The word “sin” came originally from an archery term that meant “missing the target,” and implied such errant aim arose more from inescapable human limitation than malevolence. This program will explore these most human of experiences—pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, sloth—through the lens of analytic psychology, and explore their causes, mechanisms, self-defeating consequences, and their continuing, contemporary challenges to us.
CEU Objectives:
1. Discern the relevance of ancient insights into character and choice as they are examined under the light of modern depth psychology.
2. See the implicit psychopathologies, thought disorders, and addictive impulses in each of the so-called seven deadly sins.
3. Understand how these individual pathologies are also part of collective American culture and its iatrogenic assumptions.
4. Explore when guilt is appropriate, and when pathologically morbid.
5. Differentiate how psychological accountability is also compatible with self-forgiveness, self-acceptance.
