The Orpheus Myth, Part I

The Therapist as Musician: Ferenczi and His Use of the Orpheus Myth
by Zeev Leib, M.D. and Eric Moss, Ph.D.

Introduction

Myths handed down over generations are many times universal and often echo historical events and social trends. They can serve as guides for the thinking and behavior of present and future generations (Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, 1812; Graves, Robert, 1992). It is to Freud and his followers - most particularly, perhaps, to Jung - that we have come to appreciate the value of legend and myth in our psychoanalytic work (Jung, C.G., 1993, 2009; Neuman, E., 1973; Shalit, E., 2011, 2013). Myths and legends can help us to better understand our patients and decide which clinical approaches are the most helpful.

Freud and the Oedipus Myth

The image below shows an agonized Oedipus, the protagonist in the Greek myth of that name. Ever since Freud, the Oedipus myth has been used by psychoanalysts to depict a particular way of understanding human development and of conducting clinical therapy. Freud drew upon the Oedipus story to illustrate a central pillar of his new theory (Freud, 1904; Brabant, Felzeder, Granpieri-Deutch, 1993; Armstrong, 1999), and indeed the expression Oedipus complex has entered into universal usage. This myth is bloody, incestuous and aggressive, and saturated with remorse and guilt. Young Oedipus kills his father, marries his mother and ultimately blinds himself in self-punishment. It was drawn upon by Freud to explain how young boys gradually grow into men. They challenge their father’s authority and out of the ensuing struggle come to develop their own identity.

The Myth of an Agonized Oedipus

Freud’s was a theory based on aggression, fear, confrontation and the attempt to overcome challenges. His reference to the Oedipus myth suggests that the therapist take the stance of warrior, a know-all, authority figure, who offers wise and correct interpretations of the patient’s inner repressed dilemmas. The patient listens to these interpretations as though they were pronouncements from the Oracle of Delphi. The patient’s struggle over whether to accept the analyst’s insights is one of the mutative factors leading to change and growth.

Ferenczi and the Orpheus Myth

Ferenczi, an early follower of Freud who had in fact been analyzed by him, came to a different line of thought and clinical practice from that of Freud. His therapeutic approach was softer, less-confrontational and based on equality and mutuality between patient and therapist. His work with severely traumatized people, some who had undergone physical and sexual abuse as youngsters, led him to think that his more gentle and empathic approach was the key to successful therapy. The tone of his voice and other non-verbal indications that the therapist was in “tune” with the patient were no less mutative than the content of what he said. The myth of Orpheus, with its emphasis on the power of music (see image below) to win the trust of a suffering loved one (Eurydice), was more appropriate than that of Oedipus for reflecting the approach he developed and advocated.

Orpheus, it will be recalled, lost his lover who had been sentenced by the Gods to Hades (Hell). .. He was reputed to be the most wonderful musician of his time (See last image in article) and begged the Gods to let him seek her out and use his extraordinary musical skills to win her trust and entice her to return with him. According to the myth he does find her and with his music, he woos her almost out of Hades. Unfortunately, he ruins their chances for happiness by disobeying the Gods and looking back at her, thereby losing her forever (Graves, ibid.).

The Myth of Musical Orpheus

Ferenczi found the Orpheus myth highly expressive of his personality, his life circumstances and his therapeutic approach. Indeed, he labeled as Orpha aspects of his clinical understanding and technique. With great sympathy and sensitivity, he would descend into the patients’ “hell” and in a non-intrusive way search out their split off, denied parts. Then, with a gentle and sensitive stance analogous to that of a fine musician, as reflected in the Orpheus myth, he would entice these parts out of “hiding”. With patients who had suffered a traumatic absence of good parenting, he would try and become aware of the pre-verbal communication in the consulting room. He would listen to himself as well as the patient and try to create a nurturing atmosphere. He would ask, what calms my patient down? He would occasionally expose his own feelings and experiences, reflecting his belief that “mutuality” was critical to successful therapy. It was a more satisfying and successful way of doing therapy than the authoritarian, warrior-like attitude implied in Freudian interpretations and the blank screen technique (Smith, N., 1998).

