Inside Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Select Wednesdays from August 26th, 2026 - February 3rd, 2027

7:00 - 9:30 p.m.

Since its publication, after Jung’s death in 1961, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (MDR) has been read and re-read, both as a means to better understand Jung’s own individuation process, and, equally importantly, as a comprehensive treatment of the evolution of the field of Analytical Psychology.

Kept outside of the Collected Works and referred to by Jung as “Aniela Jaffe’s project,” Jung himself contributed several chapters, but chiefly participated in a long and difficult interview process (1957-1959) by which Aniela Jaffé, his trusted colleague, ultimately would provide this singular text with both its structure, tone, and content. As far as capturing the essence of Jung’s life and the core teachings of Analytical Psychology, it simply stands unrivaled in the literature.

In this 8-part lecture/seminar intensive, we will approach MDR as an ur-text in the field of Jungian studies. Participants are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned chapters. Upon enrollment, a syllabus will be provided along with a list of biographies of Jung, numbering now over 20. Each participant will be encouraged to select at least one to read along with our primary text. We will also be reading the recently published text, Jung’s Life and Work: Interviews for Memories, Dreams, Reflections with Aniela Jaffe. Edited by Sonu Shamdasani, who also edited Jung’s Red Book, this book contains the “protocols,” upon which MDR was based. Several new, discounted copies of this book are available for purchase at the Library.

Limited space remaining. Pre-registration is required.

Facilitator: Angelo Spoto

Location: The Library

Time: 7:00 - 9:30 p.m.

Free Reading Discussion ~ September 3rd Paracelsus the Physician (CW 15)

Concluding a lecture titled Paracelsus al Arzt, delivered to the Swiss Society for the History of Medicine and the Natural Sciences on September 7th 1941, Jung concludes, ”I shall be content if I have succeeded in giving you at least a few impressions of the strange personality and the spiritual force of the celebrated physician whom his contemporaries rightly named the 'Luther of medicine.' Paracelsus was one of the great figures of the Renaissance, and one of the most unfathomable. For us he is still an enigma, four hundred years afterwards.

Jung was struck by the recurrence of alchemical symbols in his patients’ dreams and theorised that the symbolic language of alchemy was an expression of innate but unconscious psychological processes. He related alchemy to the psyche in the same way that Paracelsus, centuries prior, had to physiology. The extensive writings of the alchemists, and particularly Paracelsus among others, helped to ground Jung’s psychological discoveries in recorded lived experience across many centuries, anchoring his groundbreaking hypothesis of the collective unconscious and the process of “individuation.”

Date: September 3rd

Location: The Library at River Hills

Time: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Free Reading Discussion ~ October 1st

Jung and Politics

by Volodymyr Walter Odajnyk

Jung never wrote a treatise that systematically defines the implications of his psychological theories for politics. His views on the subject are dispersed throughout his works, although a number of books and essays are closely concerned with politics, either explicitly or by implication and logical extension. Hence, this book represents a compilation of those of Jung’s ideas that have political and/or social implications, gleaned from the voluminous writings on various subjects, a comparison of those ideas with Freud’s, and a consideration of just what Jung’s ideas imply for the social and political questions.

Join the C.G. Jung Library reading discussion group as we consider, from this author’s perspective, Jung’s views on politics, politicians, and the forces that lie beneath mass movements in the collective.

Date: October 1st

Location: The Library at River Hills

Time: 7-9 p.m.

Guest Presentation by Sheri Kling, Ph.D.: Inanna Imaginalis: Dying and Rising in Story and Song ~ October 15th

From the stories of Jonah in the belly of the whale or Persephone in the Underworld to Star Wars, The Matrix and Lord of the Rings, the journey to individuation and wholeness always includes a stop in wilderness places we’d rather not visit. But sometimes we don’t have a choice. And whether it’s divorce, illness, or any of life’s darkest challenges, sometimes the events in our lives place us firmly on that path through the dark woods.But what if that path is one we might welcome? Once we walk it, we learn that it’s like the journey of the chrysalis as it makes its way from caterpillar to butterfly, which, surprisingly involves something called “imaginal” cells. These cells – like the seeds of our own new ideas – are first attacked by the caterpillar’s immune system, but then as their numbers increase, they begin to gather together and form the frequencies of the future butterfly.

This music-laced presentation uses the ancient Sumerian wisdom story of the Descent of Inanna as the backdrop for a personal journey through the wilderness. Drawing on Jungian wisdom woven with uplifting music and personal experience, Dr. Sheri Kling shows us that the story never ends in the darkness. And just like the caterpillar, if we are willing to see the process through the murky “soup” of those “imaginal cells,” we will emerge as a beautiful butterfly, reborn into new life.

Date: Thursday, October 15th

Location: The Franciscan Center (3010 N. Perry Ave.)

Time: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Gift With Membership ~ Video Lecture: The Life & Work of C.G. Jung

The Library is pleased to offer members this comprehensive introductory lecture as a complimentary gift in appreciation of your membership and support. This course is Module 1 of a 12-part video lecture series: Encountering the Psyche: Fundamental Concepts in Analytical Psychology, presented by Library Education Director, Angelo Spoto.