Lecture: Some Homosexualities
and the
Challenge to Analytic Psychology
Barry Miller, Ph.D.
Erotic experiences between same gendered people stimulate enormous projections of all sorts, some with horrific and even murderous consequences. These projections come out of culture's historic and evolving political ideologies, theologies, and psychologies. This talk will amplify the unique position of Analytical Psychology as an orientation that simultaneously relates to the evolving social phenomenon while pursuing the specific meaning embedded in an individual's experience. This exploration will be in the service of opening to the revelatory potential of the psyche, rather than developing conclusions about a category of sexuality.
Workshop: Establishing an Ethical Perspective to
the Erotic Imagination: The Erotic as Metaphor in
Psychotherapeutic Process, The Transference, and
Individuation
Eros can be seen as Nature's most spontaneous impulse toward psychological therapy, as it connects one with what is missing or needed for an individual's development. Consequently, the parallels
between the Erotic and psychotherapeutic goals and processes are striking and informative. Exploring this connection serves the development of a symbolic attitude, in contrast to a literal, and perhaps ethically precarious relation to the Erotic. Clinical material will be utilized to demonstrate the parallel between the Erotic imagination and the needs of psyche, supporting an evolution from potential enactment to psychological understanding.
