Forthcoming Events
ASSOCIATION OF JUNGIAN ANALYSTS
7 Eton Avenue, London NW3 3EL
Tel: 020 7794 8711 Email: aja@dircon.co.uk
OPEN MONTHLY MEETING
Tuesday 1 June 2010 — starting at 8.15pm
Mary-Jayne Rust
Imagination and Earth
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children” ”Native American proverb
“The ecological crisis, among other things, forces us to reopen the discussion about mind and earth” writes Jungian analyst David Tacey. Jung wrote ‘Mind and Earth’ over 80 years ago, yet our relationship with the earth is increasingly split. ‘Nature’ is seen as a bunch of objects to be used; wilderness is often feared as dark, dangerous or empty; at the same time, we claim to ‘love nature’ and travel to wild places in search of soul. How might we re-imagine our relationship with the earth? Can we hold open a playful space to explore these ideas in the face of such deadly and paralysing crisis? How are these issues relevant to our practice and thinking as therapists?
Mary-Jayne Rust is an art therapist, Jungian analyst and ecopsychologist. In the 1980’s she worked at the Women’s Therapy Centre, London. Her many years experience of working with women with eating problems have led to a wider inquiry into our collective consuming of the earth, and the relationship between mind and body, soul and the land. She lectures widely and writes on these themes. See www.mjrust.net.
This meeting is open to practising analysts, psychotherapists and trainees.
Advance booking is essential as space is limited
AJA Tel: 020 7794 8711 — email: aja@dircon.co.uk
Tickets for non-AJA members: £10
SOCIAL DREAMING MATRIX
March 13th 2010, June 5th 2010,
October 2nd 2010
Throughout human history, people met together to share their dreaming - and learn how to use dreams to guide and inform their lives. We dream about all the important initiatory experiences from birth to death, as well as in making sense of daily life. We are well used to the idea that dreams represent a ‘Royal Road to the Unconscious’ in individual therapy and analysis. In addition, social dreaming activity is potentially as much a part of contemporary life as it has always been. It has been used within the Jungian Analytic community for many years, and also and independently been developed by the work of Dr. Gordon Lawrence and his colleagues at the Tavistock Institute, London, and the Social Dreaming Group. It is a technique widely used in organizational development and management consultancy.
The purpose of Social Dreaming is to transform thinking through exploring dreams by using free association, amplification and systemic thinking to make links and find connections between the dreams so as to find new thoughts. Social Dreaming is a method for accessing the thinking, thought and knowledge embedded in dreams. Social Dreaming is not concerned with individual dreams but focuses on what is shared among the participants’ dreams. This they do in a matrix which mirrors in conscious, waking life the unconscious world of dream-work while sleeping. The dream, not the dreamer, is the focus of the work of Social Dreaming.
In a matrix, the participants sit in an open arrangement of chairs, narrate their dreams, and offer associations and reflections. After each matrix, there is a brief dream reflection dialogue where insights from dreams are linked back to our everyday world. We are fortunate that the training director of the Social Dreaming Group, Angela Eden, will host these matrixes and lead the training experiences.
No previous experience is necessary to attend.
Cost per Saturday: £55 including vegetarian lunch
Please contact the office for Program and Booking Form on aja@dircon.co.uk or Tel: 020 77948711
FEBRUARY 2010
REMEMBERING THE ADLERS
EXPLORING OUR PAST AND LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Tuesday 2nd February 2010
OBITUARY
Hella Adler (1907-2009)
Hella Adler (nee Fromholz) was born in Berlin 21 May 1907, and died in London 19 August 2009, at the age of 102. Her long life was marked by trauma, confrontation and change. In a rare personal statement, which she read out at a meeting of the Association of Jungian Analysts (AJA) in the late Eighties in London, she described her childhood as ‘devastating’. At the same gathering she recounted how Erich Neumann had advised against publishing an account of the blows of those early years. Perhaps as a result of his counsel little detail is available, except that both her parents died early in her life. She had a younger sister, who died some years before her.
Hella married young, lived in Paris, and tried to write a novel. The marriage came to an amicable end and she returned to Berlin in the Thirties, where she met her second husband, Dr Gerhard Adler. They both travelled to Zurich, where she analysed with Emma Jung, from whom she ‘learnt simplicity and feeling’. Her work with Emma Jung, and her meetings with Toni Woolf, Aniela Jaffe, and Jung in these years shaped the rest of her life. At the age of twenty nine, in 1936, she left Berlin with Gerhard to avoid Nazi persecution.
