#327 – Politics and Jung with Jungian Analyst Tom Elsner

Transcript

Thomas Elsner, J.D., M.A., Jungian analyst, is a core faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California where he also has a private practice. A former attorney, he trained at the Jung-Von Franz Center for Depth Psychology in Zurich. A member of the C. G. Jung Study Center of Southern California, his areas of special interest include alchemy and the depth psychology of folklore and literature. He is currently completing a book about Coleridge and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

By the way, here is the link to Tom Elsner’s paper which is the focus of this interview: www.shrinkrapradio.com/jungandpolitics.pdf

Also, he will be conducting a four month intensive on Alchemy, the Red Book, and the New Myth of Our Time. Find full details at http://www.pacifica.edu/alchemyElsner.html

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3 Comments

gloria on November 25, 2012 at 3:34 am

Another wonderful interview with Tom Elsner. Tom is such a thoughtful and respectful interviewee as well as being very knowledgeable. The personal dream he shared was awesome and so evocative.

Thank you for posting the link to the PDF Dr. Dave, it was an interesting read. I read it before listening to the interview and had highlighted the quote you mentioned by Vaclav Havel. It is a good summary of what the whole interview was about and could have been a quote from Jung himself. I share it here for posterity:

“If I consider the problem to be that which the world is turning me into – that is as a tiny screw in a giant machine, deprived of human identity – then there is really nothing I can do. Obviously I cannot put a stop to the destruction of the globe, the growing stupidity of nations and the production of thousands of new thermonuclear bombs. If, however, I consider it as that which each of us originally is, or rather what each of us – irrespective of the state of the world – has the potential to become, which is to say an autonomous human being, capable of acting responsibly to and for the world, then of course there is a great deal I can do.”
Vaclav Havel, Letters to Olga: June 1979 – September 1982, p295.

You read out an email at the end of the interview by Mary from Melbourne in which she lamented the fact that she felt quite alone among her peers because of her methodology utilising depth psychology in her practice. I know there is a Jung Society in Melbourne and that might be worth investigating.

I am not a psychotherapist but I have belonged to the Jung Society in Adelaide for 15 years and there are many professionals who attend and speak at the meetings. It is the only place where I feel like I am among kindred spirits and can discuss subjects such as the ones on these podcasts.

Tom Elsner on November 26, 2012 at 11:11 am

Gloria — thank you for your response to the interview. I agree with you that the Havel quote pretty well says it all! I appreciate the contact with you and me being on opposite sides of the globe as well. Really good. All the best wishes to you – perhaps I will make my way to Australia some day! Tom

John Knight on December 27, 2012 at 6:41 pm

Just a shout out to fellow Australian listener Mary: I’m in Perth, and just a student in the early stages of uni, but I really started out several years ago when I got interested in Jung and took John Betts’ free course at jungian.ca. Being in the actual uni environment and seeing the state of Australian psychology in particular has been quite distressing, as everything seems to be CBT focused (a bubble that I think is soon to burst), but I sit here out on the fringe with my depth psychology viewpoints!

I think we’ve gone backwards in psychology and the psyche in the last few decades, as it all seems to be very much conscious-centric and goal orientated. Ah well, enough groundswell from below should hopefully correct the balance! 😉

gloria on November 25, 2012 at 3:34 am

Another wonderful interview with Tom Elsner. Tom is such a thoughtful and respectful interviewee as well as being very knowledgeable. The personal dream he shared was awesome and so evocative.

Thank you for posting the link to the PDF Dr. Dave, it was an interesting read. I read it before listening to the interview and had highlighted the quote you mentioned by Vaclav Havel. It is a good summary of what the whole interview was about and could have been a quote from Jung himself. I share it here for posterity:

“If I consider the problem to be that which the world is turning me into – that is as a tiny screw in a giant machine, deprived of human identity – then there is really nothing I can do. Obviously I cannot put a stop to the destruction of the globe, the growing stupidity of nations and the production of thousands of new thermonuclear bombs. If, however, I consider it as that which each of us originally is, or rather what each of us – irrespective of the state of the world – has the potential to become, which is to say an autonomous human being, capable of acting responsibly to and for the world, then of course there is a great deal I can do.”
Vaclav Havel, Letters to Olga: June 1979 – September 1982, p295.

You read out an email at the end of the interview by Mary from Melbourne in which she lamented the fact that she felt quite alone among her peers because of her methodology utilising depth psychology in her practice. I know there is a Jung Society in Melbourne and that might be worth investigating.

I am not a psychotherapist but I have belonged to the Jung Society in Adelaide for 15 years and there are many professionals who attend and speak at the meetings. It is the only place where I feel like I am among kindred spirits and can discuss subjects such as the ones on these podcasts.
Tom Elsner on November 26, 2012 at 11:11 am

Gloria — thank you for your response to the interview. I agree with you that the Havel quote pretty well says it all! I appreciate the contact with you and me being on opposite sides of the globe as well. Really good. All the best wishes to you – perhaps I will make my way to Australia some day! Tom
John Knight on December 27, 2012 at 6:41 pm

Just a shout out to fellow Australian listener Mary: I’m in Perth, and just a student in the early stages of uni, but I really started out several years ago when I got interested in Jung and took John Betts’ free course at jungian.ca. Being in the actual uni environment and seeing the state of Australian psychology in particular has been quite distressing, as everything seems to be CBT focused (a bubble that I think is soon to burst), but I sit here out on the fringe with my depth psychology viewpoints!

I think we’ve gone backwards in psychology and the psyche in the last few decades, as it all seems to be very much conscious-centric and goal orientated. Ah well, enough groundswell from below should hopefully correct the balance! 😉