One problem with this approach is that the therapist as musician may fall into a seductive stance. The danger in the power of seduction is reflected in another famous myth, the Pied Piper of Hamelin. As seen in the image below, the Pied Piper was brought to the municipality of Hamelin in order to use his magic pipe to woo a plague of rats to follow him and abandon the town. He succeeded; but when he was not paid as promised, he took revenge by playing his flute for the children, seducing all of them with his wonderful music (except three – a lame child, a deaf child and a blind one) and leading them to an unknown place where they never saw their parents again (Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, 1812).

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

This legend serves to remind the Orpheus-oriented therapist not to cross boundaries, become seductive and thereby cause repetition of earlier traumas.

A (Very) Brief History of Sandor Ferenczi
Perhaps the difficulty in making the distinction between empathic attempts to enter the patient’s agonized inner world and the malign effects of seduction was one of the factors that caused Freud and his followers to become suspicious of their once-trusted colleague. Ferenczi’s increasingly radical (at the time) ideas and techniques diverted from the path of Freud, who was then trying to consolidate his new psychoanalytic approach. In addition, Freud himself never underwent therapy, as did Ferenczi. Perhaps, because Freud himself had never been an analytic patient, he and his followers had trouble understanding and integrating Ferenczi’s emphasis on what came to be called empathy and mutuality. Instead, Freud gave more importance to cognitive understanding as the way to help bring about change in patients (Smith, ibid.)

Sandor Ferenczi

When Ferenczi wanted to present his ideas in a paper at the 12th World Psychoanalytic Conference in 1932 in Wiesbaden, Germany, Freud and some of his followers tried to get him to withdraw. At the conference, Freud refused to shake his hand. A rumor spread that Ferenzci was psychotic. Many colleagues distanced themselves from him, and to the loss of psychoanalysis, he who had been so much a loyal part of Freud’s early group of followers, became an anathema for nearly a century. Unlike Jung and Adler who broke away from Freud’s “rule” and founded their own “schools” of psychoanalysis, Ferenczi continued to struggle for the latter’s approval. He died a psychoanalytic outcast, tragically maligned and rejected by many of his former friends and colleagues.

In the last few decades there has been a resurge of interest in Ferenczi and his contribution (Rogers, C., 1961; Mitchell, S. and Greenberg, J., 1983; Mitchell, S., 1988; Dupont, Balint, M., Jackson, N.Z.,1988; Haynol, 1988; Aaron and Harris, 1993; Hoffer, 1996). His ideas are echoed in those proposed by Winnicott in the latter’s focus on “Primary Maternal Preoccupation” and a “Holding Environment” (Winnicott, 1960). They can also be seen in the currently fashionable inter-subjective therapists, who espouse a mutual, egalitarian, self-exposing approach to psychotherapy ( Mitchell, 1988). These theorists have wittingly or unwittingly picked up where Ferenzci left off.

To explore the relevance of Ferenzci’s ideas today and the difference between his approach and that of Freud, an international Ferenzci conference, sponsored by the Israel Association of Psychotherapy, was held in 2000 and well-attended by interested participants from all over the world. The conference was entitled: Freud: the Father of Psychoanalysis, Ferenzci: the Mother of Psychoanalysis (Moss, 2000).

To summarize, as Jung and other analysts emphasize, legend can play a major role in reflecting and guiding our psychotherapeutic attitudes and techniques. The myths of Oedipus and of Orpheus reflect two very different attitudes towards treatment: that of the therapist as warrior and that of the therapist as musician. Whatever, the choice of which myth chosen as a guide for clinical understanding and technique depends on many factors, including the personality and disorder of the patient and the personality and professional predilection of the therapist.


Clinical Vignettes

We would now like to bring two clinical vignettes which demonstrate the relevance and usefulness of Ferenzci’s approach.

Vignette #1:
The patient was a 38 year old, single woman, who had had two boyfriends in her life. In both cases, the men had taken advantage of her goodwill and non-assertiveness. As a result, she had ceased dating, made work the focus of her life, remained at home in the evenings and was sure there was something terribly wrong with her. She felt helpless, hopeless and depressed.

The family atmosphere in which she had grown up had been heavy, critical and totally lacking in expressions of love and support. It was heavily influenced by an affair the father had started years before. As far as the patient knew, her father had never confessed to this relationship, and both she and the therapist suspected he had a secret, second family. The mother remained highly suspicious of him and bitter over the years. She took out part of her wrath on the patient, blaming her for anything and everything. The father continued to be a distant, mysterious figure, barely available to anyone in the family, including the patient. In short, the patient had grown up suffering verbal abuse from mother and the abuse of negligence and abandonment by the father. At age 17, not surprisingly, she left home and tried to begin a separate and independent life.