They travelled to London, where their son Michael was born in 1939. During the war they moved to Oxford, staying at first with the anthropologist and Jungian analyst John Layard, whom they had met in Zurich. Hella continued to live in Oxford through the war years, where she gave birth to her daughter Miriam in 1944. She brought up the family while Gerhard commuted to London to continue his work in child guidance. After the war they moved to the North London suburb of Golders Green, and later bought a large, bomb-damaged house on the edges of Hampstead, which they renovated and where they spent the rest of their lives, bringing up their family and seeing patients.
Hella and Gerhard were founding members of the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP) in 1945. When Hella later participated in the Transference Group from 1953-54, a supervision project led by Dr Michael Fordham, her independence was already evident. She was described by Dr Fred Plaut as the only woman participant who was not a ‘symbolic daughter’ of Fordham, and he thought of her as a representative of the ‘Zurich school’. Jealousies over contact with Jung and differences over the psychoanalytic influence in London intensified over the years and created a rift between the Adlers and Fordham and some of his followers.
During the twenty five years when Gerhard was working on the English translation of Jung’s Collected Works with R.F.C. Hull, Dr Michael Fordham and Sir Herbert Read, Hella and Gerhard became friends with Read, who advised them on their growing collection of fine art, which included works by Braque, Degas, Rodin and Henry Moore. Hella and Gerhard continued to visit Zurich to sustain their contact with Jung, Toni Woolf, and Emma Jung. Hella remained an indispensable personal and professional support to Gerhard in the years when he was an active and influential figure in the international Jungian movement. She was among the founding members of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) in 1955.
Hella was a leading member of a group of analysts who grew concerned with the increasingly psychoanalytic orientation and the politics of the SAP and the consequences for candidate selection. The continuing professional differences between Hella and Gerhard and Michael Fordham contributed to the ensuing split. Hella, Gerhard and others established an alternative training group, AJA, in 1976. The seed of this endeavour, which took a long time to come to fruition, had been planted by Jung many years earlier, when he had asked E. A. Bennett to consider setting up a training in London that had a more singular focus on his ideas than he saw in the SAP.
Though Hella was now in her seventies she was deeply committed to this project, as it placed the ego’s relation to the Self, and the recognition of the numinous, at the centre of analytic work. Gerhard’s and her own increasing age resulted in her feeling under particular pressure to ensure the new group’s survival, which received a serious blow when a number of significant senior members left to establish the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists (IGAP) in 1982.
Hella was an intuitive, robust and creative analyst. Like many of her generation of analytical psychologists working in the classical tradition, she handled boundaries differently from today’s practitioners. Many who worked with her describe her with a mixture of affection, criticism and gratitude. She did not always keep group politics out of her work with trainees, and most remember her indiscretions as well as her analytic depth.
Hella was widowed in 1989, and continued to work for many years with notable resilience. She said she had internalised Gerhard and did not idealise him. Although some members of AJA encouraged her to leave a record of her work and ideas she did not publish. She continued to mull over the project of writing a childhood memoir but her lifelong hesitation persisted and she chose to let her story fade unrecorded. In her last decades she mused with friends and colleagues on why she was living so long, and speculated ironically it was because she still had something to learn. What she learnt, what she knew, and much of what she experienced will remain untold, at least in any public space.
But there are other spaces. In their own way, Hella and Gerhard were connected to their Judaism. At the end, both chose to keep the religious observance of entrusting their life stories to their rabbi, who listened under a vow of sacred confidence to each in turn as death approached, in keeping with the tradition they both shared.
Damien Doorley (with thanks to Jack Bierschenk, Antonia Boll, Catherine Bygott, Ann Casement, Adele Davide, Moira Duckworth, David Freeman, Carl Silverman, Shayne Spitzer, Martin Stone, Miriam Stone, and Susan Williams)
Other lives - Hella Adler
From the Guardian
Hella Adler obituary
Michael Adler
Thursday 19 November 2009
Hella Adler
My mother, Hella Adler, who has died aged 102, was one of the last of the generation of German refugees who were rightly called "Hitler's gift" to Britain. In 1936 she followed my father, Gerhard Adler, from Berlin to London, where they established our family and successful professional lives.
Hella became a Jungian analyst and, after an unhappy start in her own life, which had led to her being fostered at a very early age, came to represent through her work the Jungian archetype of the wounded person turned healer. With my father and other analysts, she founded the Association of Jungian Analysts in 1977, and also developed a flourishing personal practice.
