What is the Religious Function of the Psyche?
Presented by
Barney Prentice, MD

Jung uses the term "religious function" on a number of occasions in his writings, but never formally defines it.  An attempt to clarify what Jung might have had in mind in his use of this term led me into an exploration of his writings about the methodology of analytical psychology, the psychology of religion, and the central roles of archetypes and symbols in psychic life.  The focus of this presentation is to provide a deeper understanding of these elements of analytical psychology in hopes of formulating a clearer sense of what constitutes the religious function of the psyche.

Barney Prentice, MD, is a Jungian analyst and Board Certified Neurologist in private practice in Santa Monica.  He currently serves as Treasurer at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles.

The Role of Alchemy in Jung's Analytical Psychology
Presented by
Paul Gabrinetti, PhD

For Jung, the symbolic study of alchemy provided a model for viewing the autonomy of the unconscious and the transformation of the personality.  This lecture will provide a brief history of his work, while grounding and illustrating these ideas with clinical interactions and real life processes.  In this talk we will describe and name the psychological process that moves toward its own goal within a person's psychological development, we will recognize the autonomous nature of the unconscious as it manifests in clinical material and finally explore the application of this material in life and clinical practice.

Paul Gabrinetti, PhD, is a Jungian analyst and clinical psychologist on the faculty in the Analyst Training Program at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles and is a former instructor at the University of Southern California.  He is in private practice in Woodland Hills.

The Magic and Mystery of Synchronicity
Presented by
Michael Gellert, LCSW

Synchronicity, one of Jung’s most intriguing and controversial concepts, flies in the face of linear science and has its roots in the ancient notion of the "sympathy of all things" or "things happening together."  We will explore this concept in the light of depth psychology and modern science, focusing on meaningful coincidences, precognitive and other paranormal experiences, and the relation between time, space, and the unconscious.  In this talk we will explore how the unconscious can operate outside the laws of causality according to what Jung called a "psychically relative space-time continuum," we will appreciate the numinosity of the unconscious as it manifests through paranormal phenomena, and we will reappraise ancient systems of divination such as the I Ching in context of the principle of synchronicity.

Michael Gellert, LCSW, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Los Angeles and Pasadena, and former Director of Training of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles.  He is the author of Modern Mysticism, The Fate of America, and The Way of the Small.