Posthumanism, Dissociation, and Jungian Psychology with Glen Slater
June 10, 2025 at 07:56AM
Posthumanism, Dissociation, and Jungian Psychology
Moderator: Ipek Burnett
Posthumanism has been called “a focal term in contemporary debates at the crossroads of science, politics and the humanities” and described as “the worldview that is ascendant” in American culture. Highly influential among leading technologists and digital natives, the essence of posthumanism concerns the present and pending human merger with machines—a fantasy-image moving to realization that presents a significant challenge to psychological life.
In this presentation I will explore the view that numerous psycho-social trends in the digital age are combining to secure this posthuman path. Drawing on my book, Jung vs. Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age (Winter Press/Spring Publications, 2024), I will focus on the role dissociation plays in our current and prospective ties with technology and consider the way an absence of integrative psychological processing (Jung) creates states of fragmentation that invite such human-machine hybridization.
We will conclude with reflections on signs of a counter-cultural movement that might mitigate these technocratic trends and the role of Jungian psychology in such a movement.
Bio: Glen Slater, Ph.D. has taught for over twenty-five years at Pacifica Graduate Institute in California, where he is currently the Associate Chair of the Jungian and Archetypal Psychology Program. He has written a number of articles and book chapters for Jungian publications, edited the third volume of James Hillman’s Uniform Edition, Senex and Puer (Spring Publications, 2005) and co-edited the essay collection, Varieties of Mythic Experience (Daimon-Verlag, 2008). His research and writing interests concern Jung and film, the psychology of religion, and depth psychology and technology. His book Jung vs. Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age (Winter Press/Spring Publications) was published early in 2024.
October 26, 2024, with Glen Slater
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