She seemed able to juggle patients, children and household with skill, particularly when it came to cooking. Her traditional German meals gave me alifelong taste for oxtail, red cabbage and sticky cakes. Passover was always a tense occasion, as Hella felt that my father's lengthy recitation of the Seder service threatened the perfection of her matzo balls and chicken soup.
But although Jewish customs were preserved at home, my sister Miriam and I were sent to very English schools. Hella did not always appreciate the nuances of our school life. I remember being horrified and embarrassed when she appeared late at an important school cricket match just as I, the batsman, was clean bowled. Hella vociferously demanded that I be allowed to bat again.
Even though she may not have understood the rules of cricket, she was always enormously sympathetic and encouraged all our early ambitions. What more can a child ask than to have a loving parent who stimulates and nurtures self-belief and helps her children sustain their dreams? She did all of these things, and, with my father, introduced us to art and music, as well as the enjoyment of life through travel and exploration.
For many years Hella was a formidable intellectual leader of the Jungian professional group in this country and carried on her career well into old age. The family was amazed when she continued to see patients in her 90s.
My mother was a survivor of the worst holocaust in history, but also lived through profound cultural, linguistic and financial changes. Ialways admired how my parents tackled this together. They never felt they were owed anything. They worked hard, learned a new language, lifestyle and culture. They never ceased to be touched by the way they were received, acccepted and helped when they settled in Britain.
Hella was a woman of tremendous grit and bravery. Shortly before she died, she looked at me and, in her still noticeable German accent, said: "Michael, you won't live as long as me. You don't have my steel." She was probably right. She was bedridden for the last few years of her life, but enjoyed her four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
They survive him, along with Miriam and myself. Our father died in 1989.
HELLA ADLER
1907- 2009
In the late 50’s or early 60’s Jung asked A.E. Bennett to start an alternative, a more Jungian training, than the SAP gave in London. Dr. Bennet was himself too introverted to do this, so around 1975-76 Hella and Gerhard, with other analysts, started the Association of Jungian Analysts.
Hella was the mother of AJA. The dynamic energy at its centre. Like life in a growing family she worked with the ups and downs of the developing association, with the tensions, rebellions and separations that were lived out, however personally difficult it was for her. These are the stages an organization goes through to attain its independence and be established in the world.
She was unafraid to evoke the shadow and able to accept the negative that was put upon her when needed. I can think of no one else who could have done this. No matter the expense to herself, if it was good for the association and the promotion of Jung‘s ideas, it was OK. it was to be done.
We owe to her the nurturing of the psyche and the Eros at the centre of AJA. Hers was the difficult example of trying to follow the path of Individuation, and walk the middle way. Being true to the Self was what produced the glow at the heart of the organization. Without her energy AJA could not have been the centre of the psyche that it was when it started, and for some years to follow. She wouldn’t let it descend into Logos alone, where the light would have gone into the unconscious. Above all Hella protected the Eros alongside the Logos.
She nourished the ongoing revelations of the Self within the association, as she saw it, that was not always compatible with what the individual wanted. As an example of this I’d like to point out that when working with her, for AJA, one of her aims was the strengthening of the weak third or fourth function of the individual. It would be inevitable for Hella to set you a task that was difficult for you, that you didn’t want to do, that you were not very good at but was excellent for your personal develop, and thereby helped AJA.
In her analytic and Trainee work, she worked pointedly for the truthfulness of oneself as an analyst and as a supervisor.
She initiated wonderful parties with great food at Burgess Hill and later in the AJA premises where all the analysts brought their foods; homemade cakes and desserts, and plates piled high with smoked salmon and meats were some of the highlights that we enjoyed.
She brought us many eminent lecturers for Tuesday evenings and weekend conferences; from Jungian psychology, religion, myth, psychologists from other schools and people from other disciplines as well, who invoked the deep psyche, which filled the discussions in question times afterwards.
Today members of AJA serve internationally on committees, lecture, teach and publish. All these things could not have happened without Hella’s tough mindedness and her contribution to providing a safe centre where being who you are brings creativity and care into the world.
