The soul’s truth does not want to stay external to itself any longer: no longer the object of our seeing and upward-looking reverence or, conversely, the manifest depth of reality facing us. It wants to turn inwards. It wants to come home to itself, become interior to itself, which of course–for us, for the human subject–means the (logical, not literal) departedness of the soul’s truth.
– Wolfgang Giegerich, The Historical Emergence of the I, p. 276
The ISPDI has had many gatherings since the society began in 2012 and our pattern has been to hold a larger event about every 2 years and an “off year” event in-between these conferences. Last year, in 2021, we held a larger conference “The Soul’s Logical Life” and this year, instead of a more formal event, we thought we would try something different for our members. Throughout the year we will hold informal opportunities for discussion where a presenter, perhaps from the executive committee perhaps someone else, will present a relatively short topic which will be followed by questions and discussion.
Topos, was originally an ancient greek word for “place” and over the years it has come to mean a common or rhetorical theme, more a mental “place.” So the term’s history is a movement from literal place or location, in reality, to one in the mind, in thought and discourse. The point of these discussions, and in fact the whole focus of the ISPDI, is to open a space, a topos, to talk, think and learn about “soul”, especially the psychological idea of soul formulated by C.G. Jung and Wolfgang Giegerich. In any case, welcome to TOPOS, a place that is, in some ways, “no place”.