Early on, the therapist began questioning the fact that no one in the family, including the patient, had ever confronted the father about his “secret”, other life. He also focused on the fact that the patient had never confronted mother about her deprecating behavior. It appeared to him that the situation indicated a kind of family-wide, Oedipal failure. Early on he began making strong suggestions that she confront father and mother and her two siblings. When she avoided taking up the therapist on these suggestions, he became annoyed and his suggestions became even more firm. He pointed out the clear opportunities for confronting them and thereby uncovering the father’s secret, with which they’d all been living for so many years. At a certain point, the therapy started to look like assertiveness training, a confrontational strategy that was not working. The patient seemed to continue feeling helpless and hopeless.

Eventually, he took his case to a supervision group. There he told his colleagues he felt extremely frustrated and that he wasn’t succeeding in helping his patient. To his surprise, they disagreed, pointing out that she continued to come week after week, and her affect seemed to be improving. They suggested that the patient experienced him as making genuine efforts to help her. Despite all her negativity, pessimism and the obstacles she kept putting in his way, he hadn’t abandoned her and seemed to be genuinely trying to help her. This was perhaps the first time in her life that someone actually supported her in an active way. The supervisor and members of the supervision group urged him to continue, suggesting that though he may not have realized it, she was slowly responding to his outreaching approach.

Strengthened by their support, he put aside his feelings of despair and continued to explore, with warmth, her present-day life, her relationship with him and with other people, both today and when she was a child and adolescent. He also let himself be more open about sharing his feelings and even disclosed certain events in his life when he thought this would be relevant to her.

Eventually, she began to change. She took a much needed vacation, going to Europe with a man who was a long-time friend. She initiated and carried out several family events and celebrations. She decided to join a Triathlon team and began practicing regularly. Her whole appearance became more positive, alert and outgoing. It seemed that the strategic change from an Oedipus approach (the warrior) to an Orpheus one (the musician) was the mutative element that enabled the patient to change.

Vignette #2
A. was a 46 year old man, married with two children. He came to therapy explaining that there were some “weeds in his garden” he wanted to take care of. He had been in therapy 15 years before, and his experience then had been very positive. He came to the present therapist without skepticism and with much hope and expectation.

He was born the third child of Holocaust parents. His mother was a dynamic personality, who worked very hard and moved up in her career as seamstress, bringing in more income than the father. She was tough and unemotional and saw her role as limited to providing material needs to her children. A’s older siblings were boys, and the mother and father had wanted a girl. He was a disappointment from the day he came into the world. Subsequently, they did have a little girl, and they were finally very happy. But A. felt that in their happiness, they had forgotten him. Early on he felt washed in their disappointment, and developed a highly provocative interpersonal style in order to gain their love and attention and that of his peers.

His feelings that he was a disappointment, failure and outsider was enhanced by two difficulties. He was a terrible student, and only much later – too late - was diagnosed as having a learning disorder. In addition, during his teen-age years he had felt sexual attraction to boys and experienced many homosexual encounters. Though in his twenties he gave up any homosexual activity, choosing to marry and have children, he always felt this aspect of his sexual identity was something to be ashamed of and about which he had to keep secret.

On beginning therapy, the therapist was tempted to relate to him through the prism of the Oedipal complex. He discussed with A. the implications of having had a strong, domineering mother, to whom he was much attached, and a weak, soft father, who was dismissed by his children as being nice but not someone to lean on. This somewhat investigative approach seemed only to raise A’s resistance. At the same time, the therapist noticed that despite some clear successes in his life, he was very “down” on himself. The therapist tried firmly to get him to examine this Jungian shadow, but A. clearly did not want to. He. told the therapist in no uncertain terms that he did not like to think of these things. When the therapist challenged him to talk more about these matters, A. became angry.

Then the therapist decided to “change his tune”. He was familiar with the Orpheus theme, and also with Ferenczi’s attempt to use it as a guide for achieving clinical understanding and personal change with people traumatized as youngsters. Indeed, the patient had himself used the word “trauma” to describe the period of his youth, the trauma of not being accepted and loved. Even today, if he suspects that others don’t get what he’s all about and are critical of him, he becomes rageful and panicky. Therefore, he explained, the therapist’s original confrontational stance had made him defensive and aggressive. Perhaps there should be new tune introduced into the therapy, a more gentle one, sweet and reflective, that would entice rather than force those repressed feelings of childhood shame out of their locked-up, inner hell, where he could cope with them more directly.

