, the general direction it has taken over the Piscean Age, and his conclusions about its future unfolding.  Jung applies his process of individual analysis to the collective consciousness of the Christian Era.  Just as analysis of an individual opens up a much greater understanding of both the totality of one’s consciousness and its limitations, Jung’s analysis of the Christian Era provides an extremely comprehensive view of the Christian Era, its totality, and its limitations.

Our identity and personality are largely determined within the structures of family, social milieu, religious affiliation, educational and governmental institutions, and the general tenor of our time.  We are born into these structures, and they form and inform us in many unconscious ways.  As Americans, we are uncommonly proud of our independent selves, how our egos are the determining factor of our lives.  Even a cursory self-examination can correct that innocent fiction and cause us to become ever more curious about who we really are, the totality of our personhood, which, happily and unhappily, is much larger than just our ego understanding.

It is a mysterious fact that as individuals, we are in a parallel process with history.

Presenter

Rose F. Holt, M.A., is a Jungian analyst in private practice in St. Louis and is a member of the Chicago Association of Jungian Analysts, the Interregional Society of Jungian Analysts, and the Heartland Association of Jungian Analysts. She received her Diploma in Analytical Psychology from the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago in 2001. She served for 12 years as the Advisory Analyst to the C. G. Jung Society of St. Louis. Rose has taught numerous courses in all facets of Jungian psychology and has authored articles and essays on the topic. She maintains a blog, “Jungian Psychology,” at roseholt.blogspot.com.

Jung in the Heartland 2019 Conference: Myth, Meaning, and the Infinite

The first weekend in October, over 70 participants from diverse fields gathered for the C.G. Jung Society of St. Louis’s Jung in the Heartland Conference on Myth, Meaning, and the Infinite.

This year marked the Society’s sixth biennial conference, which provided interaction with outstanding faculty and varied experiential offerings. Throughout the weekend, meaning unfolded through presentations, music, dialogue, art, dream work, poetry, massage, yoga, and ritual.

Jung in the Heartland Faculty: Jungian Analyst Patricia Berry and Author Thomas Moore

The Society welcomed Thomas Moore, Ph.D., and Patricia Berry, Ph.D., as its 2019 conference faculty. Dr. Moore, the author of the number-one New York Times bestselling book Care of the Soul and 20+ other books, and Dr. Berry, a practicing Jungian analyst who served as president of the New England Society of Jungian Analysts and Training Director and President of the Inter-Regional Society and currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute, have both made tremendous contributions to Jungian and Archetypal Psychology.

In addition to their individual pursuits, both worked closely with James Hillman. From 1968 to 1991, while Hillman’s companion and wife, Dr. Berry played an integral role in the early, formative years of Archetypal Psychology. During some of those years, Hillman, Berry, and Moore worked together in Dallas, where an engaged Jungian community grew up around them.

Throughout the course of the weekend, Dr. Moore and Dr. Berry lectured and led discussions on topics including the myths we live, the wisdom and beauty of the gospel myth, the orphan archetype, and connecting myth to our everyday lives.

They also shared stories about growing into their current psychological and spiritual interests. Dr. Moore discussed coming out of the monastic tradition and Dr. Berry talked about her upbringing in Ohio and eventually moving to Zurich, where she met James Hillman. The two also treated attendees to a lively exchange about their time together in Dallas.

Throughout the conference, the faculty answered participants’ questions, interfaced with attendees one-on-one, and chatted over meals in the King’s House dining hall, which furthered the sense of community attendees enjoyed experiencing at the conference.

King’s House: The Ideal Setting For a Jungian Retreat

The Society hosted the conference at King’s House Retreat and Renewal Center in Belleville, Illinois, about 30 minutes outside of St. Louis. In addition to being a beautiful representation of the heartland, the property provided participants with an excellent balance of private and communal space.

King’s House, which is staffed by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, boasts 62 fully private rooms with private baths that it accurately describes as “attractive, simple, humble, and clean—no more than one needs when on retreat!”

The facility also has two dining areas: a main hall and a more private room where intimate discussions—and a long-running after-hours poker game!—took place.

King’s House’s chapel was open throughout the weekend. It provided a meditative spot for conference participants seeking a moment of solitude, plus an acoustically and aesthetically ideal area for the yoga classes and concerts the Society put on for attendees.

The weekend was beautiful, and almost all the conference participants spent time outside. King’s House’s grounds feature paths, a labyrinth, a waterfall, numerous statues, a gazebo, a meadow, and more than 47 gorgeous acres. The all-weather porch overlooking the main courtyard and outfitted with numerous rocking chairs was a favorite gathering place.

Jung in the Heartland attendees filled all 62 rooms at the retreat center and some even chose to commute daily from elsewhere in the St. Louis Metro area. 

Experiential Offerings Inspired by Jung Studies and Depth Psychology

In addition to Dr. Moore and Dr. Berry’s lectures, attendees were invited to explore depth psychology, archetypal psychology, and Jungian thought through other creative programming.

Yoga, chair yoga, and massage brought in the element of touch, plus mind-body awareness. Crystal bowl meditations were also led by Nancy Straatmann and Julie Schulte on Friday and Saturday evenings after dinner.

An art room—where participants were encouraged to decoupage memory boxes, hang notes, and try their hands at graffiti—was open throughout the weekend. Like the all-weather porch and the small dining room, the art room, managed by Dr. Fradi Spilberg, became a gathering place where participants bonded as they worked on their projects.

Thursday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon, participants were treated to moving performances of live music in the wonderful acoustics of the King’s House chapel. Ensembles included Vera Parkin, Director of Webster University’s Community Music School’s Preparatory Program, who accompanied student Jacob Hinton, an 18-year-old cellist, and selections included a Bach cello suite and Saint-Saens’s “The Swan.”

The Saturday evening program was performed by the Glass-Schene piano trio, who gave a wonderfully diverse program of musical offerings from Bach to a tango by Astor Piazzola. The closing musical offering was given by flutist Matthew Allison, and selections included classical compositions along with pieces inspired by ceremonial music from Peruvian culture.

Finally, participants were invited to present Sunday morning during a reading of favorite poems related to Jung, Myth, Meaning, and the Infinite. The lively poetry reading, reciting, and singing included selections—some planned ahead, some spontaneous—from Lord Byron, Hafiz, e.e. cummings, Joy Harjo, and even Bob Dylan, in addition to participants’ own work.

Jung in the Heartland Conference Takeaways

Polled attendees had wonderful feedback about their experiences at the four-day conference.

Of faculty Dr. Moore and Dr. Berry—and their presentations—attendees noted they were “outstanding,” “engaged,” and generous with their time.

“Both presenters were accessible and spoke from the heart,” one attendee wrote. “The presentations were so much more than academic—came from a deep place of life experience.”

“This was a fabulous conference,” said another. “The speakers individually and together—synergistically—were excellent. I also appreciated the restful pace of the schedule, with generous breaks and time for walking and being in conversation.”

The sense of community cultivated at Jung in the Heartland was the thing participants liked most, calling it a humanizing experience that afforded them opportunities to meet diverse people, learn about depth psychology, and choose from a variety of activities that nurtured the soul.

One said, “The people and community restored me in ways I can’t even name.”

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