Death is not a meaningless end, but an accomplishment, a ripe fruit on the tree of life. So said Jung, and it is his lifelong engagement with mortality, the afterlife, and the psyche’s preparation for death that forms the backbone of the 2026 Summer Study Programme. Running across five online sessions from July 20 to 24, C.G. Jung Foundation of New York presents Stages of Life: C.G. Jung’s Exploration and Understanding of Death.
Five sessions approach the theme of Death and Immortality from markedly different angles.
Jane Selinske opens on Monday July 20 with a session on Jung’s own history with death, including his near-death experience after his heart attack. It will also explore the dreams that preceded his major writings, and the clinical question he believed every analyst in the second half of life must face: what is our position on immortality, and how do we help clients prepare for their own departure?
Tuesday July 21 brings Monika Wikman for an experiential session. Drawing on Marie-Louise von Franz’s work on death and dreams, alchemical perspectives on dissolution and the subtle body, and Jung’s insight from the Red Book on prayer, Wikman will guide participants into direct encounter with dream images, inner figures, and the presence of those who have died.
Wednesday July 22, Katharine Bainbridge asks the question that sits at the heart of many spiritual and depth psychological traditions: what must die so that something true may live? Her session, To Die Before We Die, draws on Jungian thought, Buddhist philosophy, and ancient myth to approach death not as a problem to be solved but as a presence to be met.
Thursday July 23, programme director Julie Bondanza turns to the tension between the drive toward death and the striving for immortality. What does it mean to refuse life at any age, and what legacy, meaning, and creativity offer in its place? The session will include art interventions and relational narratives alongside archetypal and clinical examples.
The programme closes on Friday July 24 with Sylvester Wojtkowski tracing Jung’s encounters with the dead through the Black Books themselves. From the procession of dead Anabaptists whose visitation disturbed Jung’s household, to the three souls from the Egyptian and Greek underworld who demanded he build a temple for the community of the living and the dead the session ends with the Seven Sermons to the Dead that resulted.
The Summer Study Programme has been running for over 64 years, drawing participants from as far afield as Brazil, Iceland, Japan, Australia, and Venezuela. The online programme is available to attend in full or as individual sessions. Full registration details are available here.