43rd Annual Jungian Conference

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Borderland Consciousness:  Climate Change and the Western Psyche  

Special Guest Speaker
Jerome Bernstein, MAPC, NCPsyA

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link to audio file

 

SATURDAY,  May 19th,  2018    10:00 AM  ~  5:00 PM

 

The Global Warming Crisis is the result of the Western psyche's dissociation from nature and the spirit dimension of life.  With the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Western humanity left behind a form of consciousness that is still in evidence among Native peoples.  This consciousness is now manifesting on a collective level as what Jerome Bernstein calls "Borderland Consciousness," an evolutionary compensation for Western man's overspecialized Dominion ego.

Borderland consciousness first came to Jerome Bernstein's attention while working in a clinical capacity, but over time he noticed it as an emerging paradigm within the Western collective itself.  It is his concern that our survival as a species literally depends on making this unconscious evolutionary process in the Western psyche conscious.  The Western ego's pathological resistances to Borderland consciousness reflect a suicidal dynamic in our collective psyche and, in this regard, Jungian theory is indispensable in its treatment.

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Course objectives:

 

• Explain what Borderland consciousness is, both among Native peoples and in a clinical capacity. 

• Describe the Western psyche's dissociation from nature and its connection to the global warming crisis. 

• Understand how Borderland consciousness has been emerging within the Western collective. 

• Explain the relevance of Jungian theory to treating resistances to Borderland consciousness.

 

Jerome Bernstein, MA, NCPsyA, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is a Diplomate of the American Psychotherapy Association.  He is the author of Living in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and the Challenge of Healing Trauma and Power and Politics: The Psychology of Soviet–American Partnership.  He lectures internationally on the dynamics of Borderland Consciousness and the Global Warming Crisis.

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