Events

Join film director and writer Gregory O'Conner and Jungian analyst Michael Conforti  for this FREE Teleseminar as they discuss the movie Unbroken from an archetypal perspective.

This event is FREE to attend, but you must formally register for access information

Unbroken is the story of Louis Zamperini's immersion into hell and the strength and resilience he found to survive.  It is nothing short of a miracle that he was able to find his way back to life after suffering the spirit breaking tortures of a POW camp during WWII.

Entwined with this outer world of terror, were the inner world of memories, horror, and the demons all existing long after the outer traumatic events had passed. Living on as shape shifters and unconscious expressions of these traumas, they took the form of alcoholism, uncontrollable emotional outbursts and an inner terror and despair.

The greatest challenge for anyone surviving the unimaginable, involves the epic journey back into life.  Here one walks side by side with Persephone, Orpheus, Elie Wiesel, Jung and others who have lived in this underworld  and must, forever more, be citizens of both worlds. In living with such horrors and suffering, individuals are unwillingly made to see the contours of a hellish reality, and so too, a benevolence which they felt had not only been lost to them, but to the world. 

It is in the domain of trauma that traditional therapy must face its limitations.The concept of Post-traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) fails to capture the devastation and inner experience of living with trauma, or the sense of falling to ones knees when resilience and grace knocks on the door. Perhaps here is where we see that such healing is ultimately a spiritual experience. The survivor of trauma lives in these two worlds simultaneously:  a world where the trauma and its affects remains as a presence in one's life, and also in the world of benevolence and healing whose fires can transform a tragedy into a meaningful life. 

It is this ability to cross the thresholds of both worlds that allows us to see Zamperini and others who journey through these worlds of trauma and healing as heroes. While in the film, it's but a post script, Zamperini did find a way  to live with the enormity of his experiences, and with the grandness of his own unique spirit which lived on as  an unstoppable and constant presence in his life.

In this presentation, Gregory O'Conner, film producer and writer, and Michael Conforti, Jungian Analyst, and script consultant, will take an in-depth look at the film Unbroken and the messages we take away from it about trauma and the human spirit.

This event is FREE to attend, but you must formally REGISTER  for access information