Friday, 21 April 2017

7.30pm   AGM
8.00pm   Guest Lecture

Active Imagination & the Dead

During Jung’s intense confrontations with figures from the unconscious, he distinguished amongst them ‘the dead’. These experiences profoundly influenced his understanding of the unconscious. In his words:-

“The conversations with the dead
formed a kind of prelude
to what I had
 to communicate to the world about the unconscious”.

Jung's model of the psyche emerged as a result of these visionary experiences.

This presentation aims to introduce constructs from both Memories, Dreams, Reflections and the Red Book which raise questions about how Jung experienced the dead during these initial encounters. I hope also to question some assumptions that have been made previously about visionary encounters within active imagination.

Stephani Stephens earned her PhD from the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK in 2012. Between 2004 and 2013 she served on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Jungian Studies. The topic of the evening's presentation is based on her doctoral thesis as well as research published in the International Journal of Jungian Studies entitled ‘Active Imagination and the Dead’. Dr Stephens resides in Canberra and teaches Psychology and Latin in the International Baccalaureate program at Canberra Grammar School.