This course offers an opportunity to understand the individuation process more deeply, improve your relationship to the unconscious, and learn about the archetypal dimensions of the psyche.
Following an overview of individuation, John van Eenwyk explores how to become aware of your persona. Carl Jung considered it the first step in realizing how much our identity is based on external factors rather than on who we were born to be. In the following class van Eenwyk explores the shadow, one of Jung’s most important contributions to psychology and personal development. Find out why it’s important to engage with shadow, and why ignoring or repressing the shadow doesn’t work in the mid and long term. In the next class John van Eenwyk explains Carl
Jung’s concept of the anima and animus. The anima and animus are deep phenomena originating from the unconscious. Find out how they appear in our daily lives and how they look and feel. In the fifth class he provides an introduction to Jungian dreamwork, offering the perspective that dreams are playdates with the unconscious. And in the last class he explains the concept of the Self.
Note: This course bundles lectures that have also been published on Jung Platform separately.
Class 1. Introduction to Individuation: Overview
This first lecture provides an in-depth introduction to individuation itself, and forms the foundation on which other classes in the course will follow. John van Eenwyk’s for each Class. teaching style ensures that the content remains wonderfully accessible yet practical, while remaining true to the depths held by the psyche. He explains how the unconscious psyche influences us in ways that are consistent with what we were born to be, and guides us on what we can do to honor that process. Enjoy exploring how we can engage in our own dynamic individuation process by tending to those opposites, symbols, and symptoms directing and assisting us into becoming who we are supposed to be. Note: This first class is an audio-only lecture of this series.
Class 2: Introduction to Individuation: Persona
Jung defined the persona as “a complicated system of relations between the individual consciousness and society. It is kind of a mask, designed on the one hand to make definite impressions upon others, and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual.” He described how the psyche adapts to its environment to reveal personality traits that attract positive responses and conceal those that do not. In this class, John van Eenwyck describes how the persona forms shortly after birth, when infants begin to imitate in their crying the language spoken around them. Consequently, by the time the ego develops its own version of a persona, it is already mostly in place, truly comprising “a complicated system of relations.” There are an infinite number of poses that we employ to create definite impressions. As is the case with most behaviors, they are usually perceived more easily by others than by ourselves. Furthermore, personality characteristics that do not fit the persona are suppressed into the shadow. That is how persona and shadow become reflections of each other.
Class 3. Introduction to Individuation: Shadow
We are invited or forced to listen to the call that the shadow makes on us. By connecting to the shadow, we become more ourselves and get in touch with vital life energy that allows us to become who we are meant to be. The ugly frog sometimes turns into a prince. The shadow is the rejected stone that becomes the cornerstone of the personality. According to Carl Jung, the shadow is one of the first steps in the individuation process, the psychological process of growth. Nothing is more healing to the individual, the society, for nature than the individual person to become aware of their own unconscious and shadow. Jung says that one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. John van Eenwyk is a gifted teacher who has thought deeply about the shadow and shares some of his ideas and insights in this lecture.
Class 4. Introduction to Individuation: Anima/Animus
In this lecture, we will be moving deeper into the unconscious, exploring the archetypal dimensions of the psyche—the anima and animus. Because they are deeply embedded in the unconscious, it can be difficult to get a sense of the anima and animus. John van Eenwyk takes an experiential approach to help us understand the individuation process and explores what the anima and animus look and feel like, and how they might appear in our daily lives. Both have an important function in the individuation process.
Class 5. Introduction to Individuation: Dreams
Dreams offer us endless opportunities to strengthen our relationship between conscious and unconscious. In this lecture John van Eenwyk will dive into a description of dreams and discuss best practices for recording them. Next, he’ll discuss several types of dreams and examine how to interpret each category. Finally, he’ll look at different topics of dreams: persona, shadow, animus, and nightmares.
Class 6. Introduction to Individuation: The Self
This last lecture of the Introduction to Individuation is about learning to know what the Self is and its activity in our lives. We can see the Self as a continuous presence in our lives that we can get a sense of, oftentimes as a sensory experience. We experience the Self when we feel something is deeply alive in us, when we find inspiration, have a strong intuition, when we experience euphoria, despair, success or failure. Each of these experiences is attracting us towards a certain direction or we are repelled by it. The overall movement is individuation.
