THE NECESSITY OF HADES AND THE DEMAND OF THE ANCESTORS: THE DESCENT MOTIF IN MYTHOLOGY - Stephen Bushell

From Jung’s childhood dream of the phallus in the underground temple, through his own encounter with the unconscious as recorded in the Black Books and the Liber Novus, we find the motif of descent and the encounter with the dead to be fundamental to the approach to the psyche that would become Analytical Psychology. In these seminars we will look at Odysseus’s descent to Hades and relate this to Jung’s encounters with the dead. This will allow us to suggest an expanded view of Complex Theory which can inform client work and an openness to a more expansive analytic field.