Monthly Meetings

It was with a sense of intrigue that a large group of ZIWA ladies congregated in a special room of the Au Premier restaurant, on the first floor of the main station in Zurich for our monthly meeting.

It was a beautiful spring day, the tables were laid in readiness for our delicious lunch afterwards and our keynote speaker, Francisco Garcia made final preparations to deliver his talk on the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961).

Born in Kesswil in the canton of Thurgau, Jung began his career conventionally as a doctor and then trained as a psychiatrist. His life changed dramatically when he met Freud: these two giants, despite their differences, had a profound effect on each other and their ideas.

Jung was a prolific writer who became known as the, "Doctor of the soul." His works spanned psychology, psychiatry, politics, alchemy and religion filling a total of 18 volumes. Jung found that the personality we acquire through our upbringing is only a part of who we are. The centre of consciousness in an archetype of order is, the Self. This Self is who we become when all aspects of our personality merge together.

Analytical Psychology was the name Jung gave his particular branch of psychology to differentiate it from Freud's Psychoanalysis. Both men believed that the psyche has "sele" or soul in German.

The conscious mind is the part we know while the sub-consciousness is the deeper level that contains aspects of our mind that are repressed, suppressed or simply not noticed, including areas such as aggression and sexuality. It seems that repressed thoughts, feelings and memories may be forgotten but then appear in our dreams or fantasies.

Jung accepted Freud's ideas of this hidden psyche but thought it was the source of new ideas and creativity, which he called the "Personal Unconsciousness." Jung believed that if we are in touch with our unconsciousness we are not only in touch with our creative source but also with our, "Collective Unconsciousness." This is seen as a momentous occasion defined as a storehouse, the source and origins of symbols in our myths.

Garcia explained that people were drawn to Jung for various reasons: to cure problems that were blocking their progress in life, while others looked for self-realisation or Individuation.

During the second part of his exposé, Garcia went on to clarify some key Jungian concepts such as Individuation, the Persona, Ego, Anima and Animus and finally the Shadow.

To hi-light this final concept, Garcia recounted how in his own experience he had never had the opportunity to develop the artistic side of his personality. In his neighbourhood, boys of his background were not encouraged to appreciate art. Thus it wasn't until many years later when he moved to Switzerland that he began to paint.

We quickly learn from an early age that many of our biological urges or impulses such as hatred or jealousy are not wanted. In its place, we may learn guilt and shame and thus we learn not to express certain behaviours in order to fit into society. Without a "cleaned up" persona, society would not work.

Moreover, according to Jung, if we are not aware of our negative qualities we will project them onto others. Hence, when we have a strong reaction towards someone thinking how much we hate them, is may be possible that there is something in these individuals that we have unknowingly within ourselves.

At this point questions and comments were invited from the floor. After such thought-provoking ideas, some of us considered this shadow concept, instantly calling to mind our least favourite individuals. Could we really share more with them than we had thought? We were left with the final thought that our life is a process of self-learning.

And on that note chatter filled the room as we began to tuck into our delicious three-course meal!