JOURNEYS THROUGH UNDERWORLDS: Exiles, Traumas, Redemptions, a course by Mark Napack

Course

Five Alternate Mondays

September 16, 30, October 14, 28, November 11

Exile and trauma in the outer world; exile and trauma in the inner world. There remains yet a possibility of a healing recovery, a true redemption, of that which has been consigned to the underworlds of exile and trauma.

Drawing on the psychological work of Jungian analyst Donald Kalsched, we shall explore the underworld journeys of human existence as expressed archetypally in the myths of Orpheus, Demeter and Persephone, the classic underworld tales of Aeneas, Odysseus, and Dante, dreams themselves, and The Wizard of Oz. Our goal will be to gain felt insights from these journeys in order to come through to belonging in the world with greater wholeness.

Class format will be presentation, discussion, suggested readings and film.

Donald Kalsched, Trauma and the Soul: A Psycho-Spiritual Approach to Human Development and its Interruption.

Dante, Inferno.

Homer, The Odyssey, (Book XI).

Virgil, The Aeneid, (Book VI).

Jean Cocteau, Orpheus (Film).

The Wizard of Oz (Film).

Mark Napack, M.A., S.T.L., M.S., studied archetypal patterns in comparative literature at Columbia University, after which he applied Jungian theory to the redemption motif in medieval theology for his thesis at Fordham University.  He further studied Jung, psychology, and the history of religion at Loyola and Catholic Universities.  A long-time graduate and college instructor, Mark has presented at international conferences and his work has appeared in scholarly journals and books in English and French. Mark Napack, LCPC, is also a Jungian informed psychotherapist in North Bethesda, MD.