Fanny Brewster on the Racial Complex 

Friday morning workshop

November 9th, 9am-noon

We're so glad to have Jungian analyst, writer, and professor Dr. Fanny Brewster back with us to explore topics too rarely discussed within Jungian Psychology: race, the history of racism, and the “racial complex.”

In this lecture/workshop we will dive into the topic of complexes -- an idea core to Jung's entire psychology, which he originally named  "Complex Psychology." Through Dr. Brewster’s scholarship, we will focus on understanding the racial complex.

When Jung first spoke about African Americans in his 1930’s writings, particularly in The Complications of American Psychology, he referred to “a white complex” and “a Negro complex.” Dr. Brewster inquires: What exactly is our racial complex? What is the relationship between this particular complex and dissociation—the disconnection between the ego and the Self? 

In this workshop, we’ll explore these questions from an intellectual lens as well as a personal one. We’ll dive into the history of classical Jungian psychology, as well as the concepts that apply directly to our own lives. What are our racial complexes? How do they live within us? How do they exist within the societies we inhabit?

• Date: November 9th, 2018, Friday morning, 9am-noon

• Location: Inner NE Portland, address provided to registrants

• Cost: $65 for intimate three hour workshop*

  • (Small discount provided to participants in current Neumann/Jung workshop).

Dr. Fanny Brewster is a Jungian analyst and author of poetry and nonfiction. Her book Archetypal Grief: Slavery’s Legacy of Intergenerational Child Loss (2018) was recently published by Routledge, joining her book African Americans and Jungian Psychology: Leaving the Shadows (Routledge, 2017). Her poems from Journey: The Middle Passage have appeared in the Psychological Perspectives Journal (2016) in which she was Featured Poet. Dr. Brewster is a Professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute and a member of the Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts. She is a lecturer and workshop presenter on Dreamwork, Culture and Creative Writing.

*Sold Out - Thank you*

Jung and Neumann: 

Truth & Ethics in Times of Collective Division

October 5th-November 16th

Friday mornings, 9:30-11am

with Satya Doyle Byock

Reality is in question. Truth is being weighed against “alternative facts.” And everyone seems certain that they are “good” and their opponents are “evil.”

Whether it be from the White House, the Kremlin, various media sources, or the internet, there are various, active efforts to undermine our capacity to see and know reality.

What do we do about it?

Our understanding of “good” and “evil” needs to get a lot more psychological. Our understanding of ethics needs to get a lot more personal.

There are two books from the Jungian canon that should be required reading these days: Erich Neumann’s Depth Psychology and A New Ethic (1948), and Jung’s long essay The Undiscovered Self  (1956). We'll read both books and discuss their history and implication in this seminar.

“We have all seen how not a finger is lifted on behalf of ’the Good’, unless that finger happens to belong to a body whose own existence is directly threatened.” -Erich Neumann

Both books are deeply contemplative responses to WWII and the shift of reality that any “ism” can bring. They provide solutions to the burning question so many of us have these days: "what do I do?" They present an evolving notion of ethics, born from the deepest reaches of Analytical Psychology. They help to answer the plaguing moral questions of our times.

This from Sonu Shamdasani’s introduction to the re-issue of The Undiscovered Self: 

“In the aftermath of World War II, with the advent of the Cold War, the erection of the Berlin Wall, and the explosion of the hydrogen bomb, Jung found himself once again confronted with 'An apocalyptic age filled with images of universal destruction,' as he had been when he composed Liber Novus during World War I. Articulating there a direct linkage between what took place in the individual and in society at large, he argued that the only solution to the seemingly catastrophic developments in the world lay in the individual turning within and resolving the individual aspects of the collective conflict…."

“...he argued that only self-knowledge and religious experience could provide resistance to the totalitarian mass society. In this regard, the individual had been failed by modern science on one side, and by organized religion on the other…"

Join us in this critical discussion!

Seminar details:

• Dates: Oct 5th-November 16th -- Friday mornings, 9:30-11am

• Location: Inner NE Portland, address provided to registrants

• Cost: $170 for six-week seminar

*Seminar has filled - thank you*

Using the I Ching for Individual & Collective Guidance

A Fundraiser for Emily's List

Friday, September 7th - 9-11am

with Satya Doyle Byock

hosted at The Nightwood Society

The world is changing, and we are changing with it. We are not just improving bits and pieces of our lifestyles to catch-up with (or counteract) the changes in culture and politics. No. This is a revolution. Psychologically. Culturally. Globally. Locally. Something is happening.