Adele Davide
(To read Gerhard Adlers Obituary 1989 please click here)
OVERSEAS MEMBER WORKSHOP
The Goddess Within — A Workshop in March 2010
A Workshop For Woman
MEET YOUR INNER GODDESS — Sunday March 21st 2010
With Joanne Spilios, Jungian Analyst
The AJA Summer School at Charney Manor 24-26 July 2009. - was a huge success. (to see report click here)
AJA Gallery
Viewing by appointment only: Monday-Thursday 10.30am - 5.30pm
Please contact AJA on Tel: 020 7794 8711 or Email: aja@dircon.co.uk
Exhibition of Photographs
By
Hilary Fenten
(click her for more details)
Town and Country
At AJA —7 Eton Avenue, NW3 3EL
18 January 2010 – 31 March 2010
PRIVATE VIEW: Sunday 17 January 2010
THEORY AND PRACTICE OF SUPERVISION
Jungian and Post Jungian Perspectives
with particular reference to becoming a Training Supervisor
This course runs periodically.
Future dates will be posted as soon as they are known.
For more details contact the AJA office.
Past Events at the Association of Jungian Analysts
Tuesday 1 December 2009 - 8.15pm at AJA
The Way of the Dream - Frazer Boa talking to Marie-Louise von Franz
Special Meeting Saturday 7th November 2009
'Liber Novus’: The Red Book of C. G. Jung
AJA joined other Jungian groups to sponsor the Special Meeting on Saturday 7th November 2009 at the Royal Society of Medicine where Sonu Shamdasani made a presentation on 'Liber Novus’: The Red Book of C. G. Jung, followed by a big party in the atrium of the RSM.
Monthly Meeting 3 November 2009
Cédric Bouët-Willaumez
‘From Silence to Dissonance, From Dissonance to Harmony’
Monthly Meeting 31st October 2009
Jules Cashford
CATHARSIS IN ANTIQUITY - An afternoon talk followed by tea
SOCIAL DREAMING MATRIX - March June and October 2009
Monthly Meeting 8th September 2009
Judy Parkinson
Thoughts on a Psychotherapist Coping During a Period of Physical Illness
Monthly Meeting 6th October 2009
Gottfried Heuer
“The Gospel of Judas” An Emerging Potential for World Peace? A Jungian Perspective.
Monthly Meeting Tuesday 2nd June 2009
Dr. Alex Esterhuyzen
Odysseus Descent to the Underworld - Signposts for men in search of themselves
Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 5th May 2009
Julienne McLean
Spiritual Pilgrims - Jung and St. Theresa of Avila
Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 3rd March 2009
Dr. Lavinia Byrne
Islam - A Challenge for our Times
Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 28th October 2008
Dr. David Hart (USA)
The Water of Life
Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 3rd June 2008
Ann Shearer
Themis and a Dream of Justice
Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 6th May 2008
Dr. Carola Mathers
Psychological Aspects of the Tarot: a Journey of Individuation
AJA Gallery November 2007 - February 2008
Reaching for Heaven: Delicately Balanced Words & Stones - Iona
An Exhibition of Recent Works by Gottfried Heuer
Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 4th March 2008
Chris Williams:
Minding the Gap - Touching Time with Winnicott and Lacan
AJA Gallery 17th September - 31st October 2007
Dru-gu Choegyal Rinpoche
'Let our world be filled with love'
Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 23rd October 2007, 8.15pm
Jules Cashford:
Film Showing: The Mystery of Jan Van Eyck
Monthly Meeting - Tuesday 2nd October 2007, 8.15pm
Dr Elya Steinberg (Humanistic Psychotherapy) & Dr Gottfried Heuer (Jungian Psychoanalyst)
"And Death Shall Have No Dominion" - Attending to the Silence
Groupwork with Members of the Post-Holocaust Generations
A Preliminary Report on a Work in Progress
Monthly Meeting 5th June 2007
Patricia Skar
The Goal as Process - Emergence in Music and Analysis.
Monthly Meeting 6th March 2007
Lyn Cowan
Seabiscuit - The Little Horse that Could, and Did, and Still Does.
For details please click here
Monthly Meeting 6th February 2007
Anne Young
Fairy Stories and the Disempowerment of Women: a Reconsideration of Jungian Interpretations of Female Figures.
Monthly Meeting 3rd October 2006
Alan Mulhern
The Spirit in Psychotherapy.
Monthly Meeting 12th September 2006
Dr Carola Mathers
The Battle for Deliverance from the Mother.
Monthly Meeting 6th June 2006
Warren Colman
The Analytic Super-ego
Monthly Meeting 7th February 2006
Phil Goss
From Image to Value; Nonsense or Common Sense.