At first he reacted to the change in the therapists “tune” with skepticism. “Well, you have to support me. You’re a therapist.”, he would hurl back suspiciously. Fortunately the therapist genuinely liked him, and it was easy to point out with respect the many times the patient put himself down. He would gently say (without fawning, it must be emphasized) he didn’t see things in quite the negative way the patient did. Gradually, A. began to respond positively, talking more and more about his severe negative self-image.

It felt to the therapist that his change to a more accepting and mutual way of relating to the patient, sharing with him some aspects of his own inner world, had the effect of making the patient see him as more human. This led to more and more self-awareness and cooperation on the patient’s part. The Orpheus myth, with its emphasis on the power of magically beautiful music to lure a loved one out of hell, suggested a treatment approach that felt much more appropriate than the warrior approach implied in the Oedipus tale.

Conclusion

 

Greek Vase Depicting Orpheus Playing to Entranced Thracians, 440 BC

In this paper, we have tried to show the power of legend and myth to mold and reflect our clinical thinking and technique. The above-mentioned vignettes demonstrate the usefulness of the Orpheus myth associated with Ferenczi as a helpful clinical guide. This is particularly so with patients who have been traumatized physically, sexually or by the absence of “good enough” parenting. We have also tried to show how another famous myth, that of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, can serve to warn us of potential dangers in this approach, suggesting that the therapist be careful to avoid becoming a seducer and thereby reactivating old traumas.


Authors:
Zeev Leib, M.D., Senior Psychiatrist, Macabbee Health Organization, individual and group psychotherapist, Kfar Saba, Israel. Dr. Leib is an amateur sculptor, whose works reflect his interpretation of Biblical myths.

Eric Moss, PhD., Clinical Psychologist and Group Analyst, individual and group psychotherapist, Kfar Saba, Israel. Dr.Moss is an amateur story-teller.

Bibliography

Aaron, L. and Harris, A. eds (1993). The Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi. Hillside, N.J.: The Analytic Press

Armstrong, R. (1999): Oedipus as Evidence: The Theatrical Background to Freud’s Oedipus Complex

Brabant, E., Falzeder, E. and Giampieri-Deutch, eds. (1993) The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sandor Ferenczi. Vol.1, 1908 - 1914

Browning, R. (1998) The Pied Piper of Hamelin, London: Frederick Warne Co.

Dupont (ed), Balint, M. and Jackson, N.Z.. (1988) The Clinical Diary of Sandor Ferenczi, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press

Freud, S. (1904) The Interpretation of Dreams

Graves, R. (1992) The Greek Myths, Complete Edition, New York: W.W. Norton and Co.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm (1812), Kinder –and Hausmarchen (in English, Grimms Fairy Tales

Haynal, A. (1988) Controversies in Psychoanalytic Method, From Freud to Ferenczi to Michael Balent, New York: New York University Press

Hoffer, A. Introduction, in E. Falzeider and E. Brabant, eds. (1996) The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sandor Ferenczi, Vol.2, Cambridge MA, Belnap Press of Harvard University.

Jung, C.G., (2009) The Red Book, W.W.Norton.

Jung, C.G., (1993) The Practice of Psychotherapy.

Mitchell, S. and Greenberg, J. (1983) Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory.

Mitchell, S. (1988) Relational Concepts in Psychoanalysis.

Moss, E. (2000): Introduction to Conference Catalogue, International Conference on Sandor Ferenczi: Freud: the Father of Psychoanalysis; Ferenczi: the Mother of Psychoanalysis.

Neuman, E. (1990) Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, Shambhala.

Neuman, E. (1973) The Child, Todder and Stoughten.

Rogers, C. (1961). On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy. London: Constable.

Shalit, E. (2013) The Dream and its Amplification, Fisher King Press.

Shalit, E. (2011) The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey, Fisher King Press.

Smith, N.(1998) Orpha reviving: toward an honorable recognition of Elizabeth Severn, International Forum of Psychoanalysis 7 (4): 241 -246.

Winnicott, D. (1960) “True and false self: The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. New York: International Universities Press.

The Therapist as Musician: Ferenczi and His Use of the Orpheus Myth @ The authors. For correct reference to this article, please contact the authors.

