This presentation will be about animals -- not the animal as endangered specie or as pet, but the animal within our psyche; the way we give birth to them within our souls, the way they give birth to us.
The focus of this lecture will be on the waterbird as it flies free across the waters, away from the known to the world beyond. In a man's dream a flock of geese suddenly becomes airborne, inspiring him to chance an artistic career. A duck in a drawing fetches a woman trapped on dry land and swims with her on its back into the waters, and for the first time she finds she is able to love. In a Japanese fairy tale, a man rescues a crane; in gratitude, this non-human female transforms herself into a woman and marries him.
If we listen to what the animals tell us, we could develop a more trusting relation to the process of life's unfolding, a more spontaneous and playful attitude, and a more intuitive feel for choices and decisions.
Workshop: Saturday, February 13, 1999, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.In this workshop, Dr. Russack will draw from clinical examples to present some more general information about animals and what psychological meaning they carry for us, from both an historical and his own magical perspective. Time permitting, he will present two additional animals in more depth -- the snake and the horse.
To learn about preregistering for the workshop, see Preregistration Policy and Form.
Neil Russack, M.D., is a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, a member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco as well as assistant clinical professor in psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He is currently in private practice in San Francisco. The material to be presented in this lecture represents a chapter of a book in progress.