Being Authentic: Conversations on Being Human

Course Description

The three soulful conversations between James Hollis and J. Pittman McGehee explore what it means to be human. 

These audio-recorded conversations provide rich insights into our daily lives. The two gentlemen raise questions, offer support and provide insights on how to conduct our journey. They invite us to reclaim the life we’re meant to be living. 

About the Teachers

James Hollis
James Hollis, Ph.D., is presently a licensed Jungian analyst in private practice in Washington, D.C. He is also a Core Faculty Member at Jung Platform since 2016, and one of the best Jungian teachers of our age. Read more.

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J. Pittman McGhee
Pittman McGehee is a Jungian Analyst and an Episcopal priest in Texas. He is also a trustee emeritus of The Jung Center in Houston, Texas. He is widely known as a lecturer and educator in the field of analytical psychology and religion, as well as a published poet and essayist. Read More.

This course is ideal if

• Learn what limits us from being our authentic selves;
• Understand the seven deadly sins from a depth psychology perspective; 
• Understand how comedy can help us deal with the contradictions of life; 
• Learn the function of laughter and how it, sometimes, can help us embrace the events in our lives;
• Explore what matters most in your life; 
• Reflect on concepts like the meaning of life, your purpose, and what it means to be authentic.

Course Overview

Class 1. Seven Deadly Sins

Sin, when seen from a depth psychology perspective means to remain unconscious and separated from the authentic self. The ego seeks comfort, prosperity, and pleasure at the risk or expense of being our authentic self. In this first conversation, James Hollis & J. Pittman McGhee review the seven deadly sins – pride, gluttony, envy, lust, greed, wrath, and sloth – from a depth perspective. 

Class 2. Funny Bones: The Psychology of Comedy

This conversation explores comedy, what it does for us and what it does with us. It answers the question, “Why is it that the two faces of comedy and tragedy have been so often juxtaposed with each other?” 

Comedy serves our human condition and sometimes, even illuminates it. Comedy is an effort to hold the tension of opposites, in the contradiction of our experiences, and then to allow a release of the built-up energy within us in laughter. The release of this energy seems to be inherently helpful to us. During this conversation between these two gentlemen, people in the audience share some of their jokes, after which the conversation continues to dissect the use of humor and its effects.  

Class 3. What Matters Most

In this third soulful conversation, the two Jungian experts talk about the three things that mattered most in their lives. They share their reflections on what matters to them and raise questions to turn your life back over to you.

J. Pittman McGehee elucidates his top three: 1) meaning in general, 2) purpose in particular and 3) a place to belong. 

James Hollis shares his thoughts on what matters most to him: 1) keeping the appointments with destiny and the need to fully show up when it knocks on our door, 2) amor fati and 3) pursuing the apertures into the mystery of life.  

Note: This conversation is not explicitly related to the book by James Hollis that has the same title. 

By the end of this course you will

• Apply insights resulting from the re-examination of the seven deadly sins in your life to live authentically;
• Define the divine gift of laughter and understand its purpose;
• Analyze what matters most in your life;
• Understand what it means to be human from a depth psychological perspective;
• Reclaim the life that is authentically yours.