Personality as Path: Complexes as the Material of Transformation
What if the parts of our personality that cause us the most difficulty are not things to be feared or obstacles to individuation, but the very material through which our psyche unfolds?
C. G. Jung understood individuation as the lifelong realization of the person we are meant to be; i.e. the cultivation of the very essence of who we are. The process of individuation thus does not occur apart from our wounds, defences, projections, recurring relationship patterns, and complexes. It occurs through them. In this sense, personality itself becomes a path. Jung compared this inner way to the Tao, an underlying current within the psyche that moves toward its own unfolding.
Drawing on Jungian psychology, alchemical imagery, and the principle that "what is in the way is the way,” this lecture will explore complexes as the *prima materia* of psychological and spiritual transformation. Rather than approaching our conditioned patterns solely as problems to overcome, we will consider what they may be asking of us and where they may be attempting to lead.
Through the ideas of complexes, projection, teleology, and symbolic life, Christina Becker will explore how the difficulties that repeatedly constellate in our lives can reveal the unfinished work of the personality. Wewill explore how to change the nature of our questions: from "How do I get rid of this?” to "Who am I that this is happening to me, and what is seeking to become conscious through this experience?” Personality then becomes neither a fixed identity nor something to transcend, but the living material through which the soul moves toward greater consciousness, freedom, and wholeness.
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About the Speaker:
Christina Becker have been devoted to her individuation journey and to the practice of Jungian psychoanalysis for decades. Her midlife crisis in her late 30s called her to leave a successful nonprofit consulting career and a relatively good marriage to pursue training at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. Since 2002, she has had the privilege of accompanying fellow seekers in her private practice in Toronto.
She is on the faculty of the Toronto Art Therapy Institute and is a senior training analyst for the Inter-regional Society of Jungian Analysts.
Christina published, in 2004, The Heart of the Matter: Individuation as an Ethical Process, with Chiron Publications; a Jungian-based publisher based in Asheville, North Carolina. This book grew out of her experience with boundary violations in her therapy and her confrontation with the unconscious to find the heart of the ethical conversation. The publication has been deemed as one of the central contributions to the ethical conversation within the Jungian community.
She has also lectured for local Jungian community all over the world - Zurich Switzerland, Johannesburg, Calgary Alberta, Montreal, Quebec, New York, Tucson Arizona, to name a few. She has been featured as a guest on several podcasts: The Jungian Life, Speaking of Jung, and the Medicine Path. She has been interviewed as an expert in several documentaries on Jungian psychology, including “What is Synchronicity” a documentary by David Strabala.
Her presentations have been:
· Jung and Astrology
· The Archetype of Music
· Death: The Psychology of Transformation
· Befriend your Shadow and Find your Soul
· Personality as Path: Astrology and Individuation
In 2018, she established Soul Making Gatherings, an online platform for courses and experiential-based education. She has several online courses including:
· Transforming Shadow to Well Being and Meaning
· Fishing for the Soul-Wisdom
· The Robber Bridegroom: Balancing Mars Energy
· Inanna: Descent into Feminine Initiations
· Handless Maiden
· Befriend your Shadow and Find Your Soul
· Cosmos and Character: Personality as Path
Website: www.cjbecker.com