News Release

Fisher King Press is pleased to announce the publication of

The Dream and Its Amplification

"In the case of a word which you have never come across before, you try to find parallel text passages... where the word also occurs... If you make the new text a readable whole, you say, 'Now we can read it.' That is how we learned to read hieroglyphics and cuneiform inscriptions and that is how we can read dreams."
—C.G. Jung, The Tavistock Lectures

The Dream and Its Amplification unveils the language of the psyche that speaks to us in our dreams. We all dream at least 4-6 times each night yet remember very few. Those that rise to the surface of our conscious awareness beckon to be understood, like a letter addressed to us that arrives by post. Why would we not open it? The difficulty is in understanding what the dream symbols and images mean.

Through amplification, C. G. Jung formulated a method of unveiling the deeper meaning of symbolic images. This becomes particularly important when the image does not carry a personal meaning or significance and is not part of a person's everyday life.

Fourteen Jungian Analysts from around the world have contributed chapters to this book on areas of special interest to them in their work with dreams. This offers the seasoned dream worker as well as the novice great insight into the meaning of the dream and its amplification.

Contents and Contributors

I. The Amplified World of Dreams - Erel Shalit and Nancy Swift Furlotti

II. Pane e’ Vino: Learning to Discern the Objective, Archetypal Nature of Dreams - Michael Conforti

III. Amplification: A Personal Narrative - Thomas Singer

IV. Redeeming the Feminine: Eros and the World Soul - Nancy Qualls-Corbett

V. Wild Cats and Crowned Snakes: Archetypal Agents of Feminine Initiation - Nancy Swift Furlotti

VI. A Dream in Arcadia - Christian Gaillard

VII. Muse of the Moon: Poetry from the Dreamtime - Naomi Ruth Lowinsky

VIII. Dreaming the Face of the Earth: Myth, Culture, and Dreams of the Mayan Shaman - Kenneth Kimmel

IX. Coal or Gold? The Symbolic Understanding of Alpine Legends - Gotthilf Isler

X. Sophia’s Dreaming Body: The Night Sky as Alchemical Mirror - Monika Wikman

XI. The Dream Always Follows the Mouth: Jewish Approaches to Dreaming - Henry Abramovitch

XII. Bi-Polarity, Compensation, and the Transcendent Function in Dreams and Visionary Experience: A Jungian Examination of Boehme’s Mandala - Kathryn Madden

XIII. The Dream As Gnostic Myth - Ronald Schenk

XIV. Four Hands in the Crossroads: Amplification in Times of Crisis - Erel Shalit

XV. Dreams and Sudden Death - Gilda Frantz

Four Hands in the Crossroads – Erel Shalit

Amplification implies a recognition that the world of images lives and breathes in the objective psyche, independently from the ego, beyond the realm of the dreamer’s individual consciousness.

During periods of transition and in times of upheaval, the archetypal world of the objective psyche speaks more strongly, and turns up closer to the surface.

This chapter relates dreams that reflect the powerful movement of the collective, or objective psyche, and its appearance in dreams of the individual, beginning with Jung’s premonitions of World War One.

One of these dreams, ‘four hands in the crossroads,’ reflects the axis between ego, Self and the tumultuous events of the outer world, and will be elaborated upon.

Erel Shalit is a Jungian psychoanalyst in Ra’anana, Israel. He is past President of the Israel Society of Analytical Psychology. He is Founding Director of the Jungian Analytical Psychotherapy Program at Bar Ilan University, and past Director of the Shamai Davidson Community Mental Health Clinic, at the Shalvata Psychiatric Centre in Israel.

His books include The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey; Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return; and Enemy, Cripple & Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path.

Product Details: 

Paperback: 220 pages (Large Page Format 9.25" x 7.5")
Publisher: Fisher King Press; 1st edition (June 15, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1-926715-89-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-926715-89-6
Also available as an eBook
Order from Amazon or Fisher King Press 

Open letter to Stephen Hawking

Dear Professor Stephen Hawking,

Based on your information and informed opinion, you have decided to join the boycott of Israel. Therefore, you have withdrawn your participation in the upcoming President's Conference.

There is much to criticize in regard to Israel, not the least the extensive settlements in occupied areas of the West Bank, in areas that are aimed for Palestine, whether as an independent state or in confederation with Jordan.

