11.13.25 | Guest Lecturer (HYBRID EVENT): Dr. Michael Conforti: The Voice of Psyche and What Shapes a Life ~ The Presence of Archetypes in our Life and in Dreams

“If (one) devotes (oneself) to the instructions of one’s own unconscious, it can bestow this gift of renewal, so that suddenly life, which has been stale and dull, turns into a rich unending inner adventure, full of creative possibilities.” Marie-Louise von Franz

It is the brilliance and inherent spirituality of Jung and von Franz that continues to shape our life.  This way of life calls us to realize that so many of our choices and desires emerge and belong to an innate, archetypal order of life that has shaped humanity since the beginning of time.  Elie Wiesel echoes this point when writing; “There is divine beauty in learning … To learn means to accept … that life did not begin at my birth.  Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps.  The books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples.  I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests.  And so are you.”

This speaks to the universality of life and when understood, allows us to transcend the limitations of personal bias, projection, and a life lived estranged from The Self.  Hopefully with aging and maturity we further this confluence of ego and Self, and learn how to live in relationship to the transpersonal nature of life.

Maturity calls for us to relax our cherished and all too personal biases about life.  It was Jung’s greatest hope for humanity to honor the Reality of the Psyche and to live a Symbolic Life.  Here we ask very different questions, such as: With whom and with what have we fallen in love with, or now want to get away from? What is it that we believe will be meaningful in building a better life?  We are often unable to recognize the Voice of the Self and the Voice of the “demons.”  To remain unaware of the difference creates a terribly comprised life.  We do well to follow the lead of those old salts — those experienced sailors who have learned the ways of the sea.  This is the life Jung, von Franz and all the sages and dreamers before them understood.

The Library welcomes guest lecturer Dr. Michael Conforti, a Jungian analyst and the Founder/ Director of the Assisi Institute. Dr. Conforti is a faculty member at the C.G. Jung Institute of New York and Boston, and for many years served as a Senior Associate faculty in the Doctoral and Master’s Programs in Clinical Psychology at Antioch New England.  A pioneer in the field of matter-psyche studies, for more than 40 years, Dr. Conforti has been actively investigating the workings of archetypal fields and the relationship between Jungian psychology and the New Sciences.
    He has presented his work to a wide range of national and international audiences, including the C.G. Jung Institute-Zurich and Jungian organizations in Austria, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia, South Africa, the Ukraine and Venezuela.
   He is the author of Threshold Experiences: The Archetype of Beginnings (2007) and Field, Form and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature and Psyche (2002), and his articles have appeared in Psychological Perspectives, The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, Roundtable Press, World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, and Spring Journal.  His books have been translated into Italian, Russian, and Spanish.

The Library is pleased to offer our first hybrid event!  This lecture will be held IN-PERSON and by ZOOM for remote registrants.  Choose between ticket options below.  Zoom links will be shared immediately upon registeration for virtual ticket holders.  A recording will be made available for all registrants for 30 days following the event. Please contact info@jungtampa.org with questions.

Lecture guests are warmly invited to register for Dr. Conforti’s Saturday, November 15th workshop: Dreams: Lifting the Veil to the Ineffable. The workshop is an IN-PERSON only offering. Members receive a discount!