This lecture will try to convey how creative writing can not only be an expression of the writer’s depth psychological work but also can be an essential accompaniment for a deeper satisfaction and understanding of oneself. Creating fiction, for example, can be a form of active imagination that renders a kind of healing power to the imaginary characters vis-à-vis the author and hopefully the readers as well. 

I shall use my novel Professor Hamilton’s Passage to India (Chiron, 2022) to illustrate these realizations and observations. My own personal journey of self-exploration went hand-in-hand with my writing passion via an unconscious synchronistic event that remained unknown to the ego for many years until a life-threatening trauma made it conscious. My analytical training and creative writing enriched each other immensely.

NOTE: Reading the book ahead of the class is highly recommended. Here is a link for purchasing it:

https://chironpublications.com/shop/professor-hamiltons-passage-to-india/

Manisha Roy, Ph.D, I.A.A.P., was born in the northeastern border of India in a small town on the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. She was trained as a geographer and psychological anthropologist at the Universities of Calcutta, Chicago, and California and finally as a Jungian analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, Switzerland, where she also taught anthropology at Zurich University for eight years. Dr. Roy has been at the faculty of the C.G. Jung Institute of New England for 40 years and has a private practice in Cambridge, MA. She has lectured all over the world and published extensively. In addition to 40 articles, her 12 books include two novels, two short story collections, three memoirs, two non-fiction and three co-edited anthologies. She writes in two languages.