CONJUNCTION OF OPPOSITES
A presentation with psychological commentary on the American election and polarized politics by
T.C.R. Wilkes, BSc, MB, ChB; MPhil; DCH; FRCP (Edin); FRC Psych; F.R.C.P.(C); DLFAPA; IAAP; Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary; Consulting Child, Adolescent, Family Psychiatrist & Analyst
LECTURE: Friday, November 15, 2024 7-9 PM
SEMINAR: Saturday, November 16, 10 AM-1 PM
St. Lawrence Anglican Church
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness visible.
CG JUNG CW Vol 13. para 335.
About Chris Wilkes
Born in the UK, Dr. Wilkes received his medical training in Edinburgh, followed by internships and residencies in pediatrics and psychiatry in England and Scotland. Faced with a lengthy ‘waiting-in-line’ to accede to a specialist position he was advised to acquire experience in the colonies and decamped to Canada. He has been practicing in Alberta since 1987, first in Lethbridge and then, since 1990, in Calgary, where he maintained a clinical adolescent psychiatric practice and an academic position at the University of Calgary. He completed his Jungian training through OAJA in 2015 and serves on the faculty of the OAJA analyst training program. Just prior to his retirement as Department Chair in Adolescent and Child Psychiatry, Dr. Wilkes was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Service by the Alberta Medical Association in 2022. Although retired from administrative and academic duties he continues to devote 3 days weekly as consultant to a number of outpatient adolescent mental health facilities.
Seminar
Saturday, November 16, 2024 10AM – 1 PM
“Since it is universally believed that man is merely what his consciousness knows of itself, he regards himself as harmless and so adds stupidity to iniquity.’.
The Undiscovered Self, CG Jung, 1958
Yes...we do live in interesting times and now more than ever we should be mindful of old Greek mythic tradition to listen to the oracle’s advice at Delphi, “ to know they self.”
We live in “times of great alienation and division” - some might say polarization - as is evidenced by the US electoral process and especially in the recently televised debate between Harris and Trump. In fact, neither the political right nor left likes the unconscious. Both prefer the shadow, the rejected self, to be projected onto the scape goat.
With the decline of the grand narratives in the west of objective reality, knowledge of our human nature and the importance of the hierarchy of our values, including religion, our liberal democratic traditions are collapsing, resulting in what we call the meta-crisis. There is now a vacuum of values and a break down of social harmony with unprecedent violence and an epidemic of mental health problems. We have seen a power grab by the different ideological movements based on power and social construction. We see our institutions convulsing under the dominant ideologies that are illiberal and repressive movements, often under the name of diversity, inclusion and equity (DIE).
Identity politics, inter-sectionality, and the social justice movement each promote their unique sense of victimhood and cultural oppression through indoctrination rather than education through viewpoint diversity. Now the naïve idealist lives in an altered reality of the fantasy land industrial complex which promotes pure subjectivity over objectivity. People now truly believe and act as if their opinions and feelings are just as true as facts. Unfortunately, polarized emotions shatter rational discourse and disagreeable facts are not allowed to penetrate the fragile Ego, which becomes like a fortress self defended by the light and dark angels. Defensive outrage which blocks out healthy guilt, grief, remorse or sadness and shame becomes the norm.
There has been a break down of a shared public reality. We now have epistemic tribalism regarding facts. Opinions and feelings have now been regarded as equal to facts. Factual truth is an option, consensus reality is now based on popularism. Factual or objective truth is denied or distorted by magical thinking. We have radical egalitarianism and humanitarianism rather than liberal science based on fallibilism and empiricism.
How are we to navigate these challenging times and can depth Psychology help us. I believe so, and C.G. Jung, Donald Kalsched, and James Hollis, and Iain McGilchrist all provide some valuable insights into our dilemma by inviting us to embrace the complexio oppositorum and endure both the lesser and greater coniunctio.
