Jung as Philosopher

Gelareh Khoie, MA

Summer 2024

The Greek word “philosophy” is composed of two smaller words: philo, meaning “the love of” and sophia, meaning “wisdom.” These terms have long, storied, and profound mythic resonances, particularly where the notions of wisdom, per se, and intimations of the divine feminine godhead converge. Indeed, in ancient Greece, the philosopher and the spiritual practitioner in search of God were the same person.

So what does this have to do with the famous Swiss psychiatrist and so-called father of the New Age movement, C. G. Jung? Whereas Jung’s enormous body of work is typically studied through the lens of psychology, or more specifically, Analytical Psychology, in this course, we will explore Jung as a philosopher, which is to say, as a lover of wisdom, as a lover of specifically feminine wisdom.

In paragraph after paragraph of his writing, Jung repeatedly references the existence of a numinous entity that he called the Objective Psyche, or the Collective Unconscious. For him, this numinous entity is inherently creative and inherently feminine. It stands in opposition to the willful ego, challenges it at every step, and modulates its development, or individuation.

In this foundational course, students will learn to engage with the C. G. Jung whom Peter Kingsley claims modern Jungians have abandoned and betrayed (ouch!). Perhaps in their attempts to legitimize an empirical psychology, modern practitioners of analytical psychology feel a need to distance themselves from the explicitly religious and esoteric dimensions of Jung’s work. However, it is the view of some of his fans that Jung’s work cannot be divorced from this integral formative ground without suffering serious setbacks.

Therefore in this course, we will study Peter Kingsley’s Catafalque, Jung’s Liber Novus, the Collected Works of C. G. Jung, and other seminal texts to discover for ourselves what Jung meant when he insisted that the Psyche is real.

Born in Tehran, Iran, Gelareh Khoie is an artist, writer, scholar, and DJ. Her award-winning artwork has been widely exhibited in group and solo exhibitions. She has curated multi-media art exhibitions and creative arts and live music events, and she founded and operated a multi-media venue called thirtyninehotel in Honolulu. She has lectured and taught courses in Jungian Psychology, Dream Analysis, Mythology, Fairytales, and spiritual practices at College of Marin, Pacifica Extension, and in private tutorship. She holds a BFA in painting and art history from the San Francisco Art Institute and two MAs in depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is currently completing her doctoral dissertation.

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