Join clinician and analyst, Dr. Lionel Corbett in February for a 3-day workshop on depth psychological approaches to suffering.
When suffering strikes, it is helpful to find a framework through which we may understand it, rather than seeing suffering as a random event in one's life. The approach of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) is of limited help, because there are many forms of suffering which are normal given the circumstances of the person's life. As well, even in the presence of emotional disorder, people with the same diagnosis suffer in unique ways and require a personalized approach.
Traditional religions all offer explanations for suffering and the reasons for it, and we will consider some of these, but depth psychology has its own unique approaches. This seminar will describe some of the ways in which we may search for meaning in suffering, and will discuss suffering as an experience of liminality and initiation into a new level of consciousness. We will also discuss an approach to suffering based on radical acceptance.
The seminar will discuss the suffering produced by painful states of mind such as hatred, envy, alienation, scapegoating, cruelty, and loneliness, which cause enormous suffering. We will describe some of the developmental sources of these complexes, their effects on the personality, and some of the ways in which they may be approached in psychotherapy. We will contrast these states of mind with the psychology and psychodynamics of altruism, empathy, compassion, concern, care, consolation, and pity, exploring the similarities and differences between these states. Finally we will discuss ways to help the helper, including the problem of burn-out and compassion fatigue among psychotherapists.
Learning Objectives
• Participants will learn a variety of frameworks within which psychotherapists may approach the problem of suffering.
• Participants will learn to recognize forms of suffering which are normal and not included in the DSM.
• Participants will appreciate the value of the discovery of meaning in suffering. • Participants will learn a variety of psychotherapeutic approaches to painful states of mind.
Lionel Corbett, M.D., trained in medicine and psychiatry in England and as a Jungian Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. His primary interests are: the religious function of the psyche, especially the way in which personal religious experience is relevant to individual psychology; the development of psychotherapy as a spiritual practice; and the interface of Jungian psychology and contemporary psychoanalytic thought. Dr. Corbett is a professor of depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is the author of numerous professional papers and four books: Psyche and the Sacred, nd most recently The Soul in Anguish: Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Suffering.
Access an interview and blogpost with Dr. Lionel Corbett and Bonnie Bright on the topic live on Pacifica Post
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