6 CE CREDITS

Complexes and Archetypes

Clover Educational Consulting Group is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Clover Educational Consulting Group maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
TEACHER
Kenneth W. James, Ph.D.
TOPIC
Jungian/ Archetypes
Format
4 Class Course
instructional time
6 hours
CE amount
Earn 6 CEs
Instructional Level
Intermediate

Payment options: Credit Card or PayPal.

Understand the essence of core Jungian concepts

Kenneth James, PhD., is a treasured teacher and seasoned Jungian psychoanalyst. His calm precision and good humor help Jung’s sometimes slippery ideas take shape and fall into place. 

In this course, Ken James presents the concepts of complex, archetype, image, and symbol in depth. Each concept will be related to the others and placed within the larger context of Jung’s Analytical Psychology. 

Participants will learn not only the theoretical foundations of these key concepts but also how to use each of them to further their own inner work on their journey toward individuation.

Learn the Jungian talk and walk the Jungian walk, with Dr. Ken James.

Complexes & Archetypes Course Description

Write your awesome label here.
Carl Jung left us many vital, yet often challenging, psychological ideas and methods. Dr. Kenneth James is among the best of guides to help us approach and contemplate them. Ken James is a renowned Jungian analyst and gifted teacher. He blends his hand-drawn charts with precise definitions, and presents profound truths with humanity and humor. Carl Jung as taught by Ken James becomes a living doorway to the psyche.

This course will focus specifically on the inter-relationship of complex, archetype, image and symbol, as conceived of by Carl Jung.

Among the many contributions to psychology and psychotherapy initiated by Carl Jung, one of the most important is his idea of the complex. Eventually defined as a ‘feeling-toned set of ideas and images’. The concept of the complex was considered, also by Freud and his followers, to be a significant contribution to the field of psychoanalysis.

Jung’s exploration of the complex led him to consider how complexes form.

While recognizing complex material’s origin in personal experience, Jung wondered about the organized nature of the unconscious. If complexes derived solely from personal experience, the unconscious would likely be haphazard, reflecting one’s personal life experiences. Yet, Jung observed a well-structured sublayer in the unconscious, leading to his theory of the dual-layered unconscious. This theory encompasses the personal unconscious, where the complexes are found, and the collective unconscious, composed of archetypes. Jung speculated that these archetypes might serve as cores for complex formation.

Jung appreciated the capacity of the psyche to generate images, sometimes mundane, sometimes enigmatic. He felt these images contained significance which, if explored, could release healing energy into the work by means of the symbol.

Jung hypothesized that the psyche expressed unconscious contents through the generation of images through what Jung called the transcendent function. If sufficiently valued and reflected upon by the conscious mind, these images could become symbols, carriers of meaning from the unconscious to the conscious mind. This foundational concept led Jung to use images from dreams as essential ingredients in the healing work of analysis.

This program is ideal if you want to be able to

  • Comprehend fundamental concepts of Carl Jung’s psychology that are often misunderstood.
  • Enjoy the wide and deep vision of an all-time favourite Jungian teacher.
  • Explain the necessity and possibilities of complexes.
  • Have a renewed sense of agency, meaning and support from within.

Class Descriptions

Class 1. Definitions and Focus on the Complex

In session one, we will define “complex” “archetype” “symbol” and “image” and more intensively consider the concept of the complex. This will include a summary of the discovery of the complex and Jung’s exploration of its implications for both psychotic patients and the people who came to his private consulting room for analytic treatment. A description of some common complexes will also be offered.

Class 2. Archetype and the Structure of the Psyche

​​The archetype will be examined in depth, including the relationship between the archetype and the complex. This will lead to a description of the structure and dynamics of the psyche. The description will include the concepts of complex and archetype and explain the Ego as a complex (in contrast to the Freudian understanding of the Ego as a structural component of the psyche) and the relationship between the Ego and the archetype of the Self, which is unique to Jung’s Analytical Psychology. We will also explore how we encounter archetypal material in waking life and dreams.

Class 3. Image, Symbol and the Transcendent Function

In session three, the role of the image in our psychological life will be examined. The capacity of the psyche to create images and the universal presence of images in all human cultures across all geographic space and throughout history will be explored, and the enigmatic nature of raw images that present themselves to us either in our dreams, daydreams, and visions as well as from other cultures will be considered. Images taken from history and different cultures will be subject to group exploration. The transformation of the image into the symbol will be described, and the role of the transcendent function in both the creation of the image and the maintenance of the symbol will be explained.

Class 4. The Role of Complex, Archetype, Image and Symbol in Individuation.

In session four, the integration of the concepts of complex, archetype, image, and symbol and their role in individuation will be examined. The dynamic nature of the process of individuation will be emphasized, as will the importance of suffering, and the roles of causality and finality (or historical causes and teleological movement) in the healing of suffering will be described. The importance of consciousness and conscious engagement with the healing process, which we call individuation, will be emphasized, and ways of working with unconscious material will be explained.
APA-approved CE sponsor

Earn 6.0 CE Credits

 This program is co-sponsored by Clover Educational Consulting Group. 
Clover Educational Consulting Group is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Clover Educational Consulting Group maintains responsibility for this program and its content. 

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  • Define complex, archetype, image, and symbol as presented within Jungian analytical psychology.
  • Explain the relationship among complexes, archetypes, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious.
  • Differentiate the Jungian ego-complex and archetype of the Self from other structural models of the psyche.
  • Describe how images may become symbols and explain the role of the transcendent function in the course framework.
  • Apply the course concepts to a brief dream, image, or emotionally activated scenario while identifying interpretive and cultural limits.
  • Explain how complex, archetype, image, and symbol are integrated within the course’s account of individuation and psychological development.
This four-class on-demand program examines the Jungian concepts of complex, archetype, image, symbol, the transcendent function, and individuation. Participants consider how these concepts relate to the structure and dynamics of the psyche, emotional activation, perception, dream material, reflective awareness, meaning-making, and psychological development.

The course begins with definitions and the historical development of complex theory, including Jung’s word-association experiments and the autonomous character of complexes. It then explores the relationship between complexes and archetypes, the personal and collective unconscious, the ego-complex, and the Self. Later classes examine spontaneous and contrived images, personal association and amplification, how images may become symbols, and how symbols may bridge conscious and unconscious material. The final class integrates complex, archetype, image, and symbol within the course’s account of individuation.

The program supports advanced theoretical understanding and reflective practice. It does not establish competency in a specific intervention or claim that Jungian concepts alone constitute an empirically validated stand-alone treatment.

Psychologists and other mental health professionals may use the course to deepen conceptual literacy in analytical psychology and to examine how affectively charged complexes, images, symbols, and archetypal formulations may shape perception, dreams, relationships, and clinical reflection.

Participants are also asked to recognize theoretical limits, contemporary reformulations, cultural context, the risk of imposing universal meanings, and the distinction between educational use of Jungian concepts and empirically supported assessment or intervention methods. 

What you will receive

4 videos & 4 audio recordings.
Companion Guide
Accurate Subtitles
6 APA CE Certificate
(upon successful completion)
Available in English

ABout the teacher

Ken James

Kenneth James, Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Chicago, Illinois. He received a Ph.D. in Communicative Sciences and Disorders from Northwestern University, and a Diploma in Analytical Psychology from the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. Along the way, he studied vocal music at the American Conservatory of Music, and learned a modality of music therapy known as The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music at the Institute for Consciousness and Music in Baltimore, Maryland.

Scholarships

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