A Study of C.G. Jung's The Red Book
Moderator: Norbert Spencer
A Study of C.G. Jung's The Red Book
(a ZOOM Seminar Series)
C.G. Jung, The Red Book:
"I understood that God whom we seek in the absolute was not found in absolute beauty, goodness, seriousness, elevation, humanity or even godliness. Once God was there, I understood that the new God would be in the relative. If the God is absolute beauty and goodness, how should he(she) encompass the fullness of life, which is beautiful, and hateful, good and evil, laughable and serious, human and inhuman? How can man live in the womb of God if the Godhead himself attends only to one-half of him?"
From the Collective Works, we experience C.G. Jung primarily as a doctor-a physician, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and last but not least a student of mankind's history of religious ideas. From The Red Book, we experience Jung so to speak as his own patient, as the person suffering inexplicable and irrational forces originating from within the depths of his own psyche, and his struggle to understand what these experiences were asking of him. For example, we read of the dialogues he faithfully recorded with a series of archetypal figures, and the insights he drew as the result of these encounters. It was the figures of Elijah, Salome, Philemon, and finally the remarkable "shade" at the end of the Scrutinies chapter, who were Jung's primary companions during this unexpected experience of the Self. As a result, The Red Book, becomes a description of the path which led Jung towards an understanding of the nature of the Self. Through Jung's own story, The Red Book describes how the psyche's healing has its origin within itself.
2021 - 2022 Semester Schedule*:
Fall, 2021
October: 10/9, 10/16, 10/23, 10/30
November: 11/6, 11/27
Winter, 2022
January: 1/8, 1/15, 1/22, 1/29
February: 2/5, 2/12, 2/19
Spring, 2022
March: 3/26
April: 4/2, 4/9, 4/23
May: 5/7, 5/14
The Red Book class originally began in Spring Semester, 2017. If you are interested in participating and would like to be considered for this class, please contact the CAJP at info@jungct.org or by calling us at: 860-431-2029. The Red Book classes are held during three semesters of this current program year and thereafter until the study has been completed. A copy of the Reader's Edition of The Red Book is required for all class members.
Norb Spencer practices psychotherapy in West Hartford, CT. In addition to a passionate interest in depth psychology and yoga, he has trained in gestalt therapy, family therapy, trauma therapy, Transactional Analysis, and Family Constellations.