I assume that your decision is not only emotionally based, but founded on facts that you have gathered and analyzed, weighed against other events presently taking place in the world. In the past you have certainly proven yourself an independent thinker. Thus, I assume that you have not just succumbed to the pressure which you have been exposed to by the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Since I am not aware of any other country that you have decided to boycott, or having expressed your esteemed opinion about, I would like to hear your opinion about the killings of tens of thousands in Syria, the indiscriminate firing of rockets from Palestinian area and by Hezbollah from Lebanon aimed at civilian Israeli territories, as well as your opinion about the anti-Semitic charter of the Hamas and the ethnic cleansing of the Jews that appear in the Palestinian Charter, and Iran’s expressed threat to wipe out Israel.

I would like to hear your opinion about countries, too many to enumerate, that are guilty of discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and human rights violations.

Because if you don’t, then you have singled out Israel, compromising your hitherto known capacity for independent thinking, given in to political pressure, parroting the attitude that the earth is flat, with a black hole in the middle, somewhere along the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Hero and His Shadow introduces a psychological perspective on the history, development and myths of modern Israel.

The realization of Zionism relied on the pioneer, who revolted against the Way of the Fathers and sought spiritual redemption through the revival of Mother Earth in the ancient land. Myth and history, psyche and matter are constantly intertwined in the birth and development of Israel, for example when in the Declaration of Independence we are told that pioneers make deserts bloom, the text actually says they make spirits blossom.

Pioneer, guardsman and then warrior were admired hero-ideals. However, in the shadow of the hero and the guiding myths of revolt, redemption, strength and identity-change, there were feelings of despair, doubt, weakness and fear. Where there has been renewal, lurks the threat of annihilation.

The suppressed aspects of past and present myths, which linger in the shadow, are exposed. The psychological consequences of Israel’s wars, from independence to the war of terror, are explored both on a personal note and from a psychoanalytic perspective, with social examples and clinical vignettes.

Shadow aspects of the conflicting guiding myths Peace and Greater Israel are examined. The mythological background of the archetypal struggle between Isaac and Ishmael, and the relationship between Jerusalem and the archetypal images of Wholeness and Satan are looked into.

The Hero and His Shadow & Requiem flyer

Heart and the (Philosopher's) Stone in Prague

'Rooftops and Towers of Prague,' a drawing by
Petr Ginz, 1928-1944 (Yad vaShem).

Born in Prague, Petr spent his adolescence in the children's home in the Theresienstadt ghetto. He was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau in the fall of 1944. In 2003, Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut that perished in the space shuttle Columbia, took Petr Ginz's drawing 'Moon Landscape' (see below) with him from the Yad Vashem collection.

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Czech Society for Analytical Psychology, to deliver a lecture and a workshop on the Cycle of Life.

Following several years of experience with the impressive Bulgarian Jung Society, as well as visiting the groups in Poland, Estonia, and the Czech Republic, I can testify to the admirable devotion and seriousness found among the analysts, therapists and students in these countries. Their thirst for knowledge is a source of inspiration, and in only a few years the therapists in these countries have gained increasing psychotherapeutic experience.

It was a great joy to lecture to the members of the Czech Society, to an attentive audience of analysts and analysts to be, Jungian oriented therapists and students.

The weekend was particularly moving and meaningful because of Dvorah Kutzinski, who gave two related seminars – one on Erich Neumann’s Origins of Consciousness, and a seminar on Mozart’s The Magic Flute, including the screening of Bergman’s wonderful movie.

At 87, Dvorah Kutzinski, the Grand Old Lady of Jungian Analysts in Israel, is as sharp, witty and vital as ever. Coupled with her awareness of old age and death, she is full of life and energy, leaving many of us behind.

Her charismatic personality comes across in lectures and seminars, therapy and supervision, as her students, analysands and colleagues of more than fifty years will attest.

The person she is and her individual life are deeply intertwined with the history and culture of the 20th Century. She grew up in the house in which Kafka was born, with Max Brod, to whom we owe the preservation of Kafka’s manuscripts, among the weekly guests in their home. Her father, the philologist Prof. Zeckendorf, later one of the famous lecturers at Theresienstadt, predicted Kafka’s future long before his rise to fame.

After years in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, she arrived at the shores of Israel, and met Erich Neumann. She became a close friend and his foremost disciple, making his writings accessible to generations of Jungians. And the Czech she hasn’t spoken for seventy years, emerged from the depths of memory. She was received, as she so rightly deserves, with great warmth and appreciation.

