“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.” Carl Jung
Being at Home: The Challenge of Identity and Displacement
Once upon a time we assumed home was the house, village, or town we lived in with neighbours we knew and spoke to in a similar language. Our modern challenge however is that home has now expanded. We are faced with a plethora of otherness in terms of languages, people, images, foods, smells, landscapes, ideas, and a huge variety of political concerns which are national, regional and global. This is partly to do with the exponential rise of the internet as well as the world somehow becoming smaller through the economic gains of globalization and the population explosion. Our environmental home is also in danger, and we are faced with having to think about issues that we were not aware of 30 years ago.
Psychologically our internal compass or map which enables us to find our way into the future has become more complex as there is now so much rapid change. Many find the lack of clarity and boundaries in the world psychologically overwhelming. One response it to retreat from the world – small is beautiful – to coin a phrase. Another response is defensive angry nationalism and draconian limits on the outsider (racism and false news) with wars and tensions becoming a distinct possibility. The boundaries between individual concerns and spaces and the collective pressure and issues have become more porous. The pressure on mental health has grown as a result. The future is now clearly one in which being a refugee i.e., feeling or being displaced, is a daily experience.
In these series of JPEGs, we will look at the idea of home from a psychological/internal, material, environmental, spiritual, aesthetic and political perspective. Home is both inner and outer and displacement is how inner and outer collide and where we feel our identity as individuals who belong in a particular way, is being challenged and not recognised. In September we will start with exploring ‘where is your home?’ in the group and continue this with monthly readings on different aspects of Home, Displacement and Identity.
Venue: Hybrid – Online via Zoom and Face to Face | Date: Once monthly on a Saturday, 10 meetings per year