Coniunctio, a coming together, a meeting of opposites, a reconciliation. Is it possible? What will it take to enable, support and encourage such a process in a still predominantly patriarchal--thus, non-relational--culture? In this lecture, we will uncover a feminine potential which exhibits the subtleties that too often get squelched in an extraverted, concretizing world. From "The Raven" to Jane Austen, from Colette to the Indigo Girls, we will address a deep hunger in our culture that has not yet been satiated. The challenge is to envision civil rights and equal rights as much as an intrapsychic and interpersonal issue as it has been a political one, to strive for a deep respect and valuing of the Other.
Through creative exercises and discussion, we will have an opportunity to look at the opposing forces in our own lives, allowing both sides to speak, trusting that something new can be born from the two.
Virginia Apperson, M.N., R.N., C.S., is a Jungian analyst who has worked in a variety of psychiatric settings ranging from an inpatient adolescent chemical dependency unit to psychiatric consultation-liaison work in an inner city hospital to an outpatient eating disorders clinic. Her interest in finding ways to tap into the depths of her clients' and her own creative potential drew her to analytical psychology and eventually led her to training at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. She is currently in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia.