CIRCUMAMBULATING

The Self

with Jungian analyst and author Jason E. Smith

“I began to understand that the goal
of psychic development is the self.
There is no linear evolution; there is
only a circumambulation of the self.”

– C.G. Jung,
Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Program Description: 

The Self is the central concept of Jung’s psychology. It can also be one of the most difficult concepts to grasp. This is because the Self, as the experience of wholeness, embraces both consciousness and the unconscious. There will always be something of this aspect of the psyche that will elude our understanding. As Edward Edinger writes, “All that can be done is to approach it from various angles and get little pieces of its meaning.”

Through the use of both image and idea, this workshop will begin to make such an approach to the archetype of the Self. Together we will examine several statements made by Jung and others describing the nature of the Self and its various attributes. We will discuss the implications of these statements as we circumambulate this important concept. The goal of this workshop will not be so much to gain a better understanding of the concept of the Self, but rather a more complete experience of it and the ways that it manifests in both the analytic situation and in everyday life.

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CIRCUMAMBULATING

THE SELF

Video Presentation
(Recorded Live)

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Jason E. Smith

Jason E. Smith is an author and Jungian analyst in private practice in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. He was previously the president of the Training Board of the C. G. Jung Institute in Boston. He received his Master’s degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute and graduated from the C.G. Jung Institute - Boston with a diploma in Analytical Psychology.

Jason is the creator and host of the podcast, Digital Jung: The Symbolic Life in a Technological Age and the author of Religious But Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life (2020).