“My Method Is No Method”: The “Radical” Nature of Jungian Psychology - Lecture presented by John Hoedl
Jung’s personal life experiences and subsequent theoretical insights into the human soul taught him to be sceptical of any kind of methodology when it came to psychology, including therapeutic work. He thought that treating patients according to a specific theoretical system, including even his own, tended to result in the system taking precedence over the patient and their particular circumstances. Besides, theories were “the very devil!” he wrote. This lecture will look at some of Jung’s ideas about the soul, why his perspective made him wary of theoretical traps, and how this made his psychology truly for and about the “soul”.
About the Speaker:
John Hoedl hails from the northern Alberta Peace Country and grew up working on the family farm. He attended the Grande Prairie Regional College and then transferred to the University of Alberta where he finished a degree in Physical Education. He then switched gears to the field of child and youth care, and for a number of years worked in group homes and a residential treatment centre for children and youth. He subsequently received a Masters in Counselling Degree from Gonzaga University, Spokane before moving to Switzerland to train at the C.G. Jung Institute. He graduated in 2006, moved back to Edmonton, and has had a private practice since then.
John is a past president of the Western Canadian Association of Jungian Analysts as well as the current president and founding member of the International Society for Psychology as the Discipline of Interiority.
He has published two articles in the Journal of Analytical Psychology including, “The alchemical ‘not’ and Marlan’s stone that remains a stone”, as well as a chapter in the book tiled Psychology as the Discipline of Interiority: The Psychological Difference in the work of Wolfgang Giegerich published by Routledge. He has lectured internationally, including the last three IAAP Congress in Kyoto, Vienna, and most recently (via zoom) in Buenos Aires.