“Myths and fairytales give expression to unconscious processes, and their retelling causes these processes to come alive again and be recollected, thereby re-establishing the connection between conscious and unconscious.”
— C.G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, CW 9ii: 280
In this workshop, we will explore several myths and fairy tales to discover the healing that occurs in the story and to learn to apply the method suggested by the healing either to our ourselves or to our practice of psychotherapy. We will look at the myth of Medusa to work with the victim complex, and the story of Oedipus to work with the problem of a too one-sided personality. We will also look at the Homeric Hymn to Demeter to explore the mother complex in women. The Red Shoes presents the problem of unmourned grief and the effect on the psyche.
The program will also be opened up to stories the participants may want to work with and we can explore together how the myth or fairy tale shows the trajectory of healing.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the wound that needed healing based on one of the myths explored in this workshop.
2. Describe what created the wound in one of the stories explored.
3. Describe how the myth reveals a way of working with the wound.
4. Suggest a myth or fairy tale that might provide a trajectory toward healing.