Jungian Psychotherapy Part II: Exploring Jungian Archetypes

This course can be purchased in the Jungian Psychotherapy Certificate Package

Jungian Archetypes are central to understanding Jungian Psychotherapy. Even in our tech-driven culture, we remain a people captivated by stories, myths, and archetypes. Movie after movie shows us familiar archetypes (the witch, the fool, the villain) that so many of us connect with on a deep internal level. At the same time that we are a culture obsessed with story, we are living in an age of forced light. Computers, indoor lighting, traffic lights, video games, and more, reflect a first-world avoidance of the dark. In this setting, what becomes of the richness that resides in the dark? What happens to people in a culture that attempts to light every dark passageway?

This intermediate level course is the second in a series of five courses on Jungian Psychotherapy. It is comprised of seven engaging audio interviews, all of which come with written transcripts. Dr. David Van Nuys interviews fascinating and varied experts: Dr. John Beebe on Jungian Typology and the Feminine in Film; Michael Meade on the Interplay of Light and Darkness in Myth, Dr. Monika Wikman on Alchemical Archetypes; Claire Morris on the Wise Fool; Stuart Kohler on Depth Psychology; and Dr. Shepard Bliss on the Archetype of Darkness.

With a mix of personal stories, myth, and research, the interviewees describe powerful experiences, such as the role of story in surviving solitary confinement; our cultural emphasis on the light and the consequences of this; alternative approaches to understanding HIV. Central to this course is a tenet described beautifully by Michael Meade “Things happen in the world that you cannot explain, but that can happen if a person trusts something in their own life.” This course provides a background for understanding this trust and this journey. Additional resources and references are provided for further study, but they are not part of the course.

This course is the second in a series of five courses on Jungian Psychotherapy with Dr. David Van Nuys. The first course is Understanding the Jungian Worldview, the third course is Tools and Applications, the fourth course is Active Imagination, and the fifth course is Myth, Story, and Synchronicity.