The C.G. Jung Society of Queensland

President’s Letter

Jung and the “After Maeve” Documentary

Dear Reader,

My life at the moment is largely dominated by the impending broadcast of our documentary film, “After Maeve”, in Ireland tomorrow night and in Australia next week (SBS, 21 September, 8.30pm). Recently, it has been broadcast on television in Belgium. We had 12,000 hits on the website www.planetcreature.com in the subsequent twenty four hours plus about two hundred emails, all without exception expressing gratitude for sharing our story. Most were in halting but heartfelt English and a few in Flemish, which I also understood perfectly although I do not know a word of the language! I translated one email with Alta Vista’s Babelfish software and got the phrase “I with the aqueous eyes”. Such a poetic way for a computer to describe the writer’s tears!

Why do viewers like our documentary?

People “like” the film, as much as you can like a film about a sad subject, because

• it shows that life can go on and be lived richly beyond a great loss,
• it helps similarly-bereaved people to feel less isolated,
• it helps them to express their own grief both vicariously and personally,
• it gives permission to celebrate the life that was lived no matter how sad the ending of it and to celebrate particularly because it was the life of a child,
• it shows some of the psychological struggles of the survivors and hopefully positive ways through those struggles,
• it shows a way to engage children creatively in the grief process, and
• it shows respect for children and a willingness to learn from them.

The Jungian perspective

For me, the making of the film has been a Jungian process all along. Film itself is a Jungian medium of imagery. Jan Cattoni, the director, in the beginning described the path ahead as a process in which “the film makes itself” through our trusting it. The celebration of Maeve’s imaginary world through creative animation in the film is a way to allow the unconscious – both Maeve’s and ours and perhaps the collective – to express itself. Additionally, the film refuses to reduce Maeve’s life to a few words on a stone.

I have already mentioned, in other letters, dreams related to Maeve’s death and to our journeys since. The filming process seems to have been paralleled by inner processes expressed through our dreams. Robyn dreamt recently that she, Jan and I were on a great journey by plane. But we touched down briefly in Israel. This dream came to her shortly before the documentary was shown in Israel and before any of us were aware of the Israeli broadcast. (SBS, independently of us, sells the film to overseas broadcasters.)

I take a kind of healthily-perverse delight in putting my pain in view of the world. At one stage the editors wondered if they shouldn’t take out one scene: the one where I cry so painfully at Christmas when I unexpectedly discover and open the present that Maeve had already bought me before she died. Surely, it was too personal, too painful? Yet it felt clear to me that it should be included. It was as if I wanted to say to the world: “Look, this is what Jung talked about. This is the repressed feeling function of the psyche, of my psyche, of anyone’s psyche. This is the feeling part of the psyche daily hidden from view and repressed in our world.” As a counsellor and therapist, this is the world I live in daily, as I accompany clients’ journeying into those rejected but deeply-feeling places: places where they can find healing and where they can begin to recover a full sense of who they are. There, so often “with the aqueous eyes”, the true richness of their inner worlds wells up.

There is much in the film that goes against the masculine, thinking, controlling energy that seems to predominate in our world, the dominant function, in Jung’s terms. The film celebrates so much of what is normally rejected in our world: creativity, feeling, femininity, playfulness, childhood and non-scripted responses to life and to death. In some way, I like to think that there is in the film a psychic urge towards wholeness and balance that the viewers are instinctively very glad to see. Whether one sees it in Jungian terms or not, there is a quality in the film that strikes a deep chord for many people. One young e-mailer from Belgium put it thus (and this is the entire e-mail):

“Hello ai'm a boy from belguim. And its horrobel wat happend to maeve. Maibe really exist planet creature.

mail back”

Yours Sincerely,

Frank Coughlan

President

frankacoughlan@bigpond.com

Upcoming events at the Jung Society

October 2006

Where We Are

Jungian Analysts in the 21^st Century

A film by Stephen Witty

(Video)

Thursday 5 October 2006, 7:30 pm

St Mary’s Parish House, Cn Merviale and Peel Sts, South Brisbane

$10 ($5 - Members and concession)

This is a rare opportunity to hear Jungian analysts speak of their work.

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Jungian psychotherapy in Colorado, nine Jungian analysts – Jean Carlson, Glen Carlson, Laura Dodson, Bernice Hill, Galin McGowan, Annie Meyer, Lara Newton, Jeffrey Raft and Gary Toub - speak of how they became Jungian analysts, where they stand in relation to Jungian theory, their special interests, the risks and rewards of being a therapist, and how they see the future of Jungian psychotherapy. The film was made by Jungian analyst and filmmaker Stephen Witty, with the cooperation of the C.G. Jung Institute of Colorado.

Notice

The lecture and workshop by Steve Gallegos originally planned for October this year have been postponed until some time in 2007, as has his Deep Imagery training course.