Regarding the whereabouts and recent findings about the Golem of Prague, I have been sworn to silence and cannot yet disclose anything. It will have to remain shrouded in mystery, until it eventually will emerge from the hiding place in the shadows of science. Let me only mention that the story about the golem of Prague, based on the legend of the sixteenth century Rabbi Loew from Prague, was revived at the turn of the century by several authors, notably Gustav Meyrink. Meyrink had been a bank manager, before turning to alchemy and Kabbalah. He was convinced that the Philosopher’s Stone was to be found in the Prague sewer system, and from serious research into this matter, I have found conclusive evidence that the stone probably is to be found in the nigredo of Prague’s shadow.

The Jewish Cemetery in Prague

Petr Ginz, 'Moon Landscape' (Yad vaShem)

Hebrew Book Week שבוע הספר העברי

The yearly Hebrew Book Week began in 1926 as a one-day event on Rotschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv. It has evolved to outdoor book fairs held all over the country, during a week or often ten days, when books are sold at a discount.

Until June 16, Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return and The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality can be purchased, in Hebrew and English, at a 30% discount in Israel, at Hebrew Psychology Book Fair.

שבוע הספר העברי התחיל בשד' רוטשילד בתל אביב, ב-1926, כארוע ליום אחד. מאז התפתח, ומ-1961 שבוע הספר מתקיים כל שנה בכל הארץ.

עד 16 ביוני, ניתן לרכוש את הספרים חזרה: סיפור של גלות ושיבה והגיבור וצלו: היבטים פסיכו-פוליטיים של מיתוס ומציאות בישראל ב 30% הנחה, באתר של פסיכולוגיה עברית.

חזרה: סיפור של גלות ושיבה מחזירה אותנו לנושא נצחי, דו שיח עם הנפש, והרי אנחנו יודעים

היטב מה קורה כשמשוחחים עם הנפש – אנחנו משתנים, התודעה מתרחבת, הבלתי אפשרי נהיה אפשרי, וכבר לא חייבים ללכת בדרך הקטלנית של האבות הקדמונים.

חזרה היא סיפור דמיוני של תרחיש שמתרחש בראשם של ישראלים רבים, קשור להרהורים קיומיים ופחדים אפוקליפטיים – ויחד אם זאת, התקוה והמחויבות שעולים מתהום הפחד. הסיפור אומנם מתרחש בארץ מתישהו בהווה, אך הוא קושר אותנו לנצחיות ההסטוריה בשילוב מארג של דיונים עם קפקא והיינה, וכך מקבל משמעות אוניברסלית.

Requiem returns us to an eternal theme, a dialogue with Soul, and we know quite well what happens when one dialogues with Soul—we change, consciousness is enlarged, the impossible becomes possible and we no longer are compelled to blindly follow in the deathly path of our forefathers.

Requiem is a fictitious account of a scenario played out in the mind of many Israelis, pertaining to existential reflections and apocalyptic fears, but then, as well, the hope and commitment that arise from the abyss of trepidation. While set in Israel sometime in the present, it is a story that reaches into the timelessness of history, weaving discussions with Heine and Kafka into a tale of universal implications.

Jungian Psychotherapy at Bar Ilan פסיכותרפיה יונגיאנית בבר אילן

We are pleased to announce the opening of the fourth class of the three-year program in

Jungian Psychotherapy

Bar Ilan University, Continuing Education, Weisfeld School of Social Work

Dr. Erel Shalit, Academic Director

For further details, please click here

Studies are conducted in Hebrew, please see below

תוכנית תלת-שנתית לפסיכותרפיה בגישה האנליטית של יונג

מרכז אקדמי: ד"ר אראל שליט

תאריך פתיחה: אוקטובר 2013

מטרות התכנית

התכנית מיועדת להכשיר אנשי מקצוע למטפלים בפסיכותרפיה עפ"י הגישה האנליטית של יונג. התכנית תקנה היכרות מעמיקה עם תורתו של יונג ודרך יישומה: כולל הבנת נפש האדם המתפתחת בתהליך האינדיבידואציה שלו ובתוך סביבתו ושורשיו התרבותיים, החל מהילדות המוקדמת, הבגרות, אמצע החיים והזקנה. תלמד גם הגישה הסימבולית והטיפולית של הפסיכולוגיה היונגיאנית ואופן העבודה עם תכני הלא-מודע. ההוראה וההדרכה ינתנו ע"י מיטב האנליטיקאים היונגיאניים בארץ.

