We meet "monsters" at key moments in the process of psychological growth. The dark creatures that haunt the imaginations of children, the threatening strangers, terrifying murderers, and vicious animals that move through the dreams of adults, the terrors encountered in agedness – we fear and avoid our monsters. But Jung considered that monsters bring vital messages and warnings regarding the psychological status quo. These images appear terrifying because they represent a fundamental otherness within us, something tapping at the windows of our consciousness, pressing to be integrated for development to proceed.
Using lecture, film clips, and group discussion, we will explore how threatening, ominous, and frightening images and experiences present valuable opportunities to individuate. Participants will discuss clinical experiences of the subjective sense of the “monstrous” in psychotherapeutic work. We will draw on historical examples of monstrosity to clarify the tasks at hand when encountering it in our lives, in the lives of our clients and in the intersubjective space we create together.
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