And also in October

Grandmother, Mother and Daughter:

 Joys and Pains of Handing Over Feminine Values

A lecture by Ruth Ammann

Jungian Analyst, Zurich

Tuesday 17 October, 2006, 7:30 pm

Theosophical Society meeting room, 355 Wickham Terrace, Brisbane

$15 (Members and Concession: $10)

Toni Wolff, 1888-1953, one of the first Jungian analysts, presented for the first time to the Psychology Club in Zürich her paper: “Structural forms of the feminine psyche” in 1934. Her paper is still very relevant. Following her reflections, we want to explore on the one hand how the unconscious shadow sides of a woman’s femininity influence her daughter’s and granddaughter’s life and how the repressed, unlived life of a mother can damage her daughter’s and granddaughter’s development. And on the other hand we will see how healing the process of individuation is, not only for a woman herself, but also for her daughters and granddaughters. We women can no longer live in one-sided, traditional role models. “The woman of today is faced with a tremendous cultural task - perhaps it will be the dawn of a new era” (C.G.Jung, Coll.W. V.10, The woman in Europe, 1927).

Ruth hopes for a lively discussion with the audience!

Ruth is Swiss, born in Zurich.  With a Dipl. Architect ETH, she worked as an architect for 13 years. She graduated as a Jungian Analyst from the C.G.Jung-Institute in Zurich.  Today she works as a Jungian Training Analyst and a Sandplay therapist in private practice in Zurich. She is currently the President of the International Society for Sandplay Therapy. She teaches and lectures at the Jung-Institute Zurich and in several countries, including Italy, Germany, Denmark, England, USA  and Canada. She has three adult children and six grand children and she has written three books: Das Traumbild Haus  (The House as a symbol in dreams) Only in German (to be translated into English); Healing and Transformation in Sandplay, Open Court P.C.1991; Der Zauber des Gartens  (Secrets of the Garden), in German. Kasel Munich 1999.

November 2006

Anxiety and the Soul: The Role of Spirituality in Reducing Anxiety

Brendan McMahon

Thursday 2 November, 2006

7:30 – 9:30 pm

St. Mary’s House, Cn Merivale and Peel Sts, South Brisbane

 Members and concession: $5; non-members $10

Some commentators have referred to our era as “the age of anxiety”. At present anxiety disorders constitute one of the most common forms of psychological maladjustment in Western countries. According to the National Co-morbidity Study, approximately 17 percent of adults in the U.S. alone experience the effects of an anxiety disorder in any given year (Kessler et al., 1994). The same study also found the cost of treating anxiety disorders was in excess of $42 billion in 1990. One way people have tried to deal with anxiety and other personal difficulties has been via spirituality and religion. Despite this, psychology has, throughout its history, been hostile towards spirituality and religion, often asserting that it led to increased levels of psychological dysfunction and maladaptive ways of living. Only a minority of psychological theorists have believed that spirituality and religion played a positive role in psychological development. One of these theorists, C.G. Jung, claimed that spirituality was a key factor in promoting the individuation process.

Despite having traditionally held a negative attitude towards spirituality and religion, psychology has recently begun taking spirituality seriously and a growing body of scientific evidence has been demonstrating the effectiveness of spirituality and religion in promoting positive outcomes for physical and psychological health. Tonight’s presentation will examine how contemporary psychology and medicine have recognised the value of spirituality and will specifically look at the presenter’s own scientific research into the role of spirituality as a means of reducing anxiety.

Brendan McMahon B. Psych (Hons), Assoc MAPS. is a psychologist in training who works for Lifeline Caboolture as a member of a specialised child psychotherapy team assisting severely abused children to recover from the effects of trauma. Brendan also works in private practice with adults, adolescents, and children. His presentation tonight will draw heavily from his scientific research into spirituality conducted as part of his Honours degree in psychology at QUT.         

December 2006

A Birthday Conversation with James Hillman

Video

Thursday 7 December, 2006

7:30 – 9:30 pm

St. Mary’s House, Cn Merivale and Peel Sts, South Brisbane

Members and concession: $5; non-members $10

James Hillman is a Jungian analyst, scholar and thinker. Formerly Director of Studies at the Jung Institute in Zurich, he is the author of more than twenty books, including The Soul’s Code, Re-visioning Psychology, The Dream and the Underworld, Suicide and the Soul and A Terrible Love of War.

On 7^th May this year, the Jung Societies in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane participated in a live Internet-based video link with James Hillman on the occasion of his 80^th birthday. From his home in Connecticut, James Hillman responded to questions on topics as diverse as the feminine, depression, meeting Jung, dreams, post-modernism, America, where he stands in relation to Jung’s theory, and what it takes to be a good Jungian therapist. This lively and spontaneous event, moderated by Robert Bosnak, was filmed by the Sydney Jung Society.

This is also our Christmas event at which we traditionally share food and drink and conversation. Everyone is welcome, whether “old” member, new member or visitor. If you can, please bring a plate of finger food to share. Beverages will be provided.

Bulletin Board

Meeting the Twelve Archetypes using Art Therapy Techniques

A series of six creativity workshops on Wednesdays from 10 am to 12:30 pm, starting on 4^th October 2006 and held at the Inner Harmony Centre, Cnr Apollo Road and Byron St, Bulimba. Cost $25 per session or early bird price for six sessions paid in advance: $100.

For information and bookings, phone Pamela Bouma on 3420 5169.

C.G. Jung Society of Queensland, 74 Camp St., Toowong, Q 4066. Tel: 3371 1285

cgjungqld.tripod.com