אוכלוסיית היעד

עובדים סוציאליים בעלי תואר שני לפחות; פסיכולוגים; פסיכיאטרים.

מספר מקומות ישמרו למועמדים בעלי תואר שני בתחומי הטיפול כגון, טיפול ביצירה ובהבעה וקרימינולוגיה קלינית.

מבנה התכנית

הלימודים יתקיימו במשך שלוש שנים במתכונת משולבת של קורסים תיאורטיים, סדנאות חווייתיות, סמינר קליני והדרכה קבוצתית; בימי שני בשעות 15:00-20:30 בשנה הראשונה ובשעות 13:00-20:30 בשנים השניה והשלישית. סה"כ 572 שעות.

סגל ההוראה

לעיון ברשימה המעודכנת של חברי סגל התכנית:

רשימת חברי הסגל והמדריכים בתכנית התלת-שנתית לפסיכותרפיה בגישה האנליטית של יונג

רשימת חברי הסגל מתעדכנת מעת לעת.

ועדת הוראה והיגוי

ד"ר יהודה אברמוביץ, ד"ר אבי באומן, גב' רינה פורת, ד"ר אראל שליט.

מרכז הדרכה: מר נתנאל פרי

מרכזת עבודות גמר: גב' תמר לנגבהיים

מטלות

קריאה רצופה של חומר מקצועי בעברית ובאנגלית.

הגשת עבודה בהיקף של 5-7 עמודים בסיום השנה הראשונה והשניה אשר תשקף את הבנת הרוח היונגיאנית.

בסיום השנה השלישית תוגש עבודה אשר בה יידרש שילוב של הבנת התיאוריה והגישה הטיפולית.

על הסטודנט להתחיל הדרכה פרטנית בשנה הראשונה ולהמשיכה עד לסיום התכנית. ההדרכה תינתן ע"י מדריכי התכנית בעלות של 250 ש"ח לשעת הדרכה. נדרשות 90 שעות הדרכה, אשר מתחלקות בין שני מדריכים, לפחות 30 שעות אצל כל מדריך.

לסטודנטים בתכנית מומלץ לעבור טיפול באורינטציה יונגיאנית.

תעודה

לעומדים בהצלחה בדרישות התכנית, תוענק תעודה המאשרת סיום לימודי פסיכותרפיה בגישה האנליטית של יונג מטעם היחידה ללימודי המשך של ביה"ס לעבודה סוציאלית ע"ש לואיס וגבי וייספלד, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן.

התכנית מוכרת ע"י האגודה הישראלית לפסיכותרפיה פסיכואנליטית.

התכנית אינה מוכרת לגמול השתלמות.

הרשמה

על הנרשמים לצרף:

• טופס הרשמה
• דמי הרשמה - המחאה בסך 250 ש"ח לפקודת אוניברסיטת בר-אילן
• קורות חיים אישיים ומקצועיים (לימודים אקדמיים ולא אקדמיים, התנסות מקצועית ופרסומים)
• תמונת פספורט
• צילומי תעודות של התואר הראשון/השני
• אישורים על ניסיון קליני של שלוש שנים

המועמדים המתאימים יוזמנו לראיונות אישיים.
המתקבלים לתכנית מחויבים לתכנית המלאה.

שכר הלימוד

שנה א' – 8,600 ₪ + 250 ₪ דמי הרשמה.
ניתן לשלם בשמונה תשלומים הצמודים למדד יוקר המחיה יולי 2013.
שנה ב' – 8,600 ₪
ניתן לשלם בשמונה תשלומים הצמודים למדד יוקר המחיה יולי 2014.
שנה ג' – 8,600 ₪
ניתן לשלם בשמונה תשלומים הצמודים למדד יוקר המחיה יולי 2015


להורדת טופס הרשמה לקורס נא לחץ/י כאן
 

:פרטים נוספים

לימודי המשך ביה"ס לעבודה סוציאלית ע"ש לואיס וגבי וייספלד אוניברסיטת בר- אילן

טלפונים: 5317265 - 03, 5318211 - 03

פקס: 7384043 - 03

אתר היחידה