Publisher's Synopsis
This volume ensues from the 9th Jungian Odyssey retreat, inspired by Grindelwald, a village lying in a green hollow high within the Bernese Alps. As training analysts and scholarly guests of the International School of Analytical Psychology, the authors address students, clinicians, and all others with interest in C.G. Jung. The (in)famous trio of mountains that commands the historic retreat locale could tell of climbers who risked their lives ascending to formidable heights-some to successful ends and others failing tragically. Grindelwald itself became a literal cauldron of violent change in 1892, when it was nearly decimated by fire. Invoking the genius loci, Polly Young-Eisendrath proposes, "Our inherent brokenness provides a primary way to embrace our imperfect species and the imperfect world on which we depend." The authors generally agree that, as a collective, we are bent on Icarus-like heights, prone to follow the hubristic ego. How might we learn to renunciate success? For all the shame involved, can we grasp failure as the need for a paradigm shift? Explorations ensue from case work in the analytic consulting room, from field work with refugees, from history, myth, fairy tale, and even mountaineering itself. Ultimately readers of this volume are invited to consider that, "life has to be undone, and one often gets to truth through error. . . . So be human, seek understanding, seek insight . . ." -C.G. Jung
