Jungians have long been interested in film as expressions of unconscious processes, especially with reference to archetypes, mythology and projection.
Most recently (June 2011) editors Christopher Hauke and Luke Hockley had their book Jung and Film II: The Return published.
In the book various authors explore the way in which psychological issues come under scrutiny in film. Part I looks at Image and Psychotherapy; Part II: Image and Theory; Part III: Image, Type and Archetype. (Published by Routledge)
Now Jungian psychotherapist Daniel Ross will be considering the highly successful film Black Swan.
Referring to both Carl Jung and Nina in terms of their individual Magnum Opus, Ross evokes the central image of alchemy, the Opus or Work. The Magnum Opus is the Great Work. As alchemists engaged in the sacred work of searching for the supreme and ultimate value, so we as individuals are engaged in our own sacred work of transformation, what Jung termed the individuation process.
“The Black Swan is a wonderful example of how art can reflect both the unconscious processes of the individual as well as those of the collective” (Asheville Jung Centre).
This internet seminar will explore the archetypal elements of the film, including the archetype of the double or ‘other’ and the archetype of the shadow. Its mythological references will also be considered.
Seminar leader Daniel Ross will then seek to draw comparisons between Jung’s confrontation with the unconscious, with particular reference to The Red Book, and that of Nina, the young ballerina who plays the swan queen in Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake.
“Pressurised by the ballet company director to embrace an aspect of her nature that will allow her to play both the white and the black swans, Nina descends into a frightening and exhilarating realm of suspicion, betrayal, lust and passion as she confronts her unlived life, both the tyranny of her mother as well in fulfillment of her destiny“.
Brief outline of Black Swan presentation:
Aronofsky’s Magnum Opus – Origins of Idea
Dostoyevsky’s The Double
Swan Lake Ballet
Film Influences Red Shoes, Repulsion
Convergence of film genres: art, horror and psychological thriller
Mythological Amplification
Psychology of Kore, Persephone and Demeter
Mythology of Lilith, the first woman rejected by Adam
Fairy Tales – Rapunzel, Inuit Tale of Sedna
Shadow-work as apprentice-piece and Anima-work as master-piece
Jung’s Red Book and the Black Swan
Alchemy of the Black Swan
Coniunctio of ego and shadow
Monstrum as result of lesser coniunctio
Nigredo, albedo and rubedo
Nina’s Magnum Opus
To read the Asheville Jung Centre’s earlier Jungian analysis of Black Swan, A Film’s Descent into Darkness, please click here
Join the seminar on Fri 26 August by clicking here
If you would like to enquire about undertaking a Jungian analysis or psychotherapy in London, please click here
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