Science and Psyche
The Confluence of Matter and Psyche
Zoom Webinars
Wednesday evenings from 8:00-9:30PM (US Eastern Time Zone)
March 31
April 14, 28
May 12
The Confluence of Matter and Psyche
Zoom Webinars
Wednesday evenings from 8:00-9:30PM (US Eastern Time Zone)
March 31
April 14, 28
May 12
"Matter is Spirit moving slowly enough to be seen"
Teilhard de Chardin
Teilhard de Chardin
To understand the workings of Psyche, Jung and von Franz imagined an ongoing collaboration between physicists and Jungian Analysts. She writes; “… we would have to have a group of physicists who are willing to take on a deep Jungian analysis...and then we would have to have Jungian analysts who would take the trouble to study physics. I think that’s what first would have to be done, so that both knew really deeply the other subject.” (Psyche and Matter, pg. 162). For more than 30 years The Assisi Institute has done just this, by bringing together Jungian Analysts, Dynamical Systems Theorists, and scientists, all joining together in these pioneering, interdisciplinary investigations into "The Confluence of Matter and Spirit.”
An understanding of the unified backdrop to psyche and matter predated Jung's explorations into the nature of Psyche and its influence in the material world. Where the ancients spoke of the Unus Mundus - the one world - we now discuss the workings of self-organization, where psyche and matter exist within a unified, un-divided world. It was this co-mingling and mutual influence of one another that allowed the alchemists to see the spirit in matter, and the primacy of the archetype. Jung echoed the sentiments of alchemists when writing; “that he would have no objection to regarding the Psyche as a quality of matter, and matter as a concrete aspect of the psyche, provided that the psyche was understood to be the collective unconscious.”
One of the early pioneers in this work was Dr. Elizabeth Osterman, a biologist and Jungian Analyst whose discoveries more than 50 years ago led her to question, "Is common ground being found between the outer world of matter and the inner world of Psyche?" In appreciating the profound structuring capability of psyche to create patterns within the inner and outer world, as found for instance in our emotional reaction to music, the unimaginable love a parent feels for their child, to the absolutely perfect symmetry in seashells, is it any wonder that Dr. Osterman came to see that,"... the scientific data I was studying shared a common characteristic - a tendency toward patterning and order."
In many ways this seminar series is a linking back to the beginning work of The Assisi Institutes on the Confluence of Matter and Psyche with the excitement of realizing that somehow we have stumbled onto the path suggested by Jung and von Franz years earlier, and carried out in the early work of the Eranos Conferences. This work allows us to discern the presence of the unseen and perhaps for just a moment to touch the ineffable.
We hope you will join us for this seminar series presented by pioneers and leaders in Jungian Psychology and the sciences.
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MODERATOR for this LECTURE SERIES:
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Michael Conforti, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst and Founder of The Assisi Institute, teaches at the C.G Jung Foundation in Boston and New York. In addition to his clinical practice, he lectures nationally and internationally including; Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Italy, Russia, South Africa, the Ukraine and Venezuela. His books have been translated into; Italian, Russian and Spanish. Dr. Conforti will serve as moderator and respondent to these talks. |
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March 31st
Neuroscience as a bridge between Psyche and Science: What we are learning about psychic pain Dr. Efrat Ginot |
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At first glance, there seems to be a wide schism between psyche and science. However, using the field of neuropsychology this talk shows that the two realms are inextricably connected. As neuroscience indicates, our brains, minds and bodies are utterly intertwined, together creating all conscious and unconscious aspects of who we are. In particular, in their powerful role as threat detectors, fear and anxiety exert an oversized influence on all aspects of our development. Consequently, the neuropsychology of fear and anxiety underlies and explains our psyche’s pain and vulnerabilities.
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Dr. Efrat Ginot, Ph.D., Originally from Israel, Dr Ginot, is a graduate of the New York University Postdoctoral Program for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. For more than 30 years, she has maintained a clinical practice, teaches and supervises clinicians in New York. Her publications focus on therapeutic enactments, the centrality of intersubjectivity and self-narratives. Her overall interest and purpose is to integrate neuropsychology and psychoanalytic thinking, and to advance our understanding of psychodynamics and psychopathology. In 2002 she received the Gradiva Award for best article re-examining the concept of the Holding Environment. Her book, The Neuropsychology of the Unconscious: Integrating brain and mind in psychotherapy, which received the Gradiva Award in 2016, presents a novel neuropsychological model for understanding unconscious processes and enacted patterns. Currently, Dr, Ginot is working on a book that focuses on the oversized role that fear and anxiety have in shaping who we are as well as continuing her work as a fine artist.
