With this honours course we explore the work of Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist, intellectual and visionary, as an example of a countercultural stance in the modern constitution: a voice calling out for wholeness and soulful being—a cri de coeur, indeed, a call that we should recommend to heed in the face of global pandemics, climate change and pollution that threaten species extinction and put pressure on some of the core values of humanity.
A study of Jung’s notions of synchronicity, psyche and cosmos requires various disciplinary competences, across the humanities and (social) sciences. We shall look at the psyche and cosmos binary through its many aspects, such as they become apparent in dreams and art (that is, including our own); but also in visions; synchronicity and the paranormal. We shall not only be reading and conversing, participants are also welcome to bring their own dreams and stories, and their pencils and sketch books: wherever possible we shall complement weekly readings with practical engagements. We invite you to a veritable Humanities & Social Sciences lab, where we attempt to trace the meanderings of this mercurial and controversial thinker, but also attempt to trace the contours of our own mind, our hopes and fears, indeed in times that appear full of fearsome uncertainties to many.
For more information and course details, go to 'Curriculum' at the top of the page.