Journeys of a Pregnant Virgin

It is early Monday morning, still dark (and very cold) out. Two weekend seminars kept me busy and prevented my usual leisurely Sunday morning entry here. On Saturday we completed Murray Stein's three part series on Individuation, and on Sunday, we had a follow up seminar on the limbic system and religious experience, led by an Italian analyst who is also a psychiatrist. Both she and Murray Stein are good teachers, by which I mean they are clear in their discussion of complex material, and very willing to answer questions and enter dialogue with their audience. And both, in their own ways, create a rapport that is not to be taken for granted. For me, as a teacher, it is always fascinating to see how this happens. Murray Stein does it through a kind of quiet openness and humour, combined with a wealth of interesting stories about Jung and the Jungian world (a term that Jung himself would have hated). He is surely a big wheel in this particular "world" but there is no power principle at work. Rafaello Colombo's style is very dynamic and intense, in part because she is often searching for the English equivalent for her Italian thoughts, but there is also a quick humour at play. "Do you understand me?" she asked frequently with heartfelt concern. The whole notion that neural pathways are forged through repeated experience appears to have fascinating implications for analytic work, and will give me plenty to think about in the days to come.

Otherwise, the past week was punctuated on Wednesday by a brief but most welcome visit with David (stepson), who stopped off in Zurich after a job interview in Geneva before returning to Leipzig. David very quickly received and accepted the job offer so he and Jana will be very busy over the next few months planning how best to relocate themselves and their two little ones with the least possible discomfort and distress, while at the same time bringing things to a satisfying close in Leipzig. It's hard enough to do this on one's own but when there are four people, two small children, and two careers at stake, the challenges increase exponentially, I am sure.

Shortly after accompanying David to the Hauptbahnhof, I proceeded to have dinner with Vicki and Margo, two new east coast American friends. Five hours flew by with nary a lull in the discussion. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing their perspectives on our shared training adventure and feelings about living in Switzerland. I think all three of us share a certain introversion and intensity and it was lovely to feel a sense of common ground and safety in the conversational flow. I always appreciate it when everyone speaks and listens with equal relish and that was certainly the case.

It's time now to get into the hot shower and out into the cold day, and I will come to an unceremonious halt and finish with a quote that has puzzled me since I read it a couple of days ago. I don't particularly like what Jung is saying here, but since I think it may hold a truth I have not considered before, I will offer it here.

"As we know, a complex can be really overcome only if it is lived out to the full. In other words, if we are to develop further we have to draw to us and drink down to the very dregs what, because of our complexes, we have held at a distance." (CW 9/1, para 184)

This sounds like quite a challenge. I will be giving serious thought to what it is I need to draw to me and "drink down to the very dregs", rather than pushing it away in favour of more pleasant activities.

With good wishes for the coming week to all who read these lines.