Compulsion is the great mystery of human life …
-C.G. Jung
Great mysteries of human life can be really scary. Great mysteries of human life never get fully solved. Great mysteries can be dangerous and baffling. For Jung to claim that compulsion is THE great mystery of human life is daunting, not least because compulsions can be forces of creativity or of destruction. Compulsions arise and engulf, with sweetness or suffering, love or hate — or both at the same time.
In this lecture, we will explore the individuating possibilities that undergird all compulsions, and we will wonder together what can help us out of entrapping compulsions and addictions.