Events

The Self in Film with John Beebe, M.D. at Sonoma State University

Created by Bonnie Bright (See other events)
  • Mar 26, 2011 from 3:00am to 6:00am
  • Location: Stevenson 1002, Sonoma State University (Doors open at 9:30am)
  • Latest Activity: Jun 25, 2021
The restorative power of "going to a movie" is an indication that a film can have the power to put the viewer's ego in touch with the Self, in the sense this term has been used by C. G. Jung. Jung's Self refers to a center in the psyche that represents the interests of wholeness and objectivity, with overarching spiritual concern for the integrity of the psyche in its dealings with the world.

The Jungian viewer of movies today needs to develop criteria for recognizing how some films manage to make this level of psyche evident, when most films fail to get beyond dramatizing persona, ego, shadow, or anima/animus dynamics. A film that includes the presence of the Self includes more than just the sum of these other iconographic elements. It has the uncanny effect of taking the viewer beyond them to a broader perspective than mere identification with problems the viewer can already recognize.

To find the Self, attention to Jungian symbolism can be helpful but is rarely sufficient: the style of a film as a whole must be studied alongside its story, stars, and particular images. It is not enough that the scenario refers to religious themes, or to the possibility of a greater personality impersonated by a movie star skilled at attracting the audience's projection of the Self. The essence of the Self is more subtle and elusive, and requires a different level of imaginative participation in what a great film can offer.

This presentation will use clips from classic movies to develop some of the ways the Self has been effectively evoked cinematically by the greatest film masters, both male and female. The questions Dr. Beebe will seek to answer are (1) how can the Self emerge in a film, and (2) how may we, watching the film, recognize that it has done so?

John Beebe, M.D., a Jungian analyst and psychiatrist in practice in San Francisco, is a past President of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. An internationally recognized clinical teacher of Jungian psychology, he has lectured on topics related to analytical psychology throughout the United States and in Europe, and his writings have appeared in the Chiron Clinical Series, The Journal of Analytical Psychology, Psychological Perspectives, Quadrant, Spring Journal, and many books.

Dr. Beebe is the author of the book Integrity in Depth, a study of the archetype of moral wholeness. One of the very first Jungian film critics, John Beebe's movie reviews have appeared in Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche. His more extended writings of this medium appear in Jung and Film, and the upcoming Jung and Film II, as well as his own The Presence of the Feminine in Film, written with Virginia Apperso.

($20 fee for 3 hours CE for psychologists (APA) and therapists (BBSE); registration at the door the morning of the event)
Doors open at 9:30 a.m.
Free parking in Lots A, D, E, F, J
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