WELCOME TO THE CHARLESTON JUNG SOCIETY!

The work of C. G. Jung . . . 

. . . continues to inspire cultivation of awareness and movement toward wholeness through its influences on individuals, organizations and culture.  Our mission, at CJS, is to welcome and honor a rich diversity of people who gather to encourage personal and community growth.  We offer diverse, thought-provoking programs in a community setting, useful for professional and personal growth.  Please join with us in this gratifying endeavor and share the offerings with your friends and colleagues.  Your ideas for improving communications and programs are welcome! Contact us:  info@charlestonjungsociety.org.

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The program described below is our season finale.  Programs for 2013 -14 season are taking shape nicely!  As always, we will offer a variety of rich programs, beginning the Second Saturday,  September 14.   If you are signed up to receive CJS updates, we will notify you of topics and details as soon as they are posted.  Sign up easily to the right.

We are very grateful for our talented presenters, members, friends and volunteers whose community spirit keep CJS thriving!   Your suggestions, contributions and volunteerism are welcome and appreciated ~ Thank you! 

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Please join us June 15, 4:30 – 6:30 ~ 1/2 hour earlier than usual 

Conflict and Resolution

In the World, Nation, and Families

Presenter: John R. Johnson, Ph.D.

 

The polarization between nation states, between cultures, and even between different factions within cultures has become more exaggerated in the last decade or so.  For most us conflict is a bad word.  It is associated with violence, destruction, disorder, war, etc.  Certainly there is a great deal of that in our world today.  Conflict, however, can bring opportunity, development and growth to human individuals and societies.  ”There is no consciousness without discrimination of opposites.” ["Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype," CW 9i, par. 178.]

One way we can work with the inevitable conflicts in the world, in our nation, and in our personal lives is to rededicate ourselves to building bridges that transcend the polarizations that continue to reassert themselves.   The notion of coincidentia oppositorum, the coincidence of opposites plays a central, if not the central role, in Jung’s thought.  Jung held that there is a non-rational instinctive human function, which he termed the “transcendent function.”  The transcendent function mediates and combines opposites through the production of fantasies and symbols, and which enable us to gain new perspectives and more encompassing and rewarding attitudes toward what was formerly regarded as insoluble dilemmas.  Jung held that the transcendent function involves a combination of conscious and unconscious elements; it goes far beyond, and is indeed opaque to, thought and reason.

He wrote, “The greater the tension between the pairs of opposites, the greater will be the energy that comes from them . . . [and] the less chance is there of subsequent disturbances which might arise from friction with material not previously constellated.["On Psychic Energy," CW 8, par. 49.]   Jung believed that mental energy is created through the conflict of opposites. He said, “There is no energy unless there is a tension of opposites” (Jung, Two Essays 63). He called this energy libido.

Jung further believed that anyone who attempts to deal with the problem of the opposites on a personal level is making a significant contribution toward world peace.  This season finale program promises much “food for thought” to carry us into the summer break.

Dr. Johnson is a Jungian analyst, psychotherapist, teacher, and supervisor. He has been in the private practice of Jungian psychoanalysis in Manhattan since July of 1977 and is a senior member of the faculty of the C. G. Jung Institute in New York and a supervising psychologist for the training program.

CJS meetings are usually held on the second Saturday of each month ~

June 15 is the THIRD Saturday

Gage Hall, 4 Archdale Street

Please note: the event is from 4:30 – 6:30 ~ 30 minutes earlier than usual !! 

~ CEUs and refreshments are offered ~ 

Questions?  e-mail Info@CharlestonJungSociety.org or Call (843) 819-1585