How do you stay clear on your particular, individual response? How do you orient to these extraordinary times? How do you find your own path through?

Whether you are tackling white supremacy, gun violence, xenophobic nationalism, global warming, environmental destruction, rampant sexual abuse... you are also tackling patriarchy: "a social system in which males hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property." Patriarchy is also the fundamental elevation of yang values, over yin values, of action and consumption over pleasure, being, and being with.

In this gathering, we will attend to the re-elevation and respect of the Yin through consultation with the I Ching, an ancient Chinese and Taoist text that does not distinguish in value between the yin and yang. The goal is wholeness and balance at all times, advising on ways to engage -- or not -- with social and personal changes.

Together, we will also attend to the result of diminished respect for the yin, through the humans upon whom the de-valued yin is primarily projected: women. We'll do this by helping to disrupt patriarchy's systematic exclusion of women from leadership and power through our donations to Emily's List, an effective national organization devoted to supporting the political campaigns of Democratic, pro-choice women at all levels of government. They need our support this year more than ever.

Bring your journal and your copy of the I Ching (if you have one). There will be short introduction on how to use the I Ching and then space to engage in personal consultations with the oracle, and group discussion and personal feedback.

• Date/Time: Friday, September 7th, 9-11am
• Recommended text: The I Ching - R.L. Wing translation preferred for beginners.
• Cost: Donation based - Suggested: $20-$200 -- all amounts accepted!
• Location: The Nightwood Society - 2218 NE BROADWAY ST, PORTLAND, OR 97232
• Bring:
  • Copy of I Ching (if you have one)
  • Journal and pen
  • Three pennies
  • Donation for Emily's List
  • A friend or two

We have moved locations for this event in order to acomodate the level of interest! Please RSVP below -- all people on the prior waitlist have been notified of space.

Fanny Brewster on Dreams & the Creative Self 

Friday morning workshop

June 29th, 9am-noon

*Workshop is sold out. Thank you.*

This intimate workshop with Jungian analyst, writer, and professor Dr. Fanny Brewster on dreams, active imagination, and the creative self will begin with a short lecture. The lecture will focus on the Creative Self, drawing on the work of feminist poet Audre Lorde and others. Our continued meeting in the form of a workshop will allow us to spend time engaged in an Active Imagination process. Participants are encouraged to bring dreams, and something to write with/on.

We will cover a wide range of classical Jungian themes, with Fanny's updated race and gender critiques. With a devotion to both intellect and eros, this will be a special gathering you won't want to miss. We welcome your participation.

No previous experience in dreamwork or writing is necessary.

• Date: June 29th, Friday morning, 9am-noon
• Location: Inner NE Portland, address provided to registrants
• Cost: $55 for intimate three hour workshop

Dr. Fanny Brewster is a Jungian analyst and author of poetry and nonfiction. Her book African Americans and Jungian Psychology: Leaving the Shadows has recently been published by Routledge (2017). A forthcoming book, Archetypal Grief: Slavery’s Legacy of Intergenerational Child Loss is forthcoming. Her poems from Journey: The Middle Passage have appeared in the Psychological Perspectives Journal (2016) in which she was Featured Poet. Dr. Brewster is a Professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute and a member of the Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts. She is a lecturer and workshop presenter on Dreamwork, Culture and Creative Writing.

Workshop is full. Thank you.

After The Red Book: Jung’s Insights + Alchemy

*Eight Sessions*

April 27th - June 22nd

with Satya Doyle Byock, MA, LPC

Jung’s entire psychology is built from the foundation of his dive into the unconscious, as captured in the Red Book. In 1925, following this descent, and as he was constructing the final text and calligraphic script, Jung delivered a series of lectures discussing the content of the Red Book journeys.

We will start by reading Jung’s 1925 Seminar for the first 4 weeks of this seminar. This is where Red Book editor, Sonu Shamdasani, believes all readers should go following the Red Book, as it's where Jung begins to thoroughly lay-out his system of psychology. This lecture is also more deeply understood if you’ve just taken that journey with Jung (though it’s not at all necessary to have read the Red Book to understand the lecture). Some themes include Jung's typological system, the collective unconscious, archetypes, his notion of the anima and animus and some on alchemy.

