November 18, 2022 Lecture: Charles Morse ARCHIVED
The Center Cannot Hold: Archetypal Insights from the 1930’s American Dustbowl and the Desertification of Soil and Psyche by Charles Morse
at 7-9 pm (Pacific) at Stan Hagen Theatre, North Island College, Courtenay BC
About this Event
JUNGIAN LECTURE: The Center Cannot Hold: Archetypal Insights from the 1930’s American Dust Bowl and the Desertification of Soil and Psyche
by Charles Morse
What Jung, myth, neurobiology, and a 20th-century catastrophe can teach us about psychological and ecological resilience in the age of climate change.
Jungian psychology has rarely turned its gaze towards agriculture; by far the dominant human activity and preoccupation of the past 10,000 years, and yet we remain largely ignorant of agriculture’s shadow. Charles Morse explores the catastrophe of the 1930’s American Dust Bowl through an archetypal lens and suggests that the advent of agriculture inadvertently contributed to the unleashing of the Titanic forces of the psyche – a propensity towards expansion, excess, control, and hubris. Agriculture, like the psyche, must consciously embrace balance, moderation, diversity, and constraint and learn to contain inherent Titanic drives, lest it tear apart and pulverize the very soil upon which all terrestrial life depends. He presents the Dust Bowl story as a cautionary, mythic enactment of the failure to contain Titanism and the consequent exile of Dionysus, the god who evokes moisture, communion, and life force.
This event is an in-person lecture held at the Stan Hagen Theatre, 2300 Ryan Road, North Island College, Courtenay, BC - tickets can also be purchased (cash only) at the door.
Bio: Charles Morse, MA, MSc
Charles Morse, MA, MSc, is an insightful and creative writer, artist, organic farmer, and a Jungian scholar with degrees in History (BA, Stanford University, US), Holistic Science (MSc, Schumacher College, UK), Depth Psychology (MA, Pacifica Graduate Institute, US) and is pursuing a doctorate from Pacifica Graduate Institute while training as a Jungian analyst. For a preview of his creative endeavours: https://www.thegreenfire.net/by-medium
*This event will not be recorded for later viewing. We are still seeking solutions to technical challenges in recording and distributing quality recordings.