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April 14th
The Inherited Psyche Dr. Alvaro Giraldo |
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This presentation is about the marriage of matter and spirit, the DNA and the soul. During the last few decades there has been an unprecedented growth in the disciplines of DNA biology neurosciences, dynamic psychology, psychiatry and other related disciplines related to the psyche. This presentation is an attempt to understand and imagine the workings of the psyche.
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Alvaro Giraldo,MD, Jungian Analyst, originally from Colombia, received his medical degree at the Javerina University in Bogota, Colombia and later obtained a rotating internship at St. John Hospital in Detroit, MI. This precipitated a long, productive career in the biological sciences. He received formal training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, Immunology, and Molecular Biology (DNA-biology)and Oncologic Pathology (with an emphasis on immunological malignancies). He is President of the North Carolina Society of Jungian Analysts, and is actively investigating the marriage of matter and spirit, and the relationship between DNA and Archetypes.
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April 28th
Archetypes in the Light of Quantum Mechanics Dr. Christophe Le Mouel |
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Both Jung’s psychology and quantum mechanics follow the ancient riverbed of alchemy. In this presentation, I will first consider the relatedness of modern quantum mechanics to alchemy. Then, I will describe the far-reaching interpretation of quantum mechanics which can be viewed as a physical counterpart of Jung’s psychology. The analogy between Jung’s archetypes and the concept of radical uncertainty in quantum mechanics will bring new light on the question of the nature of archetypes.
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Christophe Le Mouël, Ph.D., is a quantum physicist trained in France. He is currently the Executive Director of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles and co-chief-editor of the journal Psychological Perspectives, a quarterly journal of Jungian thought. He is in analytical training in Zurich at the Research and Training Center for Depth Psychology according to C.G. Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz. His passion is the connection of matter and psyche, he has written several articles on this subject. Dr Le Mouël, is a frequent presenter at the Assisi Institute and his work continues to make vital contributions to our ongoing investigations into the confluence of matter and spirit.
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May 12th Matter, Psyche and Quantum Physics Shantena Augusto Sabbadini
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It is a well-known fact that quantum physics challenges established notions concerning the separation between matter and psyche. Wolfgang Pauli expressed it very concisely when he wrote: "I consider the old distinction
between materialism and idealism as obsolete." The contact between matter and psyche is frequently associated with the notion that the observer influences the outcome of a quantum observation by causing the "collapse of the wave function", as incisively illustrated by the thought-experiment of the dead and alive Schrödinger's cat. Most modern descriptions of the quantum measurement process discard the notion of a collapse of the wave function and thereby also that of a direct action of psyche over matter. But that only means that the relationship between mind and matter is deeper and more pervasive than we ordinarily assume. Quoting Pauli once again: every quantum process is an "act of creation".
between materialism and idealism as obsolete." The contact between matter and psyche is frequently associated with the notion that the observer influences the outcome of a quantum observation by causing the "collapse of the wave function", as incisively illustrated by the thought-experiment of the dead and alive Schrödinger's cat. Most modern descriptions of the quantum measurement process discard the notion of a collapse of the wave function and thereby also that of a direct action of psyche over matter. But that only means that the relationship between mind and matter is deeper and more pervasive than we ordinarily assume. Quoting Pauli once again: every quantum process is an "act of creation".
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Shantena Augusto Sabbadini, Ph.D., is a physicist, philosopher and a scholar of Chinese classics. As a physicist he worked at the University of Milan on the foundations of quantum physics and at the University of California on the first identification of a black hole. In the 1990's he was scientific consultant for the Eranos Foundation, an East-West research institute founded in 1933 under the supervision of C.G. Jung. In that context he produced innovative translations of the I Ching and of the Taoist classics. He directs the Pari Center for New Learning, an international institute located in the small medieval village of Pari, Tuscany. His latest books are Pilgrimages to Emptiness, Buchi neri, and Vacuum: The Ultimate Ground of Being, with Maurizio Consoli.
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*Registrants will receive a recording of the lecture soon afterwards*
