LITERATURE + LECTURES

The Jung Center of Houston presents Living the Unlived Life.  How do we deal with regret and frustration about the lives we didn't lead, the choices we didn't make, the potentials we didn't fulfill? Jerry Ruhl explores how symbols can connect us to the deeper unity beneath these seeming conflicts and transform our lives.

Lecture:  Midlife: Crisis or Opportunity? Friday, August 7, 7:30 - 9 pm
What is unlived life? We can hear its distant drumbeat in our inward mutterings about what we would have, could have, or should have done. It arises in mysterious longing or unexpected grief that often becomes pronounced at midlife. We all carry with us a vast inventory of unlived life. No matter how full our lives are, there are significant experiences that have been closed to each of us. For everything we choose, something remains unchosen. In this lecture, we will explore how the promptings and callings of the unlived life are an invitation to consciousness: an expansion of our vision and our capacity to embrace the full measure of our being.

The Symbolic Life: Reconciling Life's Contradictions, Saturday, August 8, 10 am - 4 pm (1.5 hour lunch break)
Could we get through life without feeling divided? Every day, we are faced with innumerable decisions, small and large. Contradictions can tie us in knots. Inherently, everything that human beings experience consciously is brought to us in pairs of opposites. This workshop explores how, when we allow both sides of any issue to exist in equal dignity and worth, a synthesis is possible, bringing new insight, meaning, and potential in our lives.

We’ll draw on the wisdom of the ancient Greek myth of Castor and Pollox, the twin stars of the Gemini constellation, as an image of the unity that exists behind every duality. Unified in their childhood, this pair came to be separated, fragmentary, and miserable. One is mortal, the other divine. Only after much struggle are they reunited. Their story can serve as a prototype and navigation point for all humans on the path to wholeness.

This workshop includes lecture, discussion, and activities for reflection.

Jerry M. Ruhl, PhD, is an author, psychologist, and executive director of The Jung Center. With Robert A. Johnson, he is the co-author of Living Your Unlived Life (2007), Contentment (1999), and Balancing Heaven and Earth (1998).

Click here to register online for the Friday night lecture "Midlife: Crisis or Opportunity?"
Click here to register for the Saturday morning workshop "The Symbolic Life".

If you prefer, you can call The Jung Center at 713.524.8253 to register for this event. You can also click here to download a registration form - fill it out and fax or mail it to us.