Carl Jung’s psychology is an important contribution to the age-old quest to “know thyself” – a contribution attuned to the challenges of life in the modern world. But as Jung himself pointed out, “self-knowledge is one of the most difficult and exacting of the arts.” The work of self-knowledge, which Jung called individuation, is paradoxical in nature. It involves as much not-knowing as it does knowing, as much self-emptying as it does self-realization. In this way, individuation can be understood as a contemplative practice, the aim of which is similar to the contemplative practices of the religious traditions: to guide the individual towards a realization of the true self.
In this class, we will reflect on Jung’s concept of individuation through the lens of the contemplative and apophatic (transcending names and concepts) dimension of religion. We will consider the implications of approaching individuation as a process of self-emptying and of Jung’s understanding of the psyche as what he calls “the greatest of all cosmic wonders.”
Suggested reading:
The Undiscovered Self by C.G. Jung
The Development of the Personality by C.G. Jung
Course dates are on Mondays, January 12, 26 and February 9, and 23, 2026 @ 7:30PM-9:30PM