Living in the Borderland
Healing the Split Between Psyche and Nature
A Two Day Residential Seminar with
Jerome S. Bernstein
Saturday August 30th – Monday September 1st 2008
Venue: The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, Nr Oxford www.theabbey.uk.com
This two day seminar is for therapists who wish to explore the concept of Borderland
consciousness and the Borderland personality. Group size is limited to 12 to facilitate an
intimate and in depth exploration together. A more detailed account of the areas we may
cover in the seminar is enclosed below.
Jerome Bernstein has been working as a Jungian analyst since 1974. He is author of: Living
in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and the Challenge of Healing Trauma.
(Routledge, 2005). In addition to his clinical practice, and concerned with many social issues,
he has been consultant to the President of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, and many teaching
and economic institutions in Washington D.C. See www.borderlanders.com
Enquiries and booking: Mary-Jayne Rust 020 8340 3353 or [email protected] Cost: £250 £220 early bird discount before June 25th Organisational rate: £300 Living in the Borderland:
Healing the Split between Psyche and Nature
Shortly before his death, Carl Jung wrote, “Through scientific understanding
our world has become dehumanized.....[Man’s] immediate communication with
nature is gone for ever....” (CW:18. Para. 585).
In my book, ‘Living in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and
the Challenge of Healing Trauma’ I suggest that the Western psyche’s immediate
communication with nature is not “gone for ever,” as Jung asserted, but is being
reconnected to nature as an evolutionary compensation in the name of protection
from species suicide and ecological genocide. One by-product of this evolutionary
process is what I call Borderland consciousness.
What does it mean when several people, unknown to each other and
geographically separated, have virtually the same dream(s) with the theme of the
ecology’s cry for help, where nature is speaking to the individual, where healing of
profound psychological wounding comes through direct experiences in nature and
with animals in ways that are not characteristic of traditional clinical practice?
Building on Jungian theory, I argue that a greater openness to transrational
reality experienced by Borderland personalities allows new possibilities for
understanding and healing confounding clinical and developmental conundrums.
There are many people whose experience of reality is outside the mainstream
of Western culture. Often they see themselves as abnormal because they have no
articulated frame of reference for their experience. The concept of the Borderland
personality explains much of their experience. With this new consciousness comes
implications for how we define reality, for differentiating the pathological from the
sacred, for clinical diagnosis and treatment, and for bridging the mind-body split.
This has implications for us all if, as I suggest, Borderland consciousness will be the
prevalent consciousness by the end of the current century.
‘Living in the Borderland’ is divided into three sections: Section One charts
the evolution of Western consciousness and its essential split from nature; Section
Two examines the psychological and clinical implications and Section Three looks at
how Borderland consciousness bridges the mind-body divide. My approach
challenges standard clinical models, which too often view normality as an absence of
pathology, equating normality with the rational, and abnormality with the
transrational. I describe how psychotherapy itself often contributes to the alienation
of many Borderland personalities by mis-diagnosing the difference between the
pathological and the sacred. I use case studies to illustrate the potential such misdiagnoses have for causing serious psychic and emotional damage to the patient.
Although I came to discover the Borderland personality and Borderland
consciousness in my clinical practice, as well as through my work with Navajo
medicine and religion, its increasing prevalence in Western culture as a whole is
becoming more evident. We see this in films such as, “E.T.,” “Passion in the
Desert”, and “Instinct,” among others, or even on the front page of the Week in
Review of The New York Times Newspaper in an article discussing the ethics of how
animals are slaughtered, with the observation that, ”These questions seem less
ridiculous than they once did.” If we are listening, and make space for those
connections in others, many people are ready to share similar sentiments. If, as
Jung observed, “our world has become dehumanized through [its] scientific
understanding” (CW:18. Para. 585) perhaps our salvation rests on a different kind of
understanding or consciousness.
Borderland personalities can be seen as the “canaries” in a suffocating world
who are giving articulation and incarnation to new cultural forms and psychological
dynamics that are connecting the Western psyche with nature from which it was
cleaved over three thousand years ago. Not only is this re-connection with nature
essential for our psychological and physical health and well-being on a collective as
well as individual basis, but the very survival of species Homo sapiens (“Wise man”)
may depend on our ability to understand and incorporate this consciousness
unfolding in our midst.
During this two-day seminar I will present case material to amplify the
theoretical discussions. All participants in the seminar are strongly
encouraged to bring their own case material, including dreams. Cases and
dreams with themes and symbols of nature are particularly relevant. The
seminar will be interactive with ample time for discussion and exploring ideas
and our work. Group size is limited to 12 to facilitate an intimate and in depth
exploration together.
We will focus on the following, time permitting:
o The concept of Borderland consciousness and the Borderland
personality
o The implications for our current concepts of normal, the pathological
and the sacred.
o How we can recognize Borderland personalities in our practice since
most tend to deliberately hide or camouflage this dimension of their
reality for fear of being labelled “crazy.”
o Borderland dreams and how the clinician can recognize them.
o Nature as a primary self-object, particularly in individuals who have
experienced childhood trauma and for whom the interpersonal
dimension of healing, and therefore the interpersonal dimension of the
transference, has been spoiled.
o Navajo Indian religion and medicine as an available source of wisdom in
forging a clinical bridge between the western psyche and nature. This
will include an analysis of the Navajo approach to healing, how
understanding the dynamics Navajo sandpainting ceremonies can
inform and amplify Jungian dream work, most particularly integrating
dream work on the body level with patients, and therein bridging the
mind-body split.
o The implications of amplifying clinical models in a culture which has no
extant indigenous culture or practice. Can this be done? How can it be
articulated? Can it be taught?
o Syndromes such as Environmental Illness, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
and some auto-immune problems defy full diagnosis and treatment. The
inclusion of nature as one etiological source, and as a resource for
treatment, is indispensable to working with individuals who suffer these
syndromes.
Jerome Bernstein May 2008
Living in the Borderland: Healing the Split Between Psyche and Nature
Booking Form
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Refunds:
before 31st July refund available of half full-price
after 31st July no refunds available
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