“In spite of our proud domination of nature we … have not even learnt to control our own nature, which slowly and inevitably courts disaster.”
C.G. Jung (CW 18, par. 597)
Human history is a story of our growing further apart from nature to a place where collectively we now look upon our world as remote and inanimate, a resource existing solely to support our needs. The result of this worldview is perhaps most apparent in our radically changing climate system. Carl Jung recognized the perils of living a one-sided life separate from the natural world and, in his later years, spoke of the imperative to heal this split. In this presentation through the use of image and word, we will explore the psychological processes that have led to our split from the natural world and the current global environmental consequences of this split. We will then explore how Jungian psychology offers a pathway back to our reconnecting with the animate world.
Brief Biography:
Jeffrey Kiehl, Ph.D., M.A. is a Diplomate Jungian Analyst and a member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, the International Association for Analytical Psychology and a founding member of the C.G. Jung Institute of Colorado. He is also a senior climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and has worked on the issue of climate change for over thirty years. Jeffrey lives in Santa Cruz, CA and continues to teach at the C.G. Jung Institute of Colorado. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and at Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is the author of the book, Facing Climate Change: An Integrated Path to the Future, which provides a Jungian perspective on climate change.