“The Orphan archetype” – and how the experience of difference, loneliness, abandonment, exile – might help us find our way home and to a place of belonging. 

We will consider Jung’s understanding of the meaning of this complex for individuation. Examples from literature, fairy tale and dreamwork will help in understanding how this archetype of “the psychological orphan” affects our lives . Acceptance of “the inner orphan” prompts us to greater independence from the collective, responsibility for our lives to inter-connectedness while “the unhealthy aspect of the orphan” blocks maturation and prompts social isolation: 

The soul has its own peculiar world. Only the self enters in there or the man/woman who has completely become his/her self (C.G Jung,The Red Book, p.236) 

“I am an orphan, alone: nevertheless I am found everywhere. I am one, but opposed to myself. I am youth and old man at one and the same time... I am hidden in the innermost soul of man. I am mortal for everyone, yet I am not touched by the cycle of aeons.” from Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Page 227 

Cost: Members $6; Non-members $12
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