For the second half of our seminar, we’ll dive into alchemy, through a wonderfully structured book on the various alchemical stages in Edward Edinger’s Anatomy of Psyche. The alchemical writings provided a clear correlate to Jung's journey through the unconscious, and provided a comforting container in which to understand what he had experienced. (I consider this book by Edinger to be one of the greatest of the post-Jung writings.)

Throughout it all, we'll bring a critical and modern lens to how the feminine shows up (or doesn't), and how this system might be a bit different when applied to women's lives. This work can be a significant antidote to the dominance of patriarchy, and the psychological + political lens can bring healing, regardless of gender identification.

• Dates: Friday mornings, 9:30-11am - April 27 & May 4, 11, 18 & June 1, 8, 15, 22

• Location: Inner NE Portland, address provided to registrants

• Cost: $225 + cost of books

  *Sold out* -- thank you

   

Marie-Louise von Franz on the Inferior Function

March 30th & April 6th

9:30-11:30am

with Satya Doyle Byock, MA, LPC

"The inferior function is the door through which all the figures of the unconscious come into consciousness." - Marie-Louise von Franz, Jung's Typology

Prior to this seminar, registrants will take two different typological tests, one of which is free (MBTI), the other costs $25 -- provided to you through my certification with the Singer-Loomis organization (SLTDI).

This will be a very personal course, allowing space for deep self-reflection and creative learning. We'll just have two sessions, so we'll scratch the surface on Jung's typology, the development of which followed his dive into the unconscious captured in The Red Book. We'll do so through the work of his closest colleague, Marie-Louise von Franz. We'll focus on the notion of the “inferior function." Getting familiar with our most inferior function can help to understand what aspects of the world can be hard for us, and what we project onto others; it can also help us see our most potent areas of creative and insightful growth. 

We also will have recommended reading, as we'll be drawing from the work of Marie-Louise von Franz, and a variety of different books in which she discusses the inferior function. Books shared with those who register / or hand-outs will be provided.

• Dates: Friday mornings, 9:30-11:30am - March 30th & April 6th
• Cost: $50 + $25 for typology test.
• Location: Inner NE Portland, address provided to registrants
• Materials: I will share links for the typology tests once we get official sign-ups, and links to recommended reading.

*Sold Out* Thank you!

8 Sessions - January to March, 2018*

with Satya Doyle Byock, MA, LPC

“Since men do not know that the conflict occurs inside themselves, they go mad, and one lays the blame on the other. If one-half of mankind is at fault, then every man is half at fault.”

C.G. Jung, Red Book, p. 200

*Sold-out -- thank you*

C.G. Jung created Liber Novus, "The Red Book," from the journals he kept after the start of WWI. These journals chronicled the deep dive Jung took into his unconscious, finally recognizing -- with the outbreak of the war -- that his nightmarish visions were not delusions or the harbingers of psychosis, but something more.

The Red Book, and the subsequent decades of Jung's psychological inquiry, was always intimately tied to social and global conflict. Today, this book can provide a much need tonic for all of us: soulful insight into what to do now. The writing and paintings he created alongside the work can teach us a great deal about the times we are currently in, as well as the foundation of Analytical Psychology.

This 8 week seminar will provide ample space for exploration of this text, chapter by chapter. We will gather weekly, with one week off in between. (Missed sessions are expected and it's okay to miss as needed, as long as you're able to attend the majority of sessions.)

Dates: Friday mornings, 9:30-11am - Jan 19th-Feb 9th & Feb 23rd- March 16th

Cost: $225 for all 8 sessions (can be paid in two parts)

Location: Inner NE

Required Text: The Red Book reader's edition

“I thought and spoke much of the soul. I knew many learned words for her, I had judged her and turned her into a scientific object. I did not consider that my soul cannot be the object of my judgement and knowledge; much more are my judgement and knowledge the objects of my soul. Therefore the spirit of the depths forced me to speak to my soul, to call upon her as a living and self-existing being. I had to become aware that I had lost my soul." 

-Jung