The Claire Hagan Bauza Lecture Presented by Dr. Michael Conforti: The Confluence of Psyche, Matter and Soul in Art, Story, and Contemporary Life. Friday April 16 and Saturday April 17. THE SATURDAY PROGRAM IS: WELCOMING THE STRANGER: THE CALL OF PSYCHE

The registration fee for members is $25 Friday and $35 Saturday or $50 both days. The registration fee for non-members is $30 Friday and $40 Saturday or $60 both days. CEUs are available: 1.5 for Friday and 2.5 for Saturday. These are free to members (just complete the RSVP below) and cost $10 each day for non-members. You must register by noon Thursday April 15.  A Zoom link will be sent to each registrant. Scroll down below for tickets.  

Saturday – Welcoming the Stranger: The Call of Psyche
“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”  Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy          It is the stranger who knocks on the door.  Its terrifying features are proportionate to the degree to which its meaning has been exiled, and we are frightened because we know that its entrance and effects on our life will create a psychic dis-equilibrium.  So we wash our hands, lock the doors, and do whatever is possible to keep these contents far away from our life — or so goes the illusion. The stranger, this creative unconscious, will not be silenced or muted by conscious intent. Ultimately, the unconscious will have its say, because The Self understands that we cannot live a meaningful life with such vital aspects of Psyche in exile. Welcoming the stranger is an important feature both in psychological development and in the treatment of trauma. We need to know the stranger at the door, and often are surprised to learn its identity. From myth, fairy tale, and opera we hear of these life altering encounters with Self, which allow us to recognize the painful reality of how our traumas and fears have constrained our life, while also asking what is needed to move beyond the contours of our possessions.

Dr. Michael Conforti is a Jungian analyst and the Founder and Director of the Assisi Institute. He is a faculty member at the C.G. Jung Institute – Boston, the C.G Jung Foundation of New York, and for many years served as a Senior Associate faculty member in the Doctoral and Master’s Programs in Clinical Psychology at Antioch New England. A pioneer in the field of matter-psyche studies, Dr. Conforti is actively investigating the workings of archetypal fields and the relationship between Jungian psychology and the New Sciences. He has presented his work to a wide range of national and international audiences, including the C.G. Jung Institute – Zurich and Jungian organizations in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, and Venezuela. He is the author of Threshold Experiences: The Archetype of Beginnings (2007) and Field, Form and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature and Psyche (2002). His articles have appeared in Psychological Perspectives, San Francisco Jung Library Journal, Roundtable Press, World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, and Spring Journal, and his books has been translated into Italian, Russian and a soon to be released Spanish edition of his work.