This presentation considers the relevance of mythology in the context of our lives. Through the lens of the myth of Demeter and Persephone it focuses on the experience of loss, grief and return. Drawing on the writings of Jung, Hillman, Neumann, Edinger, Winnicott and others, it explores the essential role that a symbolic attitude plays in how we may respond creatively to the vicissitudes of our lives. Suffering is an indispensable part of our growth; loss and grief can be the catalyst which propels us towards connection to the Self and individuation.

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Carol Cunningham is a Jungian analyst, psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice in Co. Kildare, Ireland. With an academic background in music and musicology, she enjoys working and teaching with image, fairy-tale and myth. She is President of the Irish Society of Jungian Analysts.

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Reading:

Jung, C. G. and Kerenyi C., Essays on a Science of Mythology, p.120, The Bollingen Library, Harper and Row, New York, 1963

Mogenson, Greg, Greeting the Angels, pp1-15, New York, Baywood Publishing, 1992

Segal, Robert A., Jung on Mythology, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1998

Edinger, Edward F., Ego and Archetype, Boston and London, 1972

References:

Jung, C.G., Collected Works, Vol 5, Two Kinds of Thinking, para 4-46, London, Routledge, 1990

Jung, C.G., Collected Works, Vol 9i, The Psychologyof the Child Archetype, para 259-270, London, Routledge, 1990

Jung, C.G., Collected Works, Vol 11, Answer to Job, para553, London, Routledge, 1990

Jung, C.G., Collected Works, Vol 13, Commentary on“The Secret of the Golden Flower”, para 54, London, Routledge, 1990

Jung, C.G., Collected Works, Vol 18, On Resurrection, para 1566, London, Routledge, 1990

Jung, C.G., Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p.304, London, Flamingo, 1983

Carlson, Kathy, Life’s Daughter/Death’s Bride: Inner Transformations Through the Goddess Demeter/Persephone, p.64, Boston, 1997

Cashford, Jules, “Poetry and the Dimension of Myth”, Harvest,2009

David, Julian, “Psyche and Matter”, Harvest, 2009

Hillman, James, Revisioning Psychology, pp99-112

Mogenson, Greg, Greeting the Angels , pp 1-15, NewYork, Baywood Publishing, 1992

Neumann, Erich, The Child, p.54, London, Karnac, 1988

Jung, C.G. and Kerenyi C., Essays on a Science of Mythology, p.120, The Bollingen Library, Harper and Row, New York, 1963

Knox, Jean, “The Fear of Love: The denial of self in relationship”, Journal of Analytical Psychology, Vol 52, 2007

Kalsched, Donald, The Inner World of Trauma: Archetypal Defences of the Personal Spirit, Routledge, London, 1998

Davis, Madeleine and Wallbridge, David, Boundary and Space: An Introduction to the work of D.W